Mick West, Frank McLaughlin and Stewart Hardy – Scots song and instrumentals from Scotland and Northumberland on fiddle, guitar and Scottish small pipes. Mick has one of Scotland’s most distinctive voices, and in this trio his rich, warm and expressive singing is complimented on guitar and fiddle by the highly creative playing of Frank McLaughlin and Stewart Hardy. The trio has a long standing musical kinship which shines through their arrangements, and makes for a joyous and inspiring performance.
Stewart and Frank are delighted to be finishing their May 2017 Tour at Gallery 45 in Felton. This wonderful gallery and arts centre was the location for their recent video shoot and with the venue’s fabulous acoustics this promises to be a great concert, featuring lots of new material from the forthcoming release.
Mixed Instruments with Stewart Hardy – Fully Booked
The workshops typically take between 7 & 10 people for three days of instruction. The cost covers all food, tuition, refreshments and overnight accommodation.The course cost for weekend (Friday Lunchtime through to Sunday evening) includes everything by way of meals and refreshments, so no need to spend another penny on anything once you are here. Vegan and vegetarian diets are catered for, as are lactose and gluten intolerance.
There are on average 6 hours of workshops daily. Dinner is followed each evening by an informal session led by Stewart. These help reinforce the techniques learned during the day, give you a chance to hear and learn new tunes and teach others some of your own favourites.
Your tutor is available to you from breakfast until bed-time for questions and advice.
Music returns to Hartlepool Cricket Club in a big way. Local stars, Maddison’s Thread – Singer songwriter Lee Maddison joined by his band that features internationally acclaimed fiddler Stewart Hardy. They create an earthy, acoustic driven soundscape that perfectly complements the realism of Lee’s conscientiously crafted songs. Strongly melodic and unashamedly accessible songs. Rooted in folk whilst embracing elements of blues, rock and country. And don’t forget superb bassist Nige Spavin holding things together.
Get there early for a six o’clock pick-off….seats WILL be at a premium.
Fiddle Techniques with Stewart Hardy
Tunes are carefully selected to work as exercises demonstrating particular techniques, whilst at the same time providing a melodic stimulus. Exercises are extracted from the tunes to facilitate applying the technique to other tunes. Many of the tunes are suitable for multi-level workshops, with the teaching of a variety of techniques, requiring greater or lesser technical experience, applied to them. Subject matter includes: bowing technique, left hand technique and general fiddle well-being. In the choice of repertoire emphasis is given to stylistic aspects of the music. A number of considerations are given to the selection of tunes, including their interest to Stewart in his studies, their interest to the general musical community, their demonstration of particular stylistic nuances, and as being representative of a composer’s style.
All sheet music and mp3 files of all the tunes covered are provided. Plus recordings of exercises from the course where these are helpful.
The workshops typically take between 7 & 10 people for three days of instruction. The cost covers all food, tuition, refreshments and overnight accommodation.The course cost for the weekend (Friday Lunchtime through to Sunday evening) includes everything by way of meals and refreshments, so no need to spend another penny on anything once you are here. Vegan and vegetarian diets are catered for, as are lactose and gluten intolerance.
There are on average 6 hours of workshops daily. Dinner is followed each evening by an informal session led by Stewart. These help reinforce the techniques learned during the day, give you a chance to hear and learn new tunes and teach others some of your own favourites.
Your tutor is available to you from breakfast until bed-time for questions and advice.
Phoenix Folk presents a Summer Series of Concerts.
Sophy, Chloe, David and myself are delighted and honoured to be able to open the 2017 season with this evening concert on Weds 28th June.
Frank and I are very pleased to have been asked to come and play at this year’s Rothbury Traditional Music Festival, which is one of my favourite events in the local calendar. We are expecting to perform outside on the green during the day, in the Auction Mart in the evening and possibly popping into the tea time concert in the Church. There will always be time for fish and chips on the village green and for taking a shufty at some of the competitions.
Bottle Bank Band will be performing at The Hearth in Horsley on Friday 11th Aug at 7.30 pm. This is a lovely, welcoming venue with fabulous acoustics in the Church which particularly suit the fiddle – I can’t wait to hear the sound of our four fiddles filling the space!!
The Historically Informed Summer School is a unique international residential course exploring the common ground & connections between early music and folk & traditional music. The course covers all aspects of early music and folk & traditional music and is suitable for students of all ages and experience from elementary to advanced.
Stewart will be exploring the music of the great Irish composer Turlough O’Carolan whose music is still heard in concert halls as well as played in pub sessions. His compositions embrace ideas from the baroque whilst remaining firmly rooted in Gaelic folk music. These workshops will introduce some of O’Carolan’s finest melodies and explore the effect of applying folk articulation and ornamentation to a form that is free of the constraints of regular folk dance structures. As is the tradition on HISS courses, he’ll be involved in a few collaborations – with Mary Tyers working with small folk ensembles which will use old English maggots as repertoire; with Jake Herringman on tunes constructed over a ground bass; and with Anne-Marie Chistensen-Brown looking at playing for “country dances,” comparing and contrasting material from England and Denmark. Material for other classes will include dance tunes used by Nathaniel Thompson in his 1680 publication, “180 Loyal Songs” and, under the banner of acquiring skills for learning by ear, he will also run a workshop looking at pattern recognition in music. Who could possibly resist? Book your place here.
Recordings
Facebook Feed
Gearing up for a new block at North East Fiddle School!
~~~
A new year, a new block of online fiddle tuition!
We begin again at NEFS on Weds 13th Jan and bookings are now open. There will be five weeks of material - video tutorials to teach techniques and tunes, and live Zoom workshops for Fiddle Practice techniques and learning core repertoire tunes. Recordings of the workshops will be available afterwards too, so you can access all of the materials at any time you choose!
Full details are on the website linked in the event information below. (Sadly the course isn't free as the event shows 🙁 I can't get the FB event to show the price unless it's a Paid FB event! There are also 5 weeks of video tutorials and Zoom workshops, but I couldn't find the event scheduling feature - is it just me today?!?!?!)
We hope you can join our friendly community of fiddle players!
www.northeastfiddleschool.org.uk/classes/Another year of The Holly and Ivy road show is complete! Thanks to the schools who hosted our smaller shows this year. Wassail!