Internationally-renowned fiddle player Liz Knowles will deliver three workshops exploring innovative approaches to practise, how listening skills can inform your musical career, and how to design and deliver inspiring performances. Musicians will gain an insight into Liz’s career and artistic approach, and will have the opportunity to ask questions and learn from one of folk music’s greatest performers, arrangers and educators.
Ticket price: €30 for three workshops
Please note, this is a professional development course for professional musicians working in all genres. Ticket holders must be available to attend all 3 workshops. Places are limited to 30.
Monday 31 May 11am – 12.30pm
Practise is the art of making choices. We might arrive into practise with the goal of building repertoire, technique, and skill, but away from the practise room the only thing that matters is how we express those things. How do you make practise more than a boring set of rules and exercises? How do you translate the details of practise into the wider panorama of expression? This session will explore how to make the choices that can turn practise into a compelling part of your musical journey—the line which connects your past, present, and future as a musician.
Tuesday 1 June 11am – 12.30pm
In Irish music, listening is vital for how we learn tunes and style. On a deeper level, it can be the vehicle by which we come to understand elements of musicianship like intonation, technique, and musical expression. There are deep implications for listening in traditional music—as in all music. This session will explore new ways to approach listening in your practise and in teaching, how to apply it in recording and performance, and even how it can inform and inspire your composition and arrangement skills.
Wednesday 2 June 11am – 12.30pm
Performance can take place in a surprisingly wide range of venues and formats—pub and house concerts, sessions and festivals, performing arts centres and touring stage shows, television, radio, film and the recording studio. In this session, Liz will share thoughts on how to design concerts and performances—whatever the venue—from a musical and logistical standpoint while at the same time attending to your development as an artist. She will also share the pivotal moments in her career that have shaped her approach, and ideas on what the future of performance might look like after the pandemic and beyond.