Oliver Schroer - Field Of Stars (HD)

In May 2004, fiddler/composer Oliver Schroer set out with three companions to walk along the Camino de Santiago, an ancient pilgrim trail that meanders across France and Spain. Over the course of two months, the four companions walked 1,000 km in the footsteps of their medieval brothers and sisters. Certain things may have changed since medieval times pilgrims are less likely to be eaten by bears or to be robbed by gangs of raiding mountaineers as they cross the Pyrennées. Yet the mechanics of walking have not changed in 1,200 years, and so they endured similar hardships, pains and tribulations along the way. Along with the joys of making a long journey on foot, of being totally immersed in a slowly changing landscape and experiencing it with all of the senses

In 2007, Schroer was diagnosed with leukemia, which proved to be untreatable. A tribute concert for Schroer was held on February 19, 2008 at Hugh's Room in Toronto. It featured the Twisted String Project, seventeen kids, aged 9 through 18, led by two of Oliver's students. They raised the money through private donations to fly to Toronto from the B.C. coast, just so they could take part in the concerts. CBC Radio 2 recorded the concert, which aired on Canada Live on April 7, 2008.

Schroer's last concert was performed on June 5, 2008. In a letter to his fans on April 30 when he first announced his intention to do this concert, he called it "Olivers Last Concert on his Tour of this Planet". He asked that his sold-out audience clap, not cry, and apologized for not being his normal glad-handing self; the risk of infection from personal contact would have been much too great. The subsequent Globe and Mail review called Schroer, an investigative fiddler.

During his final illness, Schroer said of his compositions, "I used to write a lot of jigs, reels and waltzes - as a matter of fact I still do. But over the years new kinds of melodies emerged - more rarefied, harder to pin down. There were prayers, incantations, whimsies, melismas, mysteriosos, heisenbergs, fractal reels, forest blues, blessings.... They are not so much entertainment tunes, but music that expresses other important things about my relationship to life. This music is, dare I say, more spiritual."

Schroer composed his final piece of music, Poise, on July 2, 2008. He died the following morning as a result of his leukemia. His last words were, "Well, I guess no excursions today."