Barga School of Piping, Traditional Music and Dance – Hamish Moore is delighted to announce an exciting new Summer School to be held in Barga in Tuscany from the 20th – 27th June 2010. Barga is where he spent last 2008 as musician in residence (all of Hamish’s articles written that year can be found here). Barga dates back a thousand years and is a walled hill town of astounding beauty. As well as being surrounded by natural, spectacular mountain scenery its architectural glory is a joy and its narrow streets and lanes make pedestrian transport the norm with the presence of cars somewhat of a rarity. This all adds to the incredible charm of the town.
Teaching will take place in an old Convent School, which is ideally suited to hosting classes.
As well as budget dormitory style accommodation in the Convent, Barga has many self-catering apartments, hotels and Guest Houses.
Because approximately 60% of the town’s population have relatives in the west of Scotland and also because of the strong links through John Bellany with East Lothian, Barga quite rightly and proudly boasts the title of, “The most Scottish Town in Italy”.
Co-ordinator – Hamish Moore in conjunction with B.I.G. – Dates – 20th – 27th June 2010
Tutors.
Pipes: Allan MacDonald |Fin Moore | Tiber Falzett | Alberto Massie
A wide range of piping styles is on offer as well as the school catering for the complete range of abilities from beginners to advanced.
Competition piping
Pibroch and Pibroch Song. This is the speciality of Allan MacDonald.
Dance Piping where the students will learn the tempi and rhythms needed to play for the old hard shoe percussive step dancing and Scotch reels.
Fin is gaining a great reputation as a teacher of pipes, having completed four summer seasons teaching at the Gaelic College in Cape Breton. He has also taught at the Lowland and Border Pipers Society annual teaching weekend in Melrose and at Piper Gathering North Hero, Vermont and other schools around the world.
He has now performed at the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow, Celtic Colours in Cape Breton, the Edinburgh International Festival and the William Kennedy Piping Festival, Armagh. He has played solo and with bands including, Dannsa who are gaining great respect in Scotland and abroad for their traditional and innovating dancing, the internationally renowned Cape Breton band, Slainte Mhath, and Back of the Moon, winners at the traditional music awards 2003.
“this boy was born to play a reel and when he did so on the Scottish Small Pipes, stamping both feet to produce a step dance rhythm section…….. living precariously with his own exciting variations, he was magic” Alastair Clark, The Scotsman
Fiddle: Sarah Hoy.
Sarah is one of Scotland’s brightest and best young fiddlers and teachers and can offer a wide range of styles from Scottish, Irish, Shetland to Cape Breton.
Sarah plays with a dance band, the Trows. She has performed at Celtic Connections in Glasgow, Edinburgh International Festival, and played for step dancing at Ceolas summer school on South Uist. Sarah taught and performed at Edinburgh Fiddle Festival and featured on ‘Heat The Hoose 2?, a compilation of top Scottish fiddlers at the festival.
“Her upbeat style is immensely likeable, and her compositions immediately caught my attention.” Cheryl Turner, Rambles
Dance: Frank McConnel is arguably Scotland’s best step dancer with a huge wealth of teaching and choreographic experience. He is also a very well known and respected contemporary dancer. He will be offering classes in some of Scotland’s oldest and most exciting dance forms.
Scottish Step Dance | Cape Breton Square Dancing | Quadrilles |Lancers
Flute: Chris Norman is a world renowned flute player and teacher and runs the hugely successful and popular teaching festival in Nova Scotia, “Boxwood” Chris will be teaching traditional Scottish Music of the Flute and can also offer Baroque style, something he is in demand for all over Europe.
Piping Scots Culture into a Little Bit of Italy – By Jim Gilchrist (source Scotsman)
THEY say that in the Tuscan hill town of Barga, near Lucca, anyone who speaks English does so with a Glasgow accent, such has been the degree of emigration to the west of Scotland from the area.
This may be an exaggeration, but it is entirely true that on Wednesday the town will resound with the strains of Scottish traditional music.
The pealing bells of the medieval town’s duomo will mell with the strains of Scots and Italian choirs to introduce a line-up of visiting singers and players, including singer and piper Ken Campbell, pipes and fiddle duo Fin Moore and Sarah Hoy, The Cast (Mairi Campbell and Dave Francis, who found themselves unexpectedly in the limelight when the Sex and the City film featured their beautiful rendition of Auld Lang Syne), traditional singers Scott Gardiner and Loreen Merriman, fiddler and pianist Fiona Moore and the “folk choir” Sangstream.
The event, which may well become an annual event in the town’s 17th-century theatre, has been organised by Hamish Moore, the Dunkeld pipemaker and piper (and father of Fin and Fiona), who has been Barga’s musician-in-residence since the beginning of the year.
He first visited the place in May last year, having heard the Scottish painter John Bellany, who now lives there, extolling its merits on a radio show. “Barga is full of artists and musicians and creative people of all sorts,” says Moore.
Full details can be found by downloading this .pdf file: BargaPipingSchool or email Hamish Moore directly on hamish@hamishmoore.com