Fiddleing

A FINE WEEKEND OF TRADITIONAL FIDDLE CULTURE IN LONDON

You are invited to join us at the School of Oriental and African Studies for the third biennial

LONDON FIDDLE CONFERENCE @ SOAS

"Bowed String Instruments in Traditional Cultures"

DATE: Friday 20th February (noon) to lunchtime Sunday 22nd February 2009

VENUE: Khalili Theatre, School of Oriental and African Studies [SOAS], Thornhaugh Street, London WC1H 0XG [nearest tube Russell Square]

ADMISSION to the conference is FREE, and is open to all members of the general public.

REGISTRATION: Registration is required. Please e-mail your booking request to ed.emery@soas.ac.uk.

WEBSITE: www.geocities.com/fiddleconference2009

The LONDON FIDDLE CONFERENCE AT SOAS is a biennial event in a rolling programme of research seminars and performance workshops. We cover all aspects of bowed string instruments in popular culture worldwide.

PROGRAMME:

The conference programme starts with a FRIDAY AFTERNOON visit to the Instrument Gallery of the Horniman Museum in South London, guided by museum, director Margaret Birley.

Then we return to SOAS for a FRIDAY EVENING CONCERT of fiddle musics from different traditions. That will be followed immediately by an amazing CEILIDH DANCE with musicians from the Cambridge University and SOAS ceilidh bands, and Ilana Cravitz's klezmer group.

The following are the confirmed speakers for this year's conference:

PAUL ANDERSON: Understanding the fiddle style of the Scottish North-East

KATE ARNOLD [SOAS] and SHIRLEY SMART: Making the transition from Western to Arabic violin-playing

JIM BARRETT [University of Glamorgan]: Building for the future, borrowing from the past: a jazz double bass using revived Baroque instrument making technology [tbc]

ELAINE BRADTKE: Sam Bennett (1865-1951): Documentary Evidence of an English Fiddle Player

ED EMERY [SOAS]: Notes on the One-String Fiddle

LOTTIE GREENHOW: The Hardanger Fiddle Tradition

BRENDAN MULKERE [University of Limerick]: Ornamentation in Traditional Irish Music

JOHN OFFORD: Hornpipes in the English tradition [with Pete Cooper of the London Fiddle School]

TADEUSZ RYTWINSKI: The Rebec: the folk fiddle tradition of the Carpathian mountains

DIVAKAR SUBRAMANIAN [University of Glamorgan]: The role of the violin in the South Indian Tamizh film music industry

SOHAIB AL-RAJAB: The joza (spike fiddle) in the Iraqi tradition

OZAN TOPRAK: The music of the Turkish Yayli Tambur [accompanied by Cahit Baylav]

Please note that the PAUL ANDERSON and BRENDON MULKERE sessions on Sunday will include practical workshops. Please bring instruments.

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The conference will finish at lunchtime on the Sunday, in time for those who wish to travel across to Cecil Sharp House, to take part in the fiddle workshops and evening concert of the annual London Fiddle Convention. Details of their programme can be found here:

Website of Cecil Sharp House event: http://www.londonfiddleconvention.co.uk/