Stewart Hardy

Stewart Hardy is an internationally-acclaimed performer, composer and teacher with numerous recordings and broadcast credits to his name. Based in the North East of England, a love for the traditional music of Northumberland and Scotland shines through his repertoire and influences his own compositions. Stewart’s teaching is diverse, and has covered many projects from international workshops to the Newcastle University folk degree course. He spent six years as an influential member of the very popular John Wright Band and has toured throughout the world playing traditional folk, pop, rock, jazz, country and western swing music.

Virtual Summer School 2021

We are very excited to announce that NEFS will be holding another online summer school this year! We are delighted to welcome back Kevin Lees and Grace Smith who will be tutoring alongside Stewart Hardy and Melissa Whitehead. The event will run over the weekend of 23rd – 25th July 2021, and will be entirely online. We will begin with a play-along session in harmony with Stewart on the Friday evening. These have proved to be very popular during lockdown in his own workshops, so we wanted to bring the experience to NEFS. On the Saturday and Sunday there will be a full live schedule of guided fiddle practice, live workshops for each ability level, tutor discussion events, a concert and a tutor-led session, as well as a Big Tune for everyone to learn and play. There will also be video tutorials which you can do instead of the live workshops for different levels, or at a later date as you will have access to these for six months. All live workshops will also be recorded and available to catch-up with for a month.

Full details are available on the NEFS Virtual Summer School web page, and bookings are now open.

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“Beautifully and stylishly played, good technique serves the music, never being used for mere flash.”

Tom Bell-Richards, reviewing Hawthorn’s Sweeter Shade in Fiddle On.

“Hardy has built up an enviable international reputation for his fiddle playing, venturing easily across genre boundaries… Whether drawing from the Scottish and Irish piping repertoire, from Tyneside’s rich heritage of tunes, or forging their own compositions from these traditions, Hardy and McLaughlin show themselves to be players of immense empathy and spirit.”

Oz Hardwick, reviewing Root 2 in R2.

“Hardy’s fiddling is technically nigh perfect, and his solo performance is enough to hold the attention for over an hour on this CD”

Alex Monaghan, reviewing Hawthorn’s Sweeter Shade in Living Tradition.

“Hardy brings a terrific range of colourful expression to his playing, from the gentle, poignant lilt of his slow airs, through the slippery hornpipe bowing that lights up The Locomotive and the swooping, steely poise of his own Thunderfoot.”

Rob Adams, reviewing Root 2 Herald Scotland.

“Stewart Hardy is pre-eminent among the many fine fiddle tutors with whom I’ve worked. His teaching is characterised by meticulous, clearly-focused preparation, effective structure, attention to detail, rigour, positive encouragement, good humour, patience, kindness and care. He has demanding yet reasonable expectations of his students, and makes sure his workshops are enjoyable, purposeful and productive. Thus his students, at all levels, become better and more confident players. He is the complete professional.”

Folkworks Education Director (1993-2007)