Stewart Hardy

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.

Two days of live fiddle workshops, exclusive video tutorials, sessions, concerts and guided fiddle practice. Events will be aimed at all abilities of fiddle player from competent beginner through to advanced, led by guest tutors Kevin Lees, Sophy Ball, Grace Smith and Jim Boyle, alongside our regular tutors Melissa Whitehead and Stewart Hardy.

The weekend will be a mix of Live events on Zoom and exclusive Video Tutorials recorded for the Summer School, and each tutor will share their expertise with different ability levels. There will be suggested times over the weekend for several video tutorials, but you will have access to those purchased for 6 months with all supporting materials available to download.

There will be four ability levels (Competent Beginner, Lower Intermediate, Upper Intermediate and Advanced) with one live workshop and one video tutorial dedicated to each level, plus a wider selection of video tutorials focusing on Style led by each tutor. There will be time during the weekend to attend the events dedicated to your level and to one other, so you can try the workshops and videos for the next closest level as well. For example if you are a Lower Intermediate player, you could, in addition, challenge yourself to the Upper Intermediate tunes, or consolidate what you know by joining the Competent Beginners.