Monday 15th – Friday 19th February 2027
Nyckelharpa Retreat Week
Join Vicki for five days of nyckelharpa playing. Taking inspiration from Vicki’s Online Nyckelharpa Summer School – you can expect a little bit of everything. Workshops will include mostly Swedish music, focussing the different types of dance tunes, ensemble playing and technique. Everything to help inspire better and more fun playing. This course is slightly longer than the weekends, so we should be able to fit in a trip up the Quantocks.
Who’s it For?
Nyckelharpa players wanting to immerse themselves in a week of playing Swedish music and improving their skills. Mixed ability group. (no complete beginners). Expect to work on tone, flexibility and swing!
Also open to fiddle players (any technique work will be aimed at nyckelharpa players as Vicki doesn’t play fiddle – but will be suitable for either instrument).
Numbers are limited – so book up now!
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!
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.
Prices – TBC
The Schedule from 2023 looked like this:
