Musical roots stretch deep and wide, bringing people together in a shared experience of culture and heritage. Deep Roots Music Cooperative members come together through the love and fun of sharing music. We envision an enduring community, celebrating and enriching our culture through this music. Our mission is to create meaningful connections between cultures, community groups, artists and audiences by offering music-related events, programs and an annual festival.
Our intention is to present regular concerts, nurture local musicians, support other local arts organizations and worthy community projects and produce the annual Deep Roots Music Festival. And while we’re at it – have a lot of fun!!
This website will keep you up to date on Deep Roots activities. New members and volunteers are always welcome! Just let us know if you want to join in. E-mail us and someone will get back to you.
The DRMC Board of Directors oversees the Deep Roots Music Cooperative’s scope of activities and if you are interested in becoming involved at this level, check out the DRMC Inquiry to Join Board information.
Deep Roots Music Cooperative recognizes that in order to work towards our goals of inclusivity, meaningful connections between cultures, and establishing safe spaces for community groups, artists, and audiences, we must work together with the broader community to dismantle oppression and racism in everything that we do.Deep Roots Music Cooperative
The Deep Roots Music Cooperative holds concerts, fund-raisers, benefits, community meetings and learning events throughout the year so plenty of volunteer opportunities arise on an ongoing basis. We are always excited to have more people join us so don’t hesitate to come and check us out.
The Deep Roots Music Festival is our largest annual event. The festival is community-based, supported by both the Town of Wolfville and Acadia University, and built on countless hours of volunteerism by a stable base of over 100 volunteers, and on in-kind and financial support from virtually all sectors of the Valley community. The festival is held in September when Acadia University students are back on campus and collaboration with Acadia always enriches the quality of the Deep Roots educational experience.
The Deep Roots Music Cooperative was incorporated in 2003 by a group dedicated to developing and promoting the music scene in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley.
Vision
An enduring community, celebrating and enriching our culture through music.
Mission
To create meaningful connections between cultures, community groups, artists and audiences by offering music-related events, programs, and an annual festival.
Anti-Oppression Statement
Deep Roots Music Cooperative recognizes that in order to work towards our goals of inclusivity, meaningful connections between cultures, and establishing safe spaces for community groups, artists, and audiences, we must work together with the broader community to dismantle oppression and racism in everything that we do.
We value the fact that members of our organization have different life experiences and backgrounds, which shape the dynamics of power and privilege in the spaces where we come together.
We commit to respectfully challenging each other to learn and grow in our awareness, to building strong connections with communities who have been historically under-represented on Nova Scotia stages, and to creating opportunities to showcase a spectrum of artists that are representative of the diverse communities in which we live.
Deep Roots Music Cooperative aims to create positive spaces where all can participate meaningfully regardless of race, gender, class, sexuality, age or ability. Any and all sexist, racist, homophobic, ableist, ageist, transphobic or otherwise oppressive language or behaviour will not be tolerated.
Read the Deep Roots Music Cooperative Respect for All Policy
Membership
Deep Roots Music Cooperative Limited is a registered non-profit organization with the Registry of Joint Stocks of Nova Scotia under the Co-operative Associations Act. Basic membership is free and members receive our monthly news e-letter. To become a registered voting member, with full voting rights at our annual general meeting, you pay a $10 fee, OR volunteer a minimum of 15 hours throughout the previous year, OR provide a minimum $250 sponsorship/donation to Deep Roots.
Visit our Membership page for more information.
2024 Board of Directors
Chair – Gerry Davis
Interim Vice Chair – Peter Mowat
Secretary – Jane Mangle
Director – Laurie St. Amour
Director – Jerry Legge
Director – John Ebata
Director – Genevieve Allen
DRMC Strategic Plan 2019 – 2022
Our updated Strategic Plan provides an overview and insight into DRMC’s foundations as an organization. The format of the plan includes a summary and discussion of the most recently formed operational goals.
Vision, Mission, and Guiding Principles are expected to remain generally as stated in this Strategic Plan, but the specifics outlined in goals, measurements, and methodologies are subject to change as new circumstances emerge. Our Strategic Plan is never static or fixed.
DRMC Strategic Plan 2019 – 2022 (pdf)
Our Roots
Look at a map of Nova Scotia and you will see we are almost entirely surrounded by water. Only the narrow strip of the Isthmus of Chignecto connects us, to the larger portion of our country. We are literally on the edge of the ocean. Thousands of lakes and streams, rivers and inlets dot and crisscross the interior of the province. Water has shaped and continues to define Nova Scotia.
What was and is the appeal of Nova Scotia, a place that we fiercely love, proudly display, and declare our own? Generations of immigrants from Europe and New England joined the Mi’ kmaq people on this piece of land that can be both beautiful and brutal, both cruel and benign. A land that beckons as a haven of romantic history, pastoral and serene. You may know a little of the history of this wild, rugged, forested peninsula where the Mi’kmaq people lived and flourished, moving with the seasons back and forth on the shores and inland. You may also know how the Mi’kmaq befriended the early French settlers upon their arrival.
If you studied Canadian history, the way it was taught many years ago, you might remember Samuel de Champlain explored this region from 1604-1607, and the stories of the early French settlement of Port Royal, and Acadie, the French name given to the area that included Nova Scotia and much of New Brunswick. There was the tragic deportation in 1755, when the Acadians were expelled from their homes for refusing to sign an oath of allegiance to the British monarch.
Our forefathers came to this place and made their way, many of them destitute, having lost, given up or escaped another life. The Mi’kmaq, Acadians, Foreign Protestants, Planters, the Loyalists, both black and white … our ancestors all. By their stories, we are rooted, and can be proud of our heritage.
One need only look across the Acadian dykelands to the rising majesty of Cape Blomidon, where Glooscap, the legendary hero of the Mi’kmaq lived, and beyond to the ocean to see what they, Mi’kmaq and First Nations, saw as long as ten thousand years ago … a place of outstanding beauty, changing throughout the seasons from frozen landscape to pastoral wonderland. Blomidon forms the easternmost end of the North Mountain, an ancient 160-kilometre range that protects the Annapolis Valley from the cold, wind and fog of the mighty Bay of Fundy and helps to create an ideal agricultural environment. The cliffs and weather-beaten crags of the Bay of Fundy shoreline are fronted by rocky beaches, seaweed strewn and wild. The tides beat in and out, an incredible disparity from high to low. We are blessed to live in such a place, where the landscape is infused and enriched by history, nature and the deep roots of our ancestors.
Visitors know there is something special here. They feel it in the hospitality they receive, the easy-going attitude of the people they meet and what they describe as our ‘laid-back’ lifestyle. Many say they will return and dream of making a life here. Many do. Those fortunate enough to have ties here, if living elsewhere, treasure those ties and come home as often as they can, vowing to permanently return someday. Many, already feeling rooted here, would never dream of leaving.
The Deep Roots Cooperative mission is to share the stories and traditions of this special land through music and song, to honour our place in the world and to invite new stories, new traditions, connecting with those who would celebrate with us. Our musical roots stretch deep and wide, bringing people together in a shared experience of culture and heritage
For more information about the Deep Roots Music Cooperative, events or the annual festival, please contact us.
