The EATMT's Big Sky Traditions

Bonus episode! In the first of two bonus episodes as part of our series on the Vaughan Williams' Folk I chat with those who were behind the whole project! Talking at FolkEast 2023 I catch up with Alex Bartholomew, project manager, and Nicky Stockman, project co-ordinator, chatting about all of our favourite moments of the project and the amazing amount of people it has reached all thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund.

In the final episode of our series documenting the Vaughan Williams' Folk Project we learn about the impact this project has had, in particular on the young musicians and those who mentored them.

In this episode of the East Anglian Traditional Music Trust's Big Sky Tradition we explore the community part of the Vaughan Williams' Folk project. As part of this project a key aim was bringing workshop leaders into schools and various community settings to help teach and pass along songs that were collected by Vaughan Williams, often in the local area area where the songs originated. Throughout this episode you will hear from those who were teaching and those who were taught about the impact of this part of the project and how important it felt to them to engage in their local history and tradition, something that this project has been able to facilitate across East Anglia and beyond. We will also hear briefly from the young musicians who are busy preparing for the first of their final performances at FolkEast 2023, where they are playing the Moot Hall Stage on Friday 18th at 1:45pm.

In this episode of the East Anglian Traditional Music Trust's Big Sky Tradition Podcast, we are meeting the young musicians taking part in the Vaughan Williams Folk' project in the second episode in our series documenting it. I get to catch to up with Finn Collinson and Emma Beach who are leading this part of the project and hear about what their experience has been like so far. Alongside this we get to hear audio from the first group session held in Stowmarket where we will meet the young musicians as well as the amazing folk musician Kate Griffin who led a masterclass on interpreting folk song for the modern day.

In the first of a new series for the EATMT's Big Sky Traditions, we follow the brand new Vaughan Williams Folk' Project, which has been created by the EATMT to celebrate Vaughan Williams song collecting in East Anglia, as well as it being 150 years since his birth. We will hear from some of the amazing people who have contributed to the events that have made up the beginning of the project as well as find out what is planned for the next stage! This project and the contents within it have been made possible by the National Lottery Heritage Fund so a huge thank you to them!

On this short bonus episode we are announcing the East Anglian Traditional Music Trust's newest project, Vaughan Williams' Folk, made possible by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Over the next year we will be celebrating the folk song collecting carried out by Vaughan Williams in East Anglia with a huge amount of content and events including conferences, training, and research material. Alongside this we will also be running a mentoring programme for young musicians, where under the guidance of folk musician Finn Collinson they will take a traditional song collected by Vaughan Williams and whilst learning about its history, re-interpret it. At the end of the project there will be a final performance of these newly reinterpreted songs at FolkEast 2023 and Traditional Music Day 2023. All of this will be documented in a new series on Big Sky Tradition, following the journey of the young musicians throughout this project, whilst meeting the researchers, musicians and folk enthusiasts who carry on the work of Vaughan Williams and continue to learn and understand more about folk music from East Anglia.

On this episode of the East Anglian Traditional Music Trusts Big Sky Traditions I meet up with Richard Blake, an expert on East Anglian dulcimers, to find out more about this strange instruments past and hear it being played. According to Richard I may be one of the last few to hear its haunting sound being played live, with players being few and far between.

In this episode of the East Anglian Traditional Music Trusts Big Sky Traditions, I go further into my exploration of step dancing in Eat Anglia, travelling down to Maldon, Essex, to meet Mo, Lilly and John. All three of them come from the Traveller community having been born and raised in horse drawn carts, seeing the way life as a Traveller changed throughout the twentieth century. This episode is sort of split into two halves, one half being a general conversation on what life was like to be a Traveller in the 20th Century, and the other half on the significance of music to them and how step dancing played a key part in this. Enjoy!