Monday 29th April – Friday 3rd May 2024
Join Vicki Swan & Jonny Dyer with Alasdair for five days of Scandi playing. This week is open to bowed string players, (ie nyckelharpa players, fiddlers) and accordionists. No previous experience of Scandi playing necessary. Expect to become acquainted with polskas, schottises, vals, långdans and go on the hunt for that elusive third beat. Workshops will include mostly Swedish music, ensemble playing and some optional technique sessions. Vicki will be leading bowed strings and Jonny the accordions supported by Alasdair Paton. The two groups will come together in the evening. This week coincides with Valborg – the Swedish May Day celebrations. So expect some festivities on and around Tuesday 30th April!
Once you’ve booked get in touch to let me know! I get in touch with everyone as soon as I am notified, but I am not automatically notified when people sign up. We have a WhatsApp group and I always make a resources page. If you’ve changed your email address – make sure you get in touch so I can update my records and not send emails to the wrong place!
The Tutors
Vicki Swan is best known these days for playing and teaching the Swedish nyckelharpa, but started life studying the double bass at the Royal College of Music. Good pedagogy is at the centre of all of Vicki’s courses and she is a fully qualified teacher, with a masters in Education specialising in online instrumental music teaching. She also plays the various types of bagpipes, flute, recorder, piano and nyckelharpa (Swedish keyed-fiddle). 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 playing her Swedish bagpipes, bagging tunes for new books. Vicki holds the Zorn Bronze Award for the traditional playing of Swedish bagpipes and runs workshops and teaches the nyckelharpa around the UK.
Jonny Dyer comes from a long line of Church organists, but it was too hard to cuddle a church organ, so settled on the accordion instead. On the other side of the family are many, many teachers looking down the ancestry tree – probably checking this for accurate use of grammar right now!. Now married to a semi-Swede he’s embraced Swedish musical culture – it was in the marriage contract small print! Jonny’s musical abilities allow him to see the world in matrix style music code, you can practically see the music dribbling out of his fingers tips at all times. Also notes can be expected to be dribbling out of a passing cowhorn or näverlur. Jonny also holds the Zorn Bronze Award for the traditional playing of the Swedish Cowhorn.
Alasdair Paton has roots in classical piano but mostly plays accordion these days, after studying with Paul Hutchinson. He plays for a variety of social dance styles, mostly balfolk and Swedish as half of Confluence folk duo with the cellist Gill Redmond. He plays and teaches at euro dance events on the South coast as part of the Eurobal Wessex. He also plays with the Southampton-based jazz swing quintet, Bad Cat.
Prices – TBC
The Schedule from 2023 looked like this:
