Stewart Hardy

“Jimmy’s Fiddle” heads to the Midlands, to the Century Theatre in Coalville (start time to be confirmed)

Join us for a night of music, dance, songs and humour as we delve in to a story of Georgian/Victorian Tyneside through the eyes of James Hill, “The Geordie Paganini”.

James Hill was probably the most famous fiddler on Tyneside during the late Georgian and early Victorian period. He wrote more than 40 tunes, mainly for hornpipes, inspired and informed by the places and characters he came to know.

This story is a reflective account of his life, told through ‘Jimmy’s ghost’ and set in and around The Hawk public house, which was owned by his future father-in-law. The narrative unfolds to a back-drop of James Hill’s own compositions, clog dancing and songs from the time, incorporating some newly commissioned pieces.

Featuring two top virtuoso fiddle players Tom McConville (BBC Musician of the Year) and Stewart Hardy, this show provides fantastic entertainment for all the family. Tom and Stewart will be joined by two of the North East’s finest singers Alan Fitzsimmons and Jim Mageean and clog dancing champion Natalie Reid.

30 Years Collection – Book Launch Concert
Saturday 13th July, 8 pm (doors 7.30 pm)
The Presentation Room, Conference Wing, Ushaw College, Durham DH7 9RH

The 30 Years Collection is a brand new book of original compositions, covering Stewart’s 30 Years as a professional musician. To celebrate, there will be a small, informal concert in Ushaw College, with spots from Stewart with Frank McLaughlin, and guest a appearance from Bottle Bank Band, among others. The new books will be on sale, and do bring your instruments for a small session afterwards. Tickets £5 on the door, but seats must be reserved in advance please.

The book will be available to purchase on the website from Monday 15th July. You’ll be able to pay online and choose to have the book posted to you, or select Event Collection to pick up your copy at no extra cost from Stewart at an event or workshop. Cash is also acceptable in person!
www.stewarthardy.co.uk/shop

“Jimmy’s Fiddle” launches a new mini-tour at the wonderful Coquetdale Music Trust, in Thropton, near Rothbury.

Tickets £10 available from Tully’s in Rothbury
or email  lesleyhallcoquetdalemusictrust@mail.com

Join us for a night of music, dance, songs and humour as we delve in to a story of Georgian/Victorian Tyneside through the eyes of James Hill, “The Geordie Paganini”.

James Hill was probably the most famous fiddler on Tyneside during the late Georgian and early Victorian period. He wrote more than 40 tunes, mainly for hornpipes, inspired and informed by the places and characters he came to know.

This story is a reflective account of his life, told through ‘Jimmy’s ghost’ and set in and around The Hawk public house, which was owned by his future father-in-law. The narrative unfolds to a back-drop of James Hill’s own compositions, clog dancing and songs from the time, incorporating some newly commissioned pieces.

Featuring two top virtuoso fiddle players Tom McConville (BBC Musician of the Year) and Stewart Hardy, this show provides fantastic entertainment for all the family. Tom and Stewart will be joined by two of the North East’s finest singers Alan Fitzsimmons and Jim Mageean and clog dancing champion Natalie Reid.

“Jimmy’s Fiddle” heads to the Davy Lamp Folk Club in Washington.

Join us for a night of music, dance, songs and humour as we delve in to a story of Georgian/Victorian Tyneside through the eyes of James Hill, “The Geordie Paganini”.

James Hill was probably the most famous fiddler on Tyneside during the late Georgian and early Victorian period. He wrote more than 40 tunes, mainly for hornpipes, inspired and informed by the places and characters he came to know.

This story is a reflective account of his life, told through ‘Jimmy’s ghost’ and set in and around The Hawk public house, which was owned by his future father-in-law. The narrative unfolds to a back-drop of James Hill’s own compositions, clog dancing and songs from the time, incorporating some newly commissioned pieces.

Featuring two top virtuoso fiddle players Tom McConville (BBC Musician of the Year) and Stewart Hardy, this show provides fantastic entertainment for all the family. Tom and Stewart will be joined by two of the North East’s finest singers Alan Fitzsimmons and Jim Mageean and clog dancing champion Natalie Reid.

Repertoire & Music Skills (Mixed Instruments)

12th – 14th June 2020
Parcevall Hall, Appletreewick, Skipton, N. Yorks BD23 6DG
5.00 pm start and finish time.

Join Stewart in the beautiful surroundings of Parcevall Hall in North Yorkshire for a weekend workshop learning new repertoire and improving music skills. Courses are open to players of any instrument (including transposing instruments) and are aimed at a broad range of abilities from intermediate to advanced. This workshop will focus on “How to Learn by Ear” with tips and techniques for improving this invaluable music skill – whether for use in future workshops, learning tunes from recordings or for picking up tunes more easily in your local sessions. Repertoire will be carefully chosen to facilitate the teaching of this skill, whilst adding interesting and exciting tunes to your repertoire.

The workshop will typically take between 8 and 12 people from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon. The residential weekend fee of £335 covers all food, tuition, daytime refreshments and two nights single occupancy accommodation, some of which is en suite (for medical reasons, then first come first served). The non-residential rate is £250 and includes everything except bed & breakfast. Sheet music and mp3 files of the tunes covered are sent out in advance, and recordings of arrangements created during the course are sent on to you afterwards.

For further information or to book your place on this course, please email Ali (jsarts@stewarthardy.co.uk)

This workshop series will explore how to use harmonic relationships, melodic flow, lift and narrative development together with groove to create great sets of tunes for folk sessions and ceilidhs.

Tools: 4 x 1 hour weekly online workshops exploring different considerations when combining folk melodies with a view to creating your own sets of tunes. These will be followed by a single 2 hour evening online session (a separate event on Fri 18th June) where we will try out some of the tune combinations discussed in the workshops. Participation in the workshops is not a prerequisite for joining in with the session.

£10 per workshop / £35 for all 4 workshops.

Access to a copy of the HISS Tunebook is required for these sessions. If you do not already have one, you can buy a download from the HISS website

This workshop series will explore how to use harmonic relationships, melodic flow, lift and narrative development together with groove to create great sets of tunes for folk sessions and ceilidhs.

Tools: 4 x 1 hour weekly online workshops exploring different considerations when combining folk melodies with a view to creating your own sets of tunes. These will be followed by a single 2 hour evening online session (a separate event on Fri 18th June) where we will try out some of the tune combinations discussed in the workshops. Participation in the workshops is not a prerequisite for joining in with the session.

£10 per workshop / £35 for all 4 workshops.

Access to a copy of the HISS Tunebook is required for these sessions. If you do not already have one, you can buy a download from the HISS website

This workshop series will explore how to use harmonic relationships, melodic flow, lift and narrative development together with groove to create great sets of tunes for folk sessions and ceilidhs.

Tools: 4 x 1 hour weekly online workshops exploring different considerations when combining folk melodies with a view to creating your own sets of tunes. These will be followed by a single 2 hour evening online session (a separate event on Fri 18th June) where we will try out some of the tune combinations discussed in the workshops. Participation in the workshops is not a prerequisite for joining in with the session.

£10 per workshop / £35 for all 4 workshops.

Access to a copy of the HISS Tunebook is required for these sessions. If you do not already have one, you can buy a download from the HISS website

This workshop series will explore how to use harmonic relationships, melodic flow, lift and narrative development together with groove to create great sets of tunes for folk sessions and ceilidhs.

Tools: 4 x 1 hour weekly online workshops exploring different considerations when combining folk melodies with a view to creating your own sets of tunes. These will be followed by a single 2 hour evening online session (a separate event on Fri 18th June) where we will try out some of the tune combinations discussed in the workshops. Participation in the workshops is not a prerequisite for joining in with the session.

£10 per workshop / £35 for all 4 workshops.

Access to a copy of the HISS Tunebook is required for these sessions. If you do not already have one, you can buy a download from the HISS website

This one-off 2 hour session will allow participants to play a variety of folk tunes, led by Stewart Hardy and Mary Tyler and will also be an opportunity for attendees at Stewart’s ‘Folk Set’ series to try out tune combinations that were discussed in the workshops. Attendance at the previous workshops is not a prerequisite for joining this session.

Access to a copy of the HISS Tunebook is required for this sessions. If you do not already have one, you can buy a download from the HISS website.