Arrival: From 18th January ’24
Starts: 19th January ’24: after Breakfast
Ends: 21st January ‘24: in the afternoon
Departure: Can be Monday 22nd
Cost: 4500SEK
Swedish Tutor: Emilia Amper
Emilia will be teaching Swedish tunes
British Tutor: Vicki Swan
Vicki will be teaching non-Swedish tunes!
Emilia’s Class is now fully Booked. There are now only two spaces left on Vicki’s class.
It is possible to sign onto a reserve list for Emilia.
The Eric Sahlström Institute is a Swedish national centre for traditional music and dance, with the instrument nyckelharpa as its special endeavour. Through education, long-term projects and performances, they promote and develop the genre across the country and abroad.
This special collaborative weekend will bring together both the Swedish and British communities. Two tutors teaching bringing together their love of one instrument across two cultures in the magical Eric Sahlström Institute in Sweden.
Emilia Amper is one of Sweden’s most sought after folk musicians, Swedish and American Grammy nominee, Norwegian Grammy winner, Artist of the Year at the Swedish Folk & World Music Awards, World champion on the nyckelharpa, awarded National fiddler of the realm and winner of the Nordic Composer’s award the NPU Prize. In her music, a deep knowledge and love for traditions meet an endless, open-minded exploration of the nyckelharpa’s possibilities. With her charisma, virtuosity and energy she moves with ease across stylistic boundaries and touches people in both small and big venues across the world.
Vicki Swan studied at the Royal College of Music on the double bass. She also plays the various types of bagpipes, flute, recorder, piano and nyckelharpa. On leaving music college Vicki started down the long path of folk music and was only seen on rare glimpses back in classical orchestras. You’ll find Vicki now inhabiting the troll ridden forests on the hunt for new and exciting tunes from the näcken. Vicki plays not only the standard 3-row modern chromatic, but also the 1408 sienaharpa, the 1526 moraharpa, the 1700s kontrabasharpa and the 1800s silverbasharpa. Over the pandemic Vicki worked tirelessly on a Virtual Music Room to try to help isolated nyckelharpa players remain motivated and focussed on playing and learning.
The course will run from Friday morning to Sunday afternoon. As the UK contingent will be coming a long way we are able to stay over from the Thursday night – which is what I’ll be recommending. It is possible to get back to the airport on Sunday – but we are also able to stay over until the Monday morning. All at no extra cost! Booking is now open using the Google Form (also as the nice big button above).
Currently we’re taking bookings using the form and payment will be sorted at a later date. The deadline for booking will be the 11th December. There are only 20 available beds for the course and we are already more than half booked up. So it’s best to get your booking done quickly as the course is open to people from anywhere in the world.
Come with Vicki on a trip to Nyckelharpa HQ in Uppland the famed Eric Sahlström Institute. There will be two classes running at the same time.
1. Emilia Amper teaching Swedish Stuff to mostly our group.
2. Vicki teaching non-Swedish Stuff to anyone else.
It’s open to nyckelharpa players or fiddlers. It’s open to anyone in the world.
You’d be crazy not to want to come on this little outing!
Getting to the Eric Sahlström Institute
Stage 1 – Getting to Sweden
The closest airport is Arlanda, just north of Stockholm. I tend to choose Ryanair and book a seat for my harpa. Ryanair fly from Stansted. I have a page listing different airlines and their baggage requirements here.
Direct Flights:
London Stansted to Arlanda: Ryanair
London Heathrow to Arlanda: British Airways and SAS
Gatwick to Arlanda: Norwegian
Manchester to Arlanda: SAS
Edinburgh to Arlanda: SAS
One Stop:
Edinburgh to Arlanda via London using British Airways
Edinburgh to Arlanda via Amsterdam using KLM
Newcastle to Arlanda via Amsterdam using KLM
Bristol to Arlanda via Amsterdam using KLM
There seem to be lots of choices on KLM with one stop
Newcastle to Arlanda via Frankfurt using SAS
Stage 2 – Getting to ESI
Train from Arlanda to Uppsala takes roughly 20 minutes and they go every half hour.
The train from Uppsala to Tobo takes about 30 minutes and they go every hour.
It’s a fifteen minute walk from the station to the Institute, but we’ll try to sort out lifts for that final mile!
You can of course hire a car, this takes 56 minutes from the airport.
Other alternatives
Want to take the train?
It’s doable – but takes a really long time! This screenshot is an example from Rail Europe. (London to Stockholm)
Want to drive?
This is also doable – but takes a really long time!
Best route:
Harwich to Hook of Holland on the Ferry (That’s about 6 hours and the ferry goes twice a day)
Let the Satnav guide you the rest of the way
