A songwriters’ circle was the kickoff event for the second annual Minor Music Conference, held June 5-6, 2009, in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. The conference is focused on local youth involvement in music, especially in performance and songwriting.

The songwriters’ circle, held June 5 at th’Yarc – a soft-seat theatre in downtown Yarmouth – was hosted by two SOCAN members: Award-winning alt-country singer-songwriter Ryan Cook, and 2007 Canadian Idol third runner-up Dwight d’Eon. Both members are originally from the Yarmouth area, but now live in Halifax. Other participating songwriters were Connie Saulnier, Gary Wilson, Marc Durkee, Crystal Porter and the duo of Cameron Nickerson and Matt Wilkenson. All participants discussed their writing process, influences and performed several songs.

The well-attended, all-day conference component, held the next day at the Rodd Grand Yarmouth, consisted of performance workshops for bass (hosted by George Barkhouse), acoustic guitar (hosted by Duke Greene), drums (hosted by Dave Skinner) and guitar technique (hosted by Brad Conrad). The conference also included a seminar on Careers in Music, led by Christine Buiteman from Music Nova Scotia, and a SOCAN 101 info session offered by SOCAN’s East Coast representative, Tim Hardy.

Four young songwriters from the area, hand-picked by the conference, participated in a songwriting master class with Cook and d'Eon on the morning of June 6 at th'Yarc, with the goal of completing a new song for the evening Youth Stage concert. The concert featured an extremely strong group of young performers from the area, and the follow-up jam session showed no shortage of local mentors.

The event was funded in part by the SOCAN Foundation.