GIG: Harpas at Halsway

A Saturday evening gig from our International line-up of tutors for our Harpas Festival Weekend! See and hear the Nyckelharpa – a traditional Swedish ‘keyed fiddle’ – in the hands of three of Europe’s finest exponents of the instrument - Vicki Swan, Torbjörn Näsbom and Ruth Morris.

Vicki Swan studied at the Royal College of Music on the double bass. She also plays the various types of bagpipes, flute, recorder, piano and nyckelharpa. On leaving music college Vicki started down the long path of folk music and was only seen on rare glimpses back in classical orchestras. You’ll find Vicki now inhabiting the troll-ridden forests on the hunt for new and exciting tunes from the näcken. Vicki plays not only the standard 3-row modern chromatic, but also the 1408 sienaharpa, the 1526 moraharpa, the 1700s kontrabasharpa and the 1800s silverbasharpa. Over the pandemic Vicki worked tirelessly on a Virtual Music Room to try to help isolated nyckelharpa players remain motivated and focused on playing and learning. She is the host of the yearly Halsway Nyckelharpa Festival.

Torbjörn Näsbom was born and grew up in Uppland. After training as a violinist at Sveriges Radio's music school at Edsberg Castle and at the Royal Music Conservatory in Brussels, he was employed in the Umeå Symphony Orchestra at the Norrland Opera. On the side, he started playing the nyckelharpa, which eventually took over from the violin as his main instrument. He plays folk music (of course!), but is also known for weaving the nyckelharpa into classical music, mainly from the Baroque period. In 2014, he received Zorn's gold medal, the highest award you can receive as a folk musician, for his 'virtuosic, masterful and tradition-conscious playing on the violin and nyckelharpa'.

Ruth Morris is a versatile multi-instrumentalist, specialising in nyckelharpa, fiddle, whistle and piano. Based in Scotland, she currently plays with Firelight Trio, Gavin Marwick's Journeyman Project, The Galloway Agreement, The Village and The Road, Bellevue Rendezvous, and her ceilidh band Whirligig. Recent work includes being an on-set musician on HBO series ‘Outlander’, and playing nyckelharpa on the soundtrack of the Netflix film ‘Outlaw King’.