MUSIC FOLK & HARP FESTIVALS
I Harp Festival Ceilidh
EDINBURGH FOLK & HARP FESTIVALS
With the exception of the concerts at the Queen's Hall. the Folk Festival takes place at Teviot House. Bristo Square; and the Harp Festival at the Pleasance Theatre
complex. at the Pleasance.
At Teviot House are bars. a restaurant/cafeteria. music and instrument stalls. rooms for workshops. and a creche on weekend aftemoons. among the many facilities.
Most concerts and all of the dances take place in the Debating Hall at the top of the building.
The Club Stage. where a wide variety of music can be heard nightly. is in the basement Park Room Bar. There are session bars on the first floor and in the basement. Tuition courses and workshops will take place in various rooms around the building (enquire at the box office in
the foyer for details).
During the Folk Festival. Teviot House is open from l()am until 2.30am. except on Mon 5. Tue 6. and Wed 7 April. when the closing time is lam.
Please note that entrance to Teviot House is free during the day but after 7pm is by concert ticket. dance ticket. or the £2 Club Stage ticket only.
Concert and dance tickets can be purchased in advance; Club Stage tickets are available from the box office in the foyer on the night. A ticket for one of the Queen‘s Hall concerts is also valid for entrance to Teviot on that
night.
Before the festival opens. tickets for concerts and dances can be obtained from The Fringe Box Office. 180 High Street. Edinburgh EHl lQS. bookings: Queen‘s Hall concert tickets from Queen's Hall Box Office. Clerk Street. 668 2()l9 and Fringe Box
Office. From Friday April 2. tickets
Queen’s Hall concerts) go on sale at the Folk Festival Box Office. in the foyer of Teviot House.
Children are not permitted in the bars. and animals (except guide dogs) are excluded from the buildings.
Pleasance Theatre Bar. 60 Pleasance. 7.30pm. £3. Semi-formal instrumental music and song. Dance music by Bob McMath.
I Oick Baughan Debating Hall. 7.30—9.30pm. £5 (£4). Passionate songs. spectacular acoustic guitar from Scotland‘s best known folk singer.
I Melanie Harrold and Olly Blanchflovrer Club Stage. Park Room. 9.30—l0.30pm. Folk. blues. jazz. pop songs - all grist to their musical mill.
I Dance Debating Hall. 10.30pm—lam. £5 (£4). Hugh MacOiarrnid’s Haircut are a storming bagpipe-led contemporary ceilidh band.
I Classes and Workshops: Alasdair Fraser’s Fiddle School. l0am—5pm; Striking the Right Note: improvisation workshop with Dick lee. Jln't Sutherland and Dlly Blanchrlotver. £5 (£4) 2—4pm; Oearbhaill Standin: Slow Airs on the Fiddle. £3 (£2); Mary Bergin's Tin Whistle Masterclass. l-2pm. £3 (£2) at door.
SUNDAY 4
I Call Barber Pleasance Theatre. 1.45pm. £4 (£3). Edinburgh Harp Festival. Five centuries of music for the pedal harp and the clarsach. The Versatile Harp is a programme from classical to contemporary pop by the versatile
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for all events (except
professor of Harp and Music Theory from Texas. I Chris Wood and Andy 2 guitar and bass. in the culling Tc“?! Bar: . jazziest band at the 24W“- £4 (£3) Br‘il'am I Opening Concert fiddle and button
Queen‘s Hall. Clerk Street. 8pm. £6 (£4). The Alasdair Fraser Trio/Oordan/Sileas Jointly presented by the Edinburgh Harp Festival and the Edinburgh Folk Festival. Great USA- based Scots fiddler. with a strong accent towards Highland music. leads his trio of cello and harp. Dordan is virtuoso tin whistle player Mary Bergin‘s group from lreland. also with superb fiddle and harp. The evening is hosted by Edinburgh-based. internationally recognised harp duo Sileas.
I Club Stage Park Room. 9.30—10.30pm. Cheerful. evergreen Edinburgh lads Absent Friends
I Ceilidh Debating Hall. lO.30pm—l .OOam. £5 (£4). Four women. two men; Scotland. England and the USA: it‘s The Ceilldh Collective
SATURDAY 3
I Simon Thountire Three/Howling Shed Teviot Bar. 2—4pm. £4 (£3) Fast. assertive. quixotic expression on the concertina. with superb
festival. Howling Shed are a new band from the North. a sort of Palm
accordion duo prove that there are some tasteful
Court Ceilidh Quintet, instrumentalists from
I Polyrhythm and south of the border. Extenlporisatlon I Heal miss" The Pleasance. 5pm. £3. Bring Pleasance- 5Pm- £2-
a suitable instrument and “mum!” "3W FestiVal
take part in this "am Workshop on the causes
Festival Workshop with of pain in musicians; virtuoso electric harpist OVCI’USC and misuse. Rudiger Oppermann, posture. correct body
SCARP
London-based and somewhat evolved from Blowzabella. Scarp feel. like Alasdair Fraser. that traditional dance music should do just that . . . make you want to dance, so they plunder Europe for good tunes. make up their own - sometimes on the spot — play an outrageous mix of instruments and declare musical war.
alignment. mobility exercises. and Tai Chi. Tutored by Mrs Anna Maran MCSP
I Rudiger Oppermann Group/Kim Robertson Pleasance Theatre. 7.45pm. £5 (£4). Edinburgh Harp Festival presents Bardic Harp traditions mixing it with New Age and World Music. Kim is from the States. Rudiger and keyboard/percussionist Bainer Cranzln are from Germany. and tabla master Jatinder Thakur from lndia.
I Shooglenirty Club Stage. Park Room.
9.30— l().3()pm. Fiddler Angus Grant‘s goodtime. bluegrass ceilidh funk.
I Zunlzeaux Debating Hall. 7.30—9.30pm. £5 (£4). Cross-cultural acoustic pzazz; everything‘s played with rhythm and swing fiddles in this delightful quintet. I Oance Debating Hall. l().3()pm—lam. £5 (£4). Scarp will be one of the hits of the Festival. with their improvised/anarchic but highly musical approach to the contemporary English social dance band. A septet. they play woodwind. brass. pipes. reeds. accordion. bass and strings.
I Classes ans Workshops: Alasdair Fraser’s Fiddle School. l()am—5pm; Day of Dance: Cape Breton Step Dancing: with Mairi Campbell. l—2pm. £2 at door; Old Highland Reels: with Maggie Moore; Playing for Dancing: with fiddler Alasdair Fraser. 4—5pm. £3 at door.
MONDAY 5
I Gaelic Song Workshop The Pleasance. 5pm. £2. Edinburgh Harp Festival Learn the songs with the School of Scottish Studies‘ Margaret Bennett. I Harpers’ Gathering Queen‘s Hall. Clerk Street. 7.30pm. £5 (£4). The Edinburgh Harp Festival brings from lreland Janet Harbison with the two-score strong Belfast Harp Orchestra. complemented by Edinburgh‘s Ha Clarsairean led by Isabel Mieras. Solos. duos. small groups and massed harps in an evening of Irish and Scots music and song. I Oave Francis and Mairi Campbell Club Stage. Park Room. 7.3()—8.3()pm. Fiddle. viola. vocals and itar. with a contemporary Scottish slant. I Cloud Howe Ceilidh Band Debating Hall. 8.30—midnight. £4 (£3). Four piece Glasgow-based ceilidh band includes Jo Miller. (fiddle). and Steve Sutcliffe. (box). with a caller to keep you right on the dance floor.
ZDMZEAD
international in origin and outlook. this tremendous band produces tricky. high energy. acoustic music that floats somewhere between the Danube and the Mississippi. More energetic cajun and country strains later in the week when the Boat Band meet Frantik Zimmer.
Tu 6 I Tree of Strings/Crann nan 'l'eud 60 Pleasance. I Alison Kinnaird 5pm. £2. A Pleasance Theatre. 7pm. Discussion/Forum £4 (£3). The music and presented by the repertoire of the clarsach Edinburgh Harp Festival
based on original research. and played on both the wire strung clarsach and the contemporary gut strung Scottish harp. Edinburgh
on the development and evolution of the harp and its music from 8th century lreland and Scotland to the present revival. With original research and new
Harp Festival material collected in the I Open Plationn eponymous and important Pleasance Theatre Bar. 60 new book by presenters Pleasance. 8.30pm. Free. Keith Sanger and Alison Students and others from l(innaird.
the Harp Festival. I Music horn Wales and I Inc iron Horse Club Horthumberland
Stage. Park Room. 730-830an Fine young Glasgow quintet of essentially acoustic musicians.
I Loose Moose Ceilidh Band Debating Hall. 8.30pm—midnight. £4 (£3). Iix-Sprangeen. Vale of Atholl. Ceolbcg and the John Ellis Dance Band. the live members will get you on your feet.
l WEDNESDAY 7
I New Sounds tor the Harp 60 Pleasance. l.45pm. £2. Edinburgh Harp Festival presents a workshop on the electric harp by internationally eclectic musician Rudiger Oppermann.
Pleasance Theatre. 7—8.15pm. £4 (£3). Airs and dance music on the Welsh triple harp by Robin Huvt Bowen. and Northumbrian song performed and accompanied on clarsach by Jan Bennett.
I Harp Festival Farewell Ceilidh Pleasance Theatre Bar. 60 Pleasance. 8.30pm. Entrance by limited number of free tickets. Dance music by Bob McMath.
I Rankin File Club Stage. Park Room. 7.30—8.3()pm. Twenty years later they‘ve reformed. eh . . . pardon . . . re-formed.
I Tattiehowkers Ceilidh Band Debating Hall.
RDDICER DPPERMAHH
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Playing African harp and electric harp. Germany‘s Rudiger Oppermann brings keyboard. percussion land an All lndia Master tabla player to the éstimulating and beguiling concert of modern harp 'styles he shares with American Kim Robertson. Their albums can often be found filed under New
iAge. but don‘t let that put you off.
40 The List 26 March—8 April I993