Classical and Jazz: Latest News > April 21
Published: 21 April, 2011
by SEBASTIAN TAYLOR
IF fiddling is your sort of thing, you’ll need to get along to the Kings Place arts centre on Saturday, April 30, when all sorts of styles of fiddling are being explored in a dozen workshops as part of the annual Fiddles on Fire festival.
The 90-minute workshops run throughout the day, the first starting at 11am. Each workshop costs £7.50.
Highly accomplished fiddle player Pete Cooper – a regular fiddle teacher at Cecil Sharp House, Primrose Hill – is hosting three workshops on jigs from England, Ireland and Scotland; English fiddle tunes and techniques; and Balkan fiddling traditions.
Irish fiddler Sam Proctor, a frequent visitor to Camden Town’s Irish Centre, is giving one workshop on Irish fiddle tunes and techniques, another on Irish fiddle ornamentation.
Bluegrass musician and barn dance caller Rick Townend is hosting three workshops: on American techniques and attitudes; American styles; and de-mystifying improvisation.
Tunes from the Scottish Highlands are being explored by young Scottish fiddler Rua Macmillan in his workshop.
Last, a workshop on Klezmer music is being hosted by Ilana Cravitz, one of a handful of professional violinists of this celebratory repertoire played for hundreds of years by jewish musicians in eastern Europe.
These workshops are open to fiddlers aged 14 and over. But there’s also one for younger fiddlers, aged 8-14, who will get tips on technique and bowing to get a real “folk feel” into some great tunes.
• Fiddles on Fire, Kings Place, York Way, N1, April 30, £7.50 per workshop, www.kingsplace.co.uk