Post by Admin on Dec 11, 2020 17:09:07 GMT
A weekly two minute catch-up for members from the
TMF Director's desk
These are some of the things that have caught my attention this week.
The What If... day went well last weekend. Excellent presentations from Jenn Butterworth, Jim Sutherland, Malcolm Reavell, Steve Byrne and Donald Smith, fresh ideas, and good discussion. The presentations were recorded and, pending permissions, we'll be editing them and making them available in due course. Jenn is also a speaker at English Folk Expo's Folk Talk Live event on 23 November, which has panels on licensing for live streaming, and new models for live performance.
Anent the annual Hamish Henderson Lecture which also took place last weekend Ian Green of Greentrax points out that the recordings of Serge Hovey's settings of Burns songs with Jean Redpath are still available.
Just been reminded that musicians with CITES designated components of their instruments (particularly ivory and Brazilian rosewood [Indian is exempt]) will need documentation to move between the UK and Europe after December 31. What I didn't know is that you will also need the documentation to move between Britain and Northern Ireland. Belfast docks and Belfast airport are CITES designated ports of entry, but not Cairnryan, which could be a nuisance.
The TMF helped to draft the motion on the impact of Covid on music which was heard at Members' Business at the Scottish Parliament earlier this week. You can watch the debate here. (About 15 minutes long.)
The Music Education Partnership Group has just completed a 'a systematic review of the literature relating to singing and brass, woodwind and bagpipe playing during the COVID-19 pandemic'. A key finding is that 'There is no current data showing a statistically significant added risk of viral transmission from singing and playing these instruments on top of the already considerable risk in gathering socially in both domestic and public settings when suitable mitigations are in place.' Full report here.
Welcome to new members Newcastleton Traditional Music Festival
It's been a week of board meetings - Music Education Partnership Group, European Folk Network and the TMF. The EFN board confirmed that the conference scheduled for March will be put back yet again to September, with a one-day virtual gathering on the original date in March (14th). The TMF board signed off our work plan for the next four years, a copy of which will be winging its way to members shortly.
Workflows, productivity, time management - I'm a bit of a geek when it comes to all that stuff (iCal, Omnifocus, Trello and unlined notebooks are my weapons of choice), and consequently have long been a fan of Cal Newport, whose approach to these things has always struck me as being very sensible. Thought-provoking article by him in the New Yorker.
Contemporary approaches to traditional music can often seem dated further down the road, but this always strikes me as an exception.
RIP Gaelic singer Iain MacKay and, sadly from Covid, accordionist and pianist, Bob Turner, of Ceilidh Minogue and Gavin Marwick's Journeyman project.
All the best
DF
David Francis is Director of the Traditional Music Forum
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