An exploration of The Fiddle in Traditional Cultures
Bluegrass, English, Greek, Hardanger, Indian, Klezmer, and Turkish. Sunday 28 March—Friday 2 April 2004

Part of The Genius of the Violin Festival and presented in association with BBC Radio 3 and The Strad Magazine.
Organised by the Jewish Music Institute (JMI) in collaboration with the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (SOAS) and the Royal Academy of Music.

A three-day conference with in-depth focus on international fiddle traditions for academics and fiddle enthusiasts alike, featuring papers by ethno-musicologists and lecture-demonstrations by master performers and instrument-makers. It includes a concert Soul of the Fiddle at the Queen Elizabeth Hall featuring masters of Bluegrass, English, Greek-Anatolian, Hardanger, Klezmer, Indian and Turkish fiddle traditions.
The violin has its origins in Central Asian bowed string instruments that have moved around the world, developing a variety of different ways. Because of the importance of the violin in European culture, it has been re-exported and absorbed by other cultural traditions, often alongside indigenous string instruments. As part of The Genius of the Violin Festival this conference explores fiddles of all types and the relationships and contrasts between the various bowed-string instruments.
SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG
Registration: Three days full: £75.00, Three days students: £45.00 (includes ticket for the Soul of the Fiddle Concert at Queen Elizabeth Hall and snack lunch), One day full: £25.00, One day students £15.00.

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Conference Speakers and Timetable

Sunday Morning 28 March
10.00—11.00: Registration and Coffee
11.00—11.30: Opening Session:
Welcome from Alexander Knapp, Joe Loss Lecturer in Jewish Music, SOAS, University of London Department of Music, SOAS
Also Simon Blakey of the "Genius of the Violin Festival"
11.30—12.30: Mary Anne Alburger (Aberdeen): "Striking a Common Chord: The 'real fiddle', recovered from the Mary Rose, which sank off Portsmouth in 1545"
With Paul Wilson: "Making copies of the Mary Rose fiddles", and Sven Olav Lyngstad playing one.
12.30—1.45: Lunch

Sunday Evening 28 March
6.00—8.00: Meeting of Soloists for QEH concert for rehearsal-Room G50
Refreshments for soloists- Room G50
7.30—10.00: Rebetiko Party at the Café Corfu, Mornington Crescent (Optional)

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Monday Morning 29 March
10.00—10.45: Ed Emery [Cambridge]: "Arab musical connections in the early history of the violin: rebecs etc"
10.45—11.30: Kyriakos Gouventas [Thessaloniki, Greece]: "The Greek-Anatolian tradition of fiddle playing"
11:30—12.00: Break
12.00—12.45: Brendan Mulkere: "Irish Fiddle Playing"
12.45—1.15: Colin Huehns [London]: "New compositions for the Chinese Erhu"
1.30—2.30: Lunch + round table discussion

Monday Afternoon 29 March
2.30—5.00: Museum visit to view bowed stringed and other musical instruments or free time.

Monday Evening 29 March
At Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank
6.30—7.30: Dave Wright will busk in entrance hall.
7.45—9.45: Concert at QEH
9.45—10.45: Post-concert Jam in the foyer of the Queen Elizabeth Hall led by Pete Cooper

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Tuesday Morning 30 March
10.00—10.45: Pete Cooper [London]: "English Fiddle: Thomas Hardy, John Clare and the English Fiddle Tradition"
10.45—11.30: Rick Townend (Sevenoaks): "The Fiddle in Blue Grass Music"
11.30—12.00: Break
12.00—12.45: Sven Olav Lyngstad [Trondheim, Norway]: "The traditions of the Norwegian Hardanger Fiddle. An overview of the instrument in different styles and different parts of the country"
12.45— 1.30: Sophie Solomon [London]: "Yidl mitn Fidl - The quintessential instrument of the East European Jewish tradition"
1.30—2.30: Lunch

Tuesday Afternoon 30 March
2.30—3.15: Balu Raguraman [London]: Indian: "Tradition and innovation: The growth of violin in South Indian music"
3.15—3.45: Greenstar.Org: "A musical journey in Palestine. Slide presentation"
3.45—4.15: Break
4.15—5.00: Abdel Harir [Morocco]: "The Café was our Conservatoire: Music-making in Morocco"
5.00—5.30: Closing Session: Summing up and the future
5.30—7.00: Tea with Fiddles - Room G50

Conference Organiser: Ed Emery (Cambridge).
Conference Administrator: Laoise Davidson (JMI)
Conference Directors, Dr Keith Howard (SOAS), Dr Mary Anne Alburger (Aberdeen) Geraldine Auerbach (JMI)
The Conference is organised and hosted by the AHRB Centre for Cross-Cultural Music and Dance Performance at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London in association with the Jewish Music Institute SOAS and The University of Aberdeen Music Research Group.

As well as this Conference, The Soul of the Fiddle also features the concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and a course of hands-on workshops in traditional fiddle at the Royal Academy of Music. It is all part of the Genius of the Violin Festival, 25 March—4 April 2004, in association with BBC Radio 3 and The Strad Magazine.

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Concert: The Soul of the Fiddle
Monday 29 March, 7.45pm, Queen Elizabeth Hall

Sophie Solomon: Eastern European Jewish Klezmer Fiddle
Jon Boden: Traditional English Violin
Rick Townend: Bluegrass Violin
Sven Olav Lyngstad: Norwegian Hardanger Fiddle
Nedim Nalbantoglou: Turkish Fiddle
Kyriakos Gouventas: Greek-Anatolian Fiddle
Balu Raguraman: Indian Fiddle
introduced by Verity Sharpe of BBC Radio 3 Late Junction

The distillation of many centuries of bows on strings in a great fiddle summit. Some of the world's most acclaimed traditional fiddlers from different cultural and geographical backgrounds celebrate the instrument which has inspired and shaped diverse musical cultures. Hear the music of each tradition alone and in dialogue for the music to reveal universal hopes and fears.
Tickets: £22.50, £20.00, £17.50 (concessions: £3.00 off for seniors, students, unwaged and friends of JMI or as part of the Nomadica-Roots Revisited series presented by JMI and Multiculti 16—29 March 2004)
Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank Centre, London SE1 8XX
Online booking

Part of The Genius of the Violin Festival, in association with BBC Radio 3 and The Strad Magazine.
Supported by The Jewish Chronicle
More about fiddlers participating:

Jon Boden: English
Jon Boden is a star of the younger generation of fast track British fiddlers. At only 26 he is the winner of the City Life Best Gig Award for 2002, the Horizon Best Newcomer Award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2003. He is shortlisted with duo partner John Spiers for the Radio 3 World Music Critics Award for best world music album of 2003 as well as for Best Duo and Best Traditional Track for the 2004 Folk Awards. The duo has performed widely in concert halls, at folk festivals and on BBC radio and TV and are members of the Eliza Carthy band with whom they played on the Mercury
Award nominated album Anglicana, on Topic Records. Versatile Jon has been seen on guitar, English pipes, and double bass with other distinguished ensembles. Jon has clocked up an MMUS in Composing for Theatre, LCM and a BA in Medieval Studies, from Durham. His recent theatre work in London includes music for Tamburlaine the Great and Jason and the Argonauts. He is in demand as a teacher of Theatre arts, singing and fiddle (170 words)
For this performance, Jon will perform and sing tunes from the Morris and Country dance traditions of the South of England and explore the use of the fiddle to accompany English traditional song. Jon's style takes inspiration from source recordings of Bampton Morris fiddler Jinky Wells, but is also heavily influenced by the various strands of the evolving English fiddle tradition that have emerged since the folk revival.
Jon's recordings include Through and Through (2001) and Bellow (2003) on Fellside Records
http:www.spiersandboden.com

Kyriakos Gouventas: Greek-Anatolian
Kyriakos Gouventas was born in Thessaloniki in 1966. Having studied violin at the State Conservatory he then worked with the State Orchestra of Thessaloniki and in various chamber music ensembles. At the same time he was active in the area of Greek music (dimotiko, rebetiko, smyrnaiko, etc.) and more recently decided to turn his attentions entirely to traditional music. He is a member of the Ensemble of Traditional Music of the municipality of Thessaloniki. He has participated in some 100 recordings/CDs of traditional Greek music and modern 'entechno' ('art') music. He frequently collaborates with the most acknowledged traditional Greek dance groups, such as the 'Lykeion Ellinidon', and plays in regional traditional festivals all over Greece. He is a founding-member of the group Primavera en Salonico, the group which since 1996 has played with the well-known Greek singer Savina Yannatou all over the world. He also is very much in demand as a violinist among the best of Greek singers and musicians, for concerts, recordings and world tours.
Kyriakos will perform with Andreas Tsekouras, piano, an Athens-based musical polymath and instrumentalist who has been the guiding light for many major representations of Greek musical culture. He was one of the organisers of the Millennium Concerts in Athens, researching and presenting a musical overview which stretched from ancient Anatolia to the present day. He features as an accordion player in the soundtracks of several films, and has recorded on CDs including Ulysses Gaze and The Suspended Step of the Stork.

Sven Olav Lyngstad: Norwegian Hardanger Fiddle
Sven is a native of Trondheim, Norway. He holds a Master of Music degree in Viola Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music, USA, and is currently teaching violin, viola and orchestra at the Trondheim Municipal School of Music and string methods at the Music Conservatory of Trondheim (NTNU). As a violist he performs regularly in chamber music and with several professional ensembles in Norway. He has given folk music presentations featuring the Hardanger Fiddle touring the United States, Scandinavia and Iceland. He has recently released the CD 'A Norwegian Wedding', presenting traditional wedding tunes for the Hardanger Fiddle from various districts of Norway.
In this concert Sven will play Wedding March from Seljord, the old traditional country dances Skurdalsbrura (gangar) and Store Vetle-Per (springar), followed by the famous Fanitullen.
www.solyngstad.no

Nedim Nalbantoglou: Turkish
Nedim is a violin virtuoso who comes from Kirkareli in Turkey. He was born in 1966, and, influenced by his father, who leads an orchestra specialising in Ottoman music and folk songs, he learned music at an early age. Later he went to Istanbul to study music at the Istanbul Conservatory. After graduation, he moved to Paris to study the classical repertory and there he joined the National Jazz Orchestra. He has recorded with many different groups and given concerts throughout France, Tangiers, Berlin, Lisbon, Stockholm and Munich. For this performance Nedim will perform with Medhi Habab, Oud

Balu Raguraman: Indian
Born in the year 1974, Balu Raguraman has been a front ranking performer in the field of carnatic music for over fifteen years. He has had his training under S. Chandrashekar and Neela Ramgopal. He has been regularly featured by All India Radio and Doordarshan (Television) in India. Balu has accompanied many top artistes in the field like M. Balamuralikrishna (flute), N. Ramani and many others. He was selected by All India Radio as their Best Performer in 1992. The Music Academy in Chennai bestowed upon him the best violinist award in 1997, 2000 and 2001. Balu has toured the world on a number of occasions. In 1997, Balu joined the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in London as their resident violin teacher. Since then, Balu has trained students who are now budding performers. In 2002, he was selected to perform in 'Concert for George' a tribute to the musical legend George Harrison directed conceived by Bharat Ratna Pandit Ravi Shankar.
For this performance Balu will perform with M. Balachandar (Mridangam, South Indian drum) and R. N. Prakash (claypot).

Sophie Solomon: Eastern European Klezmer Violin
Sophie Solomon is one of the leading exponents of klezmer violin, 'a musical alchemist giving klezmer a new lease of life' (The Daily Telegraph). Based on a firm foundation in the traditional style, ornamentation and phrasing of the Ashkenazic 'fidl', Sophie's incendiary performances incorporate the latest in electronic effects wizardry to create a truly modern sound. Sophie is a founder member of three-time BBC World Music Award nominees Oi Va Voi, 'one of the most exciting bands in Britain today' (The Daily Telegraph), whose debut album Laughter Through Tears (Outcaste) has been nominated for the BBC Radio 3 Critics' Award for Album of the Year 2004. A versatile instrumentalist, Sophie also plays piano, accordion and melodica. With Canadian accordionist and producer Socalled, Sophie devised and recorded Solomon & Socalled's HipHopKhasene (Piranha), an alternative klezmer wedding suite, with a stellar cast of klezmorim including David Krakauer, Michael Alpert and Frank London, which had its UK première at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in July 2003. Sophie performs internationally with Oi Va Voi and as a solo artist collaborating most recently with Theodor Bikel, Maurice el Medioni and Smadj. She teaches klezmer violin and leads workshops in Europe and the US and for the Department of Music, SOAS, University of London.
www.oi-va-voi.com
www.digitallisallstars.com
For this concert, Sophie has assembled a traditional Ashkenazic 'fidl kapelye' to perform the ritual music of an Eastern European wedding from the Dobriden (literal trans. Good Morning) that greeted the guests on the morning of the wedding, via the whirling frenzied glass-smash freylekhs, to the Zay Gezunt (Farewell) that the musicians would play when they'd been playing for hours, were worn out and hoped the guests might take the hint and leave!

Rick Townend
Rick is one of the UK's most respected bluegrass musicians. He was recently voted into the British Bluegrass Music Association's Hall of Honour. His first group, the Echo Mountain Boys, created while still at school in 1963 became the backing band for Bill Clifton's UK and European tours. Rick now performs and teaches at major folk festivals and concert halls such as the Sidmouth Festival, Folk-works (in Northumberland) and Cecil Sharp House ahd has played the Royal Albert Hall and the Wigmore Hall, where he also gives classically trained violinists the chance to find out about the intriguing bluegrass styles and techniques. He organises music events, including the first bluegrass music workshop days in the UK at Wadhurst in Sussex and 'Kentucky to Kent UK'. Rick writes regularly for several magazines including British Bluegrass News, for whom he put together a series of articles entitled 'Bluegrass your Fiddle'. Multi instrumentalist Rick apart from fiddle performs on five-string banjo, guitar, mandolin, double bass, autoharp and dobro. Rick's music can be heard on a dozen CDs with different musicians and ensembles. He has appeared on Radio and TV with the BBC and European channels.
www.ricktownend.co.uk
The performance starts with 'Wedding Dress', an old Appalachian tune with the fiddle in modal style copying the sound of the wind in the mountains. A sweet waltz follows, using the full range and power of the fiddle, and we finish with a twin-fiddle 'breakdown' showing off bluegrass at its hottest. He will perform with fellow fiddler, Bob Winquist; Adrian Farmer, guitar and Tim Davies double bass.

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Course:
31 March—2 April 2004, 10.00am—4.00pm, Royal Academy of Music
Practical Workshops and Open Masterclasses with Sven Olav Lyngstad (Hardanger), Sophie Solomon (Klezmer) and Rick Townend (Bluegrass).

Three three-day courses of workshops led by internationally renowned teachers for proficient/advanced violinists of all backgrounds covering all aspects including ornamentation, phrasing, repertoire, improvisation and the fiddle's role within a traditional ensemble.
Each course is three days: All day full: £75.00, All day students £45.00, Mornings only full £45.00, Mornings only students £25.00, RAM students: free

Information: Claire Warburton T 020 7873 7300
Royal Academy of Music, Marylebone Road, London NW1 5HT
Presented by JMI in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Music and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

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More information about the course leaders:

Sophie Solomon: Eastern European Jewish Klezmer
Sophie's classes have been called inspirational by her students. She teaches regularly for the Department of Music at SOAS, University of London as well as at international summer programmes in the UK, Europe and the US alongside klezmer luminaries such as David Krakauer, Zev Feldman, Michael Alpert, Deborah Strauss and Alan Bern. This summer she joined Frank London as a special guest faculty member at Brave Old World's renowned advanced klezmer workshop at Weimar Conservatoire where she gave workshops on 'Klezmer Bridges Between Old and New Jewish Music.' Having learned directly from leading figures of the New York klezmer scene, notably Alicia Svigals (who pioneered the revival of klezmer violin), Sophie provides a direct-link in this oral tradition. This three day course will offer musicians a chance to immerse themselves in klezmer music, singing and learning tunes by ear, exploring the ornamentation and phrasing that make for a really 'Yiddish' sound and experimenting with ensemble playing.

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Rick Townend: Bluegrass
Rick's personal style is warm and welcoming. He is an entertaining performer and as a workshop leader he engages straight away with the concerns and interests of the participants, trying to help everyone discover the magic which they can bring to the music and which the music will bring to them.
The three day course in bluegrass fiddle will cover the musical background, history and how it is developing now, and why the fiddle is so crucial to the bluegrass sound. Participants will have a chance to play in many different styles within the genre, to have a go at improvising, and to play a real tune at a fast bluegrass speed. There will be plenty of opportunities to ask questions and for discussion, and there will be some written notes to take away.

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Sven Olav Lyngstad: Norwegian Hardanger
As an experienced teacher on various levels Sven will give an introduction to Norwegian folk music of various styles and districts. Students will have a chance to try the unique qualities of the Hardanger Fiddle, but Sven will also adapt some of this music to be played on regular violins. The course will exemplify styles of rhythm and ornamentation, as well as the different tunings of the instrument. Participants will learn old country dances like Gangar, Springar and Halling as well as more 'modern' round dances like Reinlender, Walz, Polka and Mazurka. They will all become experts on Norwegian Wedding Marches, and there might even be a few Swedish tunes to enjoy.

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