What a busy, productive summer we’ve had! Catch up on what happened and what’s in the pipeline for the future and see what’s new on the website. Read on…

NEWS: Events still to come in 2023

We’re looking forward to another Afternoon of Music, Song and Dance this time in the Walsham le Willows Memorial Hall (IP31 3AA) from 2-4pm on Sunday 29th October. This is a free event but donations are positively encouraged.

Doors open at 1.30pm (no earlier please!). Do come along and take part if you would like to – MC Shirley Harry will add you to the list of performers on the day – or just come along and soak up the lovely atmosphere and enjoy some local performers showcasing local musical traditions. We’ll be joined by Mossy Christian with his One Row Records stall and there will be light refreshments on offer.

Thanks to volunteer Jan Robinson for continuing to manage this popular series of Sunday Afternoon events and to Cllr Jessica Fleming’s locality budget from Suffolk County Council. Thanks also go to the performers so far who have offered to join us and entertain!

Folk Educator Day – Folk Arts and Communities – Wednesday 15th November 11am-5pm
Queens Building, University of East Anglia, Norwich

EATMT are very excited to be involved in this day talking about our work in the local communities and further afield as well as talking about the Vaughan Williams’ Folk Project. There is an interesting line up of speakers sharing experiences including our own wonderful patron Gloria Buckley who will talk about her community and education work with Traveller, Romany and Gypsy cultures and FolkEast who will be sharing their experience of the Youth Moot work that runs alongside the fesitval.

Tickets are free but you have to reserve your place in advance. Please book via EFDSS HERE

Stowmarket Christmas Fayre – Sunday 27th November 10am-4pm

We will be setting up a small information stall at Red Gables (IP14 1BE) as part of the town’s Christmas Fayre. We hope to keep other stallholders entertained by providing music throughout the day. If you are a local traditional/folk musician and would like a short spot of 30 mins-45 mins do get in touch. We’d love to see you!

Community Folk Orchestra Workshop Day – Saturday 9th December

Our Friends at Mardles are running this lovely looking workshop day in Bungay Community centre and EATMT will be joining them with a stall. Get in touch via Mardles for details about how to get your day ticket!

NEWS: Updates on the Vaughan Williams’ Folk Project

The summer months saw the delivery of schools and communities workshops across the counties of Essex, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk. We delivered to over 2,500 people during this strand of the project and we selected a wide range of music educators, each with different approaches to delivering and with different musical backgrounds which means that we are able to show a variety of methods of teaching to a wide range of ages producing different arrangements of folk songs collected by Vaughan Williams across the region.

The majority of the workshops that took place will be accompanied with a resource which will be accessible (with download opportunities) via the Trust’s website and most of these also will include short video footage of the relevant workshop. Included in the resource packs will be information about who, when, where and what was collected by Vaughan Williams specific to those county specific workshops.

Our Sound specialist, Jake Lee-Savage created two films from these schools and communities workshops. The shorter of which was shown daily at FolkEast in the Vintage Mobile Cinema to a full house each day and the longer version was shown at Traditional Music Day in Stowmarket on 2nd September as part of the Final Youth Showcase performance. You can watch that film here or via the Project pages which are in the process of being updated and finalised as we near the end of the full project.

The Young Musicians section of the project was one of our major highlights of the summer and if you didn’t get to either FolkEast or Traditional Music Day then it is definitely recommended that you view one of the two showcase performances. The first one took place at FolkEast to an audience of around 600 people, after their July residential weekend in Stowmarket and a full day’s dress rehearsal at Blaxhall Village Hall on the Thursday of FolkEast in mid August. All 9 musicians took part in this first performance and when music courses in Europe prevented two of our musicians from joining us at Traditional Music Day in early September, we were extremely grateful to Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne for agreeing to deputise. Follow the link HERE to read about this strand of the project which also has links to the two final showcase films.

NEWS: Reports on events from July to September

Stepdancing in July

Stepdance Day in Worlingworth, Suffolk in July did not disappoint.  People travelled far and wide (from Devon to Birmingham via Ware) and set up a session in the pub at 11am while the EATMT team set up in the Worlingworth Swan pub garden and Community Centre. 

There were workshops for musicians playing for stepdancers, for budding stepdancers and introducing for the first time, a workshop in Jig Doll dancing run by local enthusiast Julian Rowe and stepdancer Doreen West. 

Julian also set up a Jig Doll Exhibition in the Community Centre where we also showed a digital exhibition created by Katie Howson of the history of Stepdance Day and we showed a few stepdancing videos – including one of the first ever Steve Monk Stepdance Competition which took place in Moreton, Essex which was organised by Jane and Steve Delarre.  Our thanks to the Essex Record Office who gave us permission to show this film and to Essex based Sue Cubbin for taking the film back in 2001!  Competitions took place for Stepdancers and Jig Doll dancers and the staff of the Swan worked their socks off pulling pints from 11am until the evening for over 100 people. For a full report, with film and photographs see HERE.

We were also grateful to stepdancer Fiona Davies and musician Chris Holderness and friends for showcasing some Norfolk stepping at Strumpshaw Tree Fair on the Saturday of the same weekend. They were joined by a previous (2018) Stepdance Day newcomer Josh Dart who then joined us in Worlingworth the following day (and went on to win the Steve Monk Tankard).

For a link to the Moreton Stepdance Day in Essex see below:

FolkEast

Next stop was FolkEast in mid August where we set up an information stall in our happy place – within the Instrumental Stall Holders.  The EATMT team were kept very busy over this weekend.  As previously mentioned, EATMT in partnership with FolkEast presented the first of two Vaughan Williams’ Folk Showcases.

Rapturous applause confirmed that the huge audience of around 600 had appreciated the performance. The Young Musicians also ran a workshop encouraging other youngsters to follow their lead as part of the Youth Moot scheme at FolkEast.

Ethan Beal hosted a “stepping” workshop welcoming all ages and abilities to have a go. For those who really got the hang of it there was the chance to enter into a competition for best dancer which was organised by members of the EATMT team. For a full report of the weekend see HERE.

Traditional Music Day

After 6 long years in the planning, the EATMT team were delighted that nothing prevented this long awaited event from taking place across the market town of Stowmarket on Saturday 2nd September 2023. Even the sun came out for us all!

The Volunteer Working Party has just met to share ideas and thoughts regarding next year’s events. A change of date is one of the things up for discussion and as soon as we have checked with various venues we will update you on 2024’s date.

With a wonderful team of volunteers, over 200 performers/artists taking part across the town in various venues and support from the town council, local businesses and beyond, the town of Stowmarket welcomed the sound of song, music and dance from 10.30am until late into the evening. For a full report of Traditional Music Day read on HERE.

New: Articles

Doc Rowe and his Archive
On Thursday 17th October, a crowdfunder page was set up by Fifth Column Films to raise £25k to help create a film of the legend that is Doc Rowe – folklorist and collector – as well as digitising 50 years worth of Doc’s films and photographs. Within 3 days they are already over the £10,000 mark. Read more here about the challenge that film makers Rob Curry and Tim Plester have set themselves…

NEW: Events for 2024

Sunday 24th March – an Afternoon of Music, Song and Dance returns to Yaxley Village Hall. 2pm-4pm

Saturday 6th April – Traditional Song Forum Spring Conference takes place in Stowmarket (Scout Centre) jointly organised by EATMT.

Saturday 25th May – More than Melodeons at Wingfield Barns. With tutors Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne, Erin Brown & Barry Watson, Andrew Collins and Jill Parson with more to be announced.

Sunday 21st July – Stepdance Day heads to Essex. For you Essex based Stepdance enthusiasts, please get in touch if you’re keen to be involved in the organising of this event. We’d love to hear from you!

Traditional Music Day, Stowmarket – Date TBC We aim to get this date firmed up in the next few weeks.

Support EATMT

Can you put up a poster?

We are particularly interested to hear from you if you can put up a poster in your village if you’re local.  We can post out A4 laminated posters to you if you think you can help.  Please get in touch!

First Aid?

If you are planning to come along to any of our events and you are First Aid Trained, we’d love to hear from you.  If you’re interested in helping and would like to take part in some first aid training, we’d also love to hear from you!

You can support EATMT in a number of other ways: 

VOLUNTEER at events or in the office,
BECOME A FRIEND – Join our Friends’ Membership Scheme 
SHOP for our publications,
BUY TICKETS for our EVENTS

THANKS

As ever, thanks go to the regular team of volunteers who provide a variety of support to EATMT. We’re delighted to continue to welcome new members into the volunteer team over the last few months and we are really grateful to everyone who steps in and up to the challenges!

We are also grateful to the following regular funders for helping us run events and projects:

       

Expect Music, Song, Dance, Storytelling and Talks across Stowmarket! There will be lots of free events including chances to have a go at dance, joining in sessions, trying out traditional ‘folk’™ instruments as well as lots of ticketed concerts and talks running throughout the day and into the evening.

The News…

TICKETS ON SALE!

The plans for September’s Traditional Music Day are coming along nicely. We are delighted to be working with the team at The John Peel Centre for Creative Arts who are acting on our behalf for box office requirements. Tickets are on sale from 9am 23rd June at an Early Bird price until 30th June and there after new prices will be put in place.

If you requested your ticket to be rolled over from last year’s event, then you should have been contacted recently about this. If you haven’t been, PLEASE GET IN TOUCH ASAP – info@eatmt.org.uk.

Friends of EATMT receive a discount of tickets and you also should have received information about this.

BOOK EARLY TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT!

The Traditional Music Day pages on the website are gradually being updated. If there is something specific you need to know before booking your tickets, please email info@eatmt.org.uk.

New…Articles

Milkmaid Molly Need YOU! A plea to local musicians from Jan Robinson.

Lennie Whiting A tribute to the Suffolk Stepdancer and Singer has been written by friend and musician Stephen Matthews and this article features in our Musician Profiles section on the website.

As ever, we welcome articles/contributions to the website. Do get in touch.

New | Faye Gosling, Alfie Webber and Sam Stockman

We have been delighted to have local sculptor, singer, educator and arts administrator Faye lend a helping hand with our social media postings over the last few months thanks to support from Mid Suffolk District Council.  She will be helping in the office too over the coming months as we build up to our summer of events.

Faye is also a recipient of this year’s Alan Surtees Trust Fund “ an organisation that supports young performers whose work is rooted in Traditional Music and Arts.  Faye has been supported to research, develop and deliver a pilot workshop to teach East Anglian folk traditions in schools on behalf of EATMT.

We have also welcomed Alfie and Sam on board who are helping with the growing amount of digital work.  Alfie has spent time with us as part of Inspire Suffolk‘s Prince’™s Trust Programme working on the back end of the EATMT website as well as helping move our book keeping systems into the modern world!  Sam is working on the Vaughan Williams’™ Folk project updating resources for the website.  The benefits these three young folk contribute to the Trust are huge!

New | Dulcimers galore!

Volunteer Alan Helsdon has stumbled across not 1 but 3 what we think are East Anglian made Dulcimers and he has managed to persuade Norfolk player, restorer and maker Richard Blake to ensure they are returned to a good playing state before heading to HQ where they will be added to our hire bank of instruments.  Alan is currently gathering their histories and once completed, we’™ll share the details of these finds further.

Local player Sue Carlton has also found a temporary player for one of her Dulcimers made by Richard in Norfolk.  Before long, we could have a few more players of this wonderful instrument on the music scene.  Watch this space!

New | Jig Doll Competition

Doreen West is running a Jig Doll Workshop at this year’™s Stepdance Day in Worlingworth and there will be a Jig Doll competition taking place alongside the Stepdance competitions.  Fiona Davies is currently creating a trophy for this new competition.  Patron Gloria Buckley is busy creating her wonderful raffle for the day and Patron Katie Howson is helping collate photographs for an exhibition to be shown in the community centre.  We also have a small but perfectly formed working party helping pull the event into shape. Read more…

New | Instruments for sale

We have a few more instruments for sale including a lovely Dino Baffetti melodeon and a 12 string guitar.  Visit the sales page.

New | Ruddock Bursary Recipients

4 young musicians from across the East Anglian region benefit from our Ruddock Bursaries this year. 

14 year old Dax has been loaned a George Case concertina to trial with thanks to Mike Acott Concertina Restorer and 20 year old Lillith has been loaned one of Bernard Hawkins’™ donated accordions for the year.  In addition, the Burwell Bash has two Bursary recipients joining them in August for their summer music school“ teenager Isaac Dalglish and 22 year old music student Emma Robinson will join this lovely event.

New…Stowmarket Culture Group

EATMT is now a member of the Stowmarket Culture Group which meets once a month.

The Stowmarket Culture Group is made up of representatives from key cultural organisations to ensure the cultural sector thrives through a more collaborative approach. The group has a shared ambition to bring higher levels of cultural participation and helps manage strategic programmes and projects. It is part of a larger “Stowmarket Vision – What’s Next For Stowmarket” which is responsible for some exciting new artistic and cultural changes in the town.

Event Reports

Vaughan Williams’ Folk

Our young musicians are creating some lovely work using their own arrangements and writing their own work inspired by the songs collected by Vaughan Williams and working together, sharing ideas. We can’t wait to hear the finished programme of works which will be showcased at FolkEast on Friday 18^th August and again at Traditional Music Day at the John Peel Centre for Creative Arts on Saturday 2^nd September. Before that they have a weekend together in July and a full day at Blaxhall at the start of FolkEast to look forward to. There are short biogs now appearing on the Vaughan Williams’ Folk webpages – to find out more about these musicians read on HERE.

Schools and Community work across the region has been taking place led by a varied group of talented musicians and educators and Jake Lee Savage has been to some of those sessions to record and film. Every group involved will have produced film or audio which Jake has already started to edit and create a final film which will also be shown at FolkEast and Traditional Music Day. This will eventually be available to view online via the EATMT website. Do visit these SCHOOLS RESOURCES pages to see what song tunes have been worked on so far, where and with whom.

We are delighted to have provided far more opportunities for schools and community groups than we initially received funding for. We were keen to showcase the variety of arrangements and organisations keen to be involved in this project such has been the interest.

The county resources pages are also being slowly updated too. Eventually, the aim is to have information including relevant links for all of Vaughan Williams’ East Anglian collected song tunes with background details. There are over 400 to include on the website!

Jake Lee Savage ran 2 podcast and film training workshops in April. One for young school aged children and one open for the general public. Two of our workshop attendees then tried out their newly found skills at our More than Melodeons event in May. Jake also produced a short film of that day which you can watch HERE.

Project co-ordinator Nicky Stockman is now busy preparing for the final three months of the project.

Forthcoming Events

These events have been supported by Stowmarket Town Council, Mid Suffolk District Council, Suffolk County Council, Instep Research Team and The National Lottery Heritage Fund.  We have also got several small working parties consisting of mostly volunteers helping to get these events out across the region and into local communities.  Some of these events are free events, some ticketed but all take considerable time and energy to pull together.  Please show your support: come along and listen, sing, dance or play!

Out and about in the region

Within our own EVENTS page, we have a link to a page for other organisations events which you can visit HERE.

Of note, we have news of 1 new session in Cambridgeshire, 1 planned new session in Norfolk and a series of Winter Concerts at the Geldeston Locks in Suffolk. There is also a plea from Essex Folk News…

For more details about these additional events please visit HERE.

Support EATMT

Can you put up a poster?

We are particularly interested to hear from you if you can put up a poster in your village if you’re local.  We can post out A4 laminated posters to you if you think you can help.  Please get in touch!

First Aid?

If you are planning to come along to any of our events and you are First Aid Trained, we’d love to hear from you.  If you’re interested in helping and would like to take part in some first aid training, we’d also love to hear from you!

You can support EATMT in a number of other ways: 

VOLUNTEER at events or in the office,
BECOME A FRIEND – Join our Friends’ Membership Scheme 
SHOP for our publications,
BUY TICKETS for our EVENTS

THANKS

As ever, thanks go to the regular team of volunteers who provide a variety of support to EATMT. We’re delighted to welcome new members into the volunteer team over the last few months we are really grateful to everyone who steps in and up to the challenges!

We are also grateful to the following regular funders for helping us run events and projects:

       

Best wishes, Alex and the EATMT Team

The News…

Lennie Whiting

We have just learned sad news of the death of our dear friend, Suffolk Stepdancer, Lennie Whiting, following a short illness. Please check our HOME page which will be updated with further news when we receive it.

New… Patron

We are delighted to welcome co-founder and original EATMT director Katie Howson as a new EATMT Patron. She joins our long-term patrons Gloria Buckley MBE, Lesley Dolphin and Mark Murphy.

New… Jig Dolls for Sale

From a chance conversation overheard in our 2022 pop-up stall at fab festival FolkEast, 10 beautifully crafted, ‘Trusty’ Jig Dolls are all lined up and ready to put on their dancing shoes.

Made of unpainted oak, so you are free to design, decorate and give them the character of your own choosing, each doll comes with the all-important stick that fits into their back, their own board to dance on and a how to sheet to hone your operational skills.

Huge thanks go to Peter Cousins for crafting these ‘Trusty’ new friends especially for us to share, after several years of making them exclusively for his family and friends.

Ideal gifts for folk of all ages. A must-have accessory for anyone keen to share their passion for a jolly time at sessions. Look out for them at the EATMT shop at events this year, priced just £45 each.

Limited numbers, but unlimited future fun. What a bargain!

New…TMD Working Party

In advance of all the invaluable help we receive from our ‘on the day’ team of volunteers, we have grown our small EATMT working party to a 13-strong team to help bring the different strands of this action-packed event together. Peter Booth, George Monger, Stephen Atkinson and Lindsay Want join Alan Bearman, Alex Bartholomew, Shirley Harry, Sue Lawrence, Dave Evans, Fiona Davies, Nicky Stockman, Jan Robinson and Nina Truin in bringing Traditional Music Day back to the town on Saturday 2nd September 2023.

Traditional Music Day 2023 – Latest News – View the latest Line Up HERE

Expect Music, Song, Dance, Storytelling and Talks across Stowmarket! There will be lots of free events including chances to have a go at dance, joining in sessions, trying out traditional ‘folk’ instruments as well as lots of ticketed concerts and talks running throughout the day and into the evening.

New…Articles

Review: Plough Monday
Friend Tribute: Barrie Askew
Friend Tribute: Bernard Hawkins
New regular Suffolk event: Accessible Ceilidh
New Book: Where Are The Fellows Who Cut The Hay?

Have some news to share? Article contributions welcome. Do get in touch: info@eatmt.org.uk.

New…Free Training in Podcast and Film Making

Learn how to make effective sound bites and video snippets for social media success 

Saturday 29th April – 10am-12pm with Jake Lee-Savage – Red Gables, Stowmarket

*limited places

*FREE course

See HERE for more details

Events

Interested in other regional events? Find out more HERE

Vaughan Williams’ Folk

Half way through this exciting and action-packed project and our webpages are filling up fast! Of course, it’s all work in progress, so do keep checking in to see the latest nuggets of news.  

Don’t miss:

Vaughan Williams in the East Conference Talks 2023 I VIEW HERE

Our Showcase Young Musicians THEIR JOURNEY SO FAR

The recordings of the talks made at our Vaughan Williams in the East Conference can now be viewed HERE

Discover more about the Showcase musicians’ first Mentoring Day of Workshops with Finn Collinson, Emma Beach and special guest tutor musician Kate Griffin, through a podcast made by Jake Lee-Savage. Their individual biographies have already been shared on our Facebook page (@EastTrust). Continuing to meet digitally over the following months, our young musicians will team up again in person for a July weekend of playing together and sharing ideas before the Showcase Concerts at FolkEast and Traditional Music Day 2023.

Coming soon Films and audio footage of other EATMT folk song work across the Eastern Region in schools and communities (to be completed by June/ July). The enthusiasm of different groups keen to be involved has been overwhelming and we can’t wait to share!

Support EATMT

You can support the East Anglian Traditional Music Trust in a number of ways:
VOLUNTEER at events or in the office
BECOME A FRIEND through our Friends’ Membership Scheme
SHOP for our publications
BUY TICKETS for our EVENTS…

Thanks

As ever, thanks go to the regular team of volunteers who provide a variety of support to EATMT. We’re delighted to welcome new members into the volunteer team over the last few months – we are really grateful to everyone who steps in and up to the challenges!

We are also grateful to the following regular funders for helping us run events and projects:

We’ve recently added another event to our events listing – An Afternoon of Traditional Music, Song and Dance at Yaxley Village Hall, Suffolk on Sunday April 2nd, 2pm-4pm. This event is being co-ordinated by two of our wonderful volunteers – Jan Robinson and Shirley Harry. 

More details on what we’ve been up to since the last newsletter will be with you in the coming weeks with our Spring News.  But for now, if you are interested in joining our Volunteer Crew, please do get in touch!

CLICK HERE FOR SPRING 2023 NEWSLETTER!

Vaughan Williams’ Folk Project News

There is now a separate Vaughan Williams’ Folk header on the main drop down menu and through that you can access the different sections of the project – some events have already taken place but there are reports and photographs as well as podcasts and films to view. Resources are also now starting to be uploaded with thanks to numerous researchers making available their work and findings where publications are now out of date. There are also a number of excellent publications that are available to still buy and we will be creating a list of these over the coming months.

Here is a report of the project thus far by Project Co-ordinator, Nicky Stockman:

Following on from our Project Launch [read the report HERE] with Potiphar’s Apprentices in October, the Vaughan Williams’ Folk Project is hurtling forwards with increasing momentum, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

If you want to find out more about the Essex Song Collections then the film from the Potiphar’s Apprentices has now been uploaded to the EATMT YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irwPKNL3J50&t=665s. Be sure to sign up to the follow the channel to keep up to date with our project events and resources.

A few weeks ago, the Vaughan Williams In East Anglia Conference brought folk song researchers from across the region together to examine the current status of Vaughan Williams’ folk song collections in the region and to collate up to date knowledge of the work done to date. This will inform later work to create a resource bank of material and to make it more accessible to the public via the EATMT website. The event took place on Saturday 26^th November 2022 in Stowmarket Scout Centre and was well attended with participants travelling from as far away as Gloucestershire, despite many people cancelling their tickets due to the train strike and illness. The most prominent researchers from each of the 4 counties presented their research. Steve Roud (creator of the Roud Folk Song Index) chaired a session on folk song collecting, indexing and disseminating and the county experts presented future plans for disseminating their research materials. There was a live music presentation of tunes Vaughan Williams collected in the Norfolk Broads by Alan Helsdon (a prominent researcher from Norfolk) and Alex Bartholomew, Project Manager. We had stalls and displays from EATMT, The Vaughan Williams Society, The Traditional Song Forum, Veteran Records plus books, CDs and research material being sold by individual researchers.

The presentations from each County were filmed by Jake Lee Savage and will be placed on the Trust YouTube Channel after Christmas. Further details from the presentations will be placed on the EATMT website in due course. We’ll update you through our newsletters and social media channels as we upload material.

The Conference was also a platform to bring together our 9 young showcase musicians for the first time. These 9 young musicians will work together over the next 8 months to create a Showcase of Vaughan Williams’ collections at FolkEast 2023 and East Anglian Traditional Music Day (Sept 2^nd 2023), mentored by Finn Collinson and Emma Beach. 7 of the 9 musicians attended, despite the train strike meaning very complicated arrangements to get there. We’ll be updating you with how they are getting on during the Spring and Summer of 2023.

In the meantime we are busy bringing together manuscripts and transcriptions of Vaughan Williams’ folk songs and tunes from the 4 Counties and will be uploading as much material to the EATMT website as possible as we create new Vaughan Williams Resources sections on the site. We are also in the process of contacting schools and community groups to perform the material.

Tilney All Saints Primary School (near Kings Lynn) will be performing the song Green Bushes and dancing to some of the tunes collected in their village as part of their Plough Monday Celebrations at Tilney All Saints Church on Monday January 9^th at 10.30am. If you are in the area, please join them for the Church Service. Watch this space for details of more community performances!

‘The Beginning‘ is the latest podcast made by Jake Lee-Savage available to listen to. 

Vaughan Williams’ Folk – Young Musicians’ Showcases

Applications for Young Musicians to be part of our Vaughan Williams’ Folk project closed at the end of October and the Project Team consisting of Alex from EATMT, Nicky Stockman -Project Co-ordinator, Becky Marshall-Potter – FolkEast Director, Finn Collinson and Emma Beach – Musicians and Mentors for the Young Musicians met to select 9 of the applicants to take part in this project during 2023.

The successful musicians are as follows and we are really excited to be working with them all next year:

Lauren Peck, Cambridgeshire – saxophone and recorders
Leila Hooton, Norfolk – flute and vocals
Peter McAuley, Norfolk – guitar, songwriter and vocals
Anna Treutler, Norfolk – fiddle, guitar and vocals
Oliver Thompson, Suffolk – whistle, tune writer
Sarah Stock, Suffolk – guitar & vocals
Heather Moss, Suffolk – flute
Elye Cuthbertson, London – melodeon
Abbey Thomas, Cornwall/Leeds – banjo, guitar, vocals

The train strikes in November prevented them all from meeting at the Conference but they will be meeting up together for a full day of workshops led by Finn and Emma with a guest tutor in February with the focus on Folk Songs and tunes collected by Vaughan Williams in East Anglia.

James Abbott

It is with great sadness that we report the sudden death of our stepdancing friend James Abbott.  We have recently published an article on our Musician Profiles pages on the website with thanks to contributions from his friends.  He will be greatly missed.

2023 Events to look forward to

More Than Melodeons is back at Wingfield Barns on Saturday May 27^th and we are delighted to welcome Andy Cutting and James Delarre as two of our tutors.  As well as a day of workshops, we will also be treated to an Evening Tutor Concert in the Barn. A full line up of tutors will be announced in the coming weeks and tickets will be on sale in March.

Stepdance Day takes place on Sunday 16^th July.  Further details to be confirmed.

We are delighted to see regular sessions around Cambridgeshire following our 2022 Stepdance Day.  Thanks to Angela Peacock, Sue Gwynne, Erin Watson and Nicky Stockman for forging ahead with this! The next event is on Sunday 29th January:

FolkEast join us at your super local festival where we will have our usual stall, be involved with Stepdance workshops and the now annual FolkEast Stepdance Competition and also there’s a chance to see the first of our two Youth Showcases as part of our Vaughan Williams’ Folk project.  August 17^th -20^th 2023.

Traditional Music Day on Saturday 2^nd September in Stowmarket.  More details on the eagerly awaited return of this event will be released on the coming months but we anticipate much of the plans for 2022 will be moved to the 2023 event. 

INSTRUMENTS FOR HIRE

It’s been a fabulous couple of years for our instrument hire. Our bank of instruments has been added to and the majority of our instruments are currently out on hire giving the Trust a regular small income.  A big shout out to Mike Acott Concertinas who has recently stepped in to help provide some of his sale concertinas as a trial before you buy, with proceeds going to EATMT for the trial period and some post sale donations being made to us too.

If learning a traditional folk instrument is one of your New Year resolutions, then do get in touch!  We still also have a small selection of instruments for sale which are detailed on our web page – For Hire.   

FRIENDS of EATMT

For £15 per year, you can help support the Trust and benefit from cheaper ticket sales.  Volunteer Shirley Harry is our Friends’ Secretary and she’d be delighted to add you to our Friends list.  Our Friends’ supporters traditionally contribute to a third of our income and it’s been vital over the last few difficult years.

Find a Friends’ Membership Form HERE.

Can You Help?

We are very keen to hear from you if you are interested in volunteering.  In particular we are looking for volunteers at Traditional Music Day and also as part of our Vaughan Williams Folk Project particularly regarding digitising our resources, arranging tunes for various voices/instruments. We will be sending out a specific call for help in the next few weeks but in the meantime, if you think you can help, please get in touch.

Our new working friendship with local auctioneers Bishop and Miller is going well!  Following their Music Memorabilia Sale in November, EATMT received a welcomed payment from the sale of some of our books, music and instruments that have been donated over the last few years.   They run a few of these themed sale events over the year and we will still have some items featuring in the next one – we’ll keep you updated with the next sale information.

Articles

As well as James Abbott’s Musician Profile added to the website, there is also a full tribute to EATMT co founder and Director John Howson as well as news from Rumburgh Morris.

If you have an idea for an article to be included on our website, please do get in touch.  It is always interesting for our readers and followers to read other news from around East Anglia whether it is an event report or a piece of local research.  Do get in touch if you’d like to contribute.

The latest Journal of Folk Music publication from the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library and published by EFDSS is well worth trying to hold a copy of. Not only is there an obituary of John Howson (which you can read on our Tribute to John), but young American scholar Nora (Eleanor) Rodes who spent a few weeks with Alex in Suffolk during the summer has had an article published in this journal: Eloise Hubbard Linscott – The People’s Collector.

John Howson’s article for the journal which is also published by EFDSS (Edward Rushton – Radical Liverpool Poet and Ballad Maker) appeared in the Journal for 2022 – Volume 12 Number 2. For more details about how to access this journal see EFDSS’s website.

Funding

We are grateful to the support given to us via our Friends’ Membership Scheme – it is a vital income to the charity.  In addition we are grateful for the continued support from both Stowmarket Town Council and Mid Suffolk District Council which enables us to help put on events in the area.  We are this year delighted in being funded for the Vaughan Williams’ Folk Project by the National Lottery Heritage Fund – it helps EATMT keep those our musical heritage alive and accessible for all.

Wishing you all a healthy and happy 2023.  See you at one of our events this year we hope!

Alex and the EATMT Team