Congratulations to Sheya Chan our 7 year old harper who came first in the under 12 harp competition in the Antrim Fleadh on Saturday 16th May 2009. Her tutor Jenny Shane said, ” Sheya has worked very hard since she began playing the harp a few short months ago and her commitment to practice and has paid dividends in her capacity to accommodate the techniques required to play the harp and play, relatively sophisticated pieces, with complete aplomb.”     Congratulations to Sheya who now participates in the Ulster Fleadh in July. We have every confidence she will acquit herself well in the competition.   Martin Shane

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We recommend you visit this site! Brian Pundyke is in the process of developing a great new website called Traditional Irish Music / Learning Resource Centre. His site has been created to provide a source of learning materials for those wishing to extend their knowledge of Irish traditional music. The materials are free. His site will try to present an ever increasing number of  tunes, (Reels, Jigs, Hornpipes, Slip Jigs, Marches etc), in a variety of electronic formats that have proved useful in the learning of Irish Traditional tunes.

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Class Details/Timetable:

• After the Easter break tuition starts again in Monkstown Community School, Larne Further Education Centre.and our other venues on Tuesday 21st April 2009 .
• Session dates for 2009 are on the Noticeboard page.
• Singing classes are now on a Tuesday evening.
  

Anyone unsure of the class or classes they would like to take or would like to enquire about hiring an instrument should contact Martin or the tutor concerned. Please contact the Music School if you are interested in learning an instrument that is not currently listed and we will endeavour to run a class for it. The course runs for two terms each consisting of ten one hour classes.

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EATMS Sessions: The different levels of EATMS Sessions are fun and challenging for those new to playing music with others and provide help to budding traditional players. They also give confidence to players to move on to more demanding and varied live sessions.   Session dates are on the Noticeboard link and for directions double click on this map.

Advanced Session:

The first of the NEW EATMS Advanced Sessions will be held on Friday 6th March at 8pm in the Carrickfergus Gasworks.

The advanced session will have the following format:
1.      No Sheet Music – playing from memory
2.      The tune list has been extended to 134 tunes. 34 tunes in addition to the 100 in the EATMS Tune book.
3.      Development of tune tempos more akin to that found in traditional pub sessions locally
4.      Playing of sets of tunes

Session Tune list in word format.            Session Tune list in PDF format.

Intermediate Session:

These will continue to focus on the Intermediate section of the EATMS Tune book. There will be a quick warm up through the Introductory section, a major focus on the intermediate section and an exploration of the Advanced section in the later part of the evening.

Session Dates:

Beginner's Session: Mid Week
It is with great enthusiasm that I can announce that the Beginner's session will in future be led by Lee Martin. Lee is an accomplished musician and tutor, who has been running tutorials for the East Antrim Traditional Music School for a number of years on guitar, bodhran and whistle. Many of you who have been attending the Slow Session events of Friday nights will know Lee well.

The focus of this session as an introduction to session playing will be re-emphasised. Lee’s strengths and experience are in working with beginners and getting people started playing together in a group.

In order to fit in with Lee's other commitments we would like to run the Beginner's session on a Tuesday evening from 7:30 to 9:30. Tthe March Beginner's session starts on Tuesday 3rd March at 7:30pm and subsequently on the 24th March. Dates for subsequent Beginner's sessions will be worked out with the regular attendees at these session and published by email and on the EATMS web site noticeboard.

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Harping Back to 1792:

The historic Assembly Rooms (formerly the Northern Bank, Waring St. Belfast) was the setting for a performance by harpers of  EATMS. At 12.30 pm, Wednesday 28th January 2009.

The event, organised in conjunction with the J B Vallelly Retrospective Art Exhibition was a unique opportunity to see and hear some of the country’s greatest exponents of the harp playing in the building (then known as the Exchange in 1792) that the largely Presbyterian radicals of Belfast organised the first great revival of Irish Traditional Music.

The Belfast Harp Festival arranged, to coincide with the 1792 Bastille celebrations, entranced audiences of “Ladies and gentlemen of the 1st fashion in Belfast and its vicinity”. Some 10 harpers attended including the Blind Arthur O’Neill and the centenarian Denis Hempson.

Inspired by the Festival, Edward Bunting, assistant organist of St. Anne’s church spent the remainder of his life touring Ireland collecting songs and Airs, many copies of which were placed in the custody of The Linenhall Library.  In1797 Bunting published his first collection which included 66 Airs never before printed. This was followed by further publications in the early 19th century. The Bunting Manuscripts are now housed in Queens’ University Belfast.

The Belfast Harpers Festival of 1792 was important both culturally and politically in the history of Belfast. The music that Edward Bunting collected became an important well from which many musicians, from within the traditional idiom, sought to quench their cultural thirst. The original Building was not only the venue for the Harpers Festival but also some years later the location for the trial of Henry Joy McCracken.

“It was here in rationalist, Presbyterian Belfast that the renaissance of Irish Music took place” explained historian Dr. George Holmes “We are indebted to Brian Vallelly for facilitating this musical addition to his Artistic Exhibition”.

Speaking about the event, Mr. Martin Shane, Director East Antrim Traditional Music School  www.eatms.co.uk  commented, “The popularity of harping has been increasing dramatically over the last 20 years, in no small measure due to the efforts of Janet Harbison. Consequently we are now blessed with many exceptionally gifted solo performers who also play as a magnificent corps and have a facility on this instrument which is envied by many around the world. In an effort to give focus to the growing number of local harpers and significance to the location, five of the leading traditional harpers participated in a lunchtime recital in the old Northern Bank Building.  This, we hope, will act as a precursor to the establishment of an annual Belfast Harpers Festival reflecting the importance of the original in the cultural pantheon, not only in Belfast, but also Internationally.

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Purpose of the School:

Based in South Antrim (Northern Ireland) the ambition of the School is to contribute significantly to the regeneration of the culture of playing traditional music in this area. In particular the School hopes to address the mistaken notion among some within our communities that this aspect of our culture belongs to only one side of the religious and political divide.

Partnership:

East Antrim Traditional Music School, Newtownabbey Borough Council and Larne Borough Council are one of the partnerships to benefit extensively from the Arts Council of Northern Irelands Art of regeneration program. This unique partnership has been allocated £221,350 from a fund of £2.4 million aimed to challenge local authorities to work collaboratively, strengthen and deepen existing partnerships and create new ones.

The programme was designed to tackle social issues, connect the arts to the areas not usually associated with them and to allow the arts to enrich communities. The money has been made available through the Arts Council’s new Lottery funded ‘Art of Regeneration’ programme, in partnership with the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL).