Develop your arrangement and ensemble playing skills to make imaginative arrangements that are exciting to listen and dance to.
Using music inspired by British and European folk music traditions, this is a long weekend of intensive workshops, discussions, rehearsals and performances in a friendly and supportive atmosphere. Musicians of all ages (including 16-18 year olds), any instrument, any musical background (folk, jazz, rock, classical) are very welcome. You’ll need to be able to read music and /or play by ear.
Course leader Paul James – border bagpipes, saxophones (Blowzabella, Playford Liberation Front, Evening Star) leads a crack team of Belgian diatonic accordion virtuoso Anne Niepold; Italian drums/percussion maestro Gigi Biolcati (Riccardo Tesi / Banditaliana), award winning Anglo-Irish fiddler Niopha Keegan (The Unthanks); and top bassist and improviser Victor Nicholls (Evening Star, Playford Liberation Front).
The aim of the course is to use British and European traditional dance forms – for example, jigs, polkas, bourrées and waltz melodies – and use that as the raw material to make new arrangements that can go any direction, combining all sorts of influences and ideas to make spine tingling music that is much more than the sum of the parts. Participants will take part in small and larger ensembles – listening, contributing and experimenting with ideas – towards a public performance on the Sunday night. It will be intensive but there will be time to relax and make new friends too Supported by The Anvil Trust.