Bowlines Workshops

 Workshops

It’s time to book your chosen workshops, and tailor-make your Bowlines weekend.
Please read the workshop descriptions below, and find out about our expert tutors.
You can use the links below to book yourself into the four workshops you’d most like to attend across the weekend.

Please make sure you are logged into your St George’s customer account, to enable you to book your workshops.
(Our booking system will recognise that you are taking part in Bowlines, meaning the links below will work for you.)

Workshop slots are open for booking on a first-come, first-served basis. All Bowlines ticketholders can attend four different workshops across the weekend. Workshops for each tradition take place more than once, so you can tailor your weekend itinerary to the traditions you’d best like to learn more about! (Please note, our Klezmer workshop is the exception to this structure, as the workshops are designed to follow on from each other. We have indicated this with ‘Part 1’ and ‘Part 2’ below.) All workshops take place in small groups, meaning spaces are limited in each timeslot, so book as soon as you can to secure your preferred itinerary.

The workshops are led by our six fiddle tradition experts, described below. These exceptional players and educators will share their knowledge, insight and approaches to the fiddle, offering new ways to develop technique, musicianship and understanding. The workshops will cover a diverse range of techniques, musical styles and structures, tunes, improvisations, textures, and rhythms – as well as working on sound, technical ability, giving you the tools to problem-solve, all while getting to the heart of diverse and much-loved folk fiddle traditions.

Bowlines is aimed at fiddle players who are aged 18+, and are of intermediate and advanced standard – please see guidelines on our main page. Unfortunately, we’re not able to cater for beginners.

Sam Sweeney

English tradition

Sam Sweeney is one of the UK’s most captivating and innovative folk musicians. A master of the English fiddle, he is known for his deeply emotive playing, bold compositional voice, and a career that has consistently pushed the boundaries of traditional music. After rising to prominence as a member of the award-winning Bellowhead, Sam went on to forge a distinctive solo path. He is also a founding member of the acclaimed trio Leveret and has collaborated widely with artists such as Eliza Carthy, Fay Hield, The Full English, Jon Boden, and many others.

In addition to his performance career, Sam is an inspirational educator and was the inaugural Artistic Director of the National Youth Folk Ensemble, where he helped shape a new generation of English folk musicians. His commitment to sharing and evolving the tradition is a defining part of his work.

“One of the defining English fiddle players of his generation” – Mark Radcliffe, BBC Radio 2

Mia Marine

Swedish tradition

Mia Marine (born Gustafsson) is well known as a lively and exuberant musician from Värmland in Sweden. Besides being a very skilled performer, she is also well known as an inspiring teacher. Her music is often in the borderlands between traditional folk music, modern acoustic music and chamber music. She teaches part time at The Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg, and has her very own online academy with participants from all over the world. At her workshops she usually combines teaching groovy tunes and arrangements with creating new arrangements together with the participants. Instrument technique and playing for dancing are other special interests that often pop up in the teaching process.

Clémence Cognet

French tradition

Clémence Cognet is a fiddle player, singer and dancer, navigating between Central France trad music and dance, baroc, contemporary and improvised music. She’s fascinated by these forms of expression and the community dynamics associated with them. She can be found, amongst others, in the bands  Komred, Louise, Garenne, Miralhet, Arquebuse, La Dévorante. She’s always worked with Les Brayauds CDMDT63, and since 2013 with l’ARFI, L’Excentrale and the CEFEDEM Rhône-Alpes. In 2019 she co-creates and performs JOUER, a bourrée dance show with Cécile Birot-Delrue and François Dumeaux. In 2021, together with the musicians from Bòsc, she founded the collective La Crue. She holds state-recognised qualifications as a violin teacher and a traditional music teacher.

Jock Tyldesley

Old Time tradition

Jock Tyldesley is perhaps best known for his fiddling in Cajun bands such as The Flatville Aces and the Bearcats, as well as more off-the-wall antics with The New Rope String Band and The Chipolatas. He also nurtures a long-time passion for Southern Appalachian old time fiddle and banjo tunes, whilst touring with his regular bands and US acts such as Eddie LeJeune, The Dirk Powell Band, Sheryl Cormier, Martha Scanlan, Beverly Smith and Carl Jones and Balfa Toujours.

Patsy Reid

Scottish tradition

From Perthshire in Scotland, Patsy Reid is a versatile musician, arranger and educator. Since stepping back from super-folk-group, Breabach in 2011, Patsy has been in constant demand as a session player and arranger – performing and recording fiddle and viola with the who’s who of the folk and roots scene such as Mark Knopfler, Zakir Hussain, Julie Fowlis, Donald Shaw, Kathryn Tickell, Sam Sweeney, Duncan Chisholm, Tim Edey and Flook, to name a few. With 4 solo albums under her belt, Patsy is also one third of Lyre and also collaborates regularly with cellist, Alice Allen, as part of Strathspey Queens.

She dedicates a great deal of her time to education and is known for her technical prowess and no-nonsense approach to fiddle teaching, designing and delivering the curriculum for Mull Music Makers, curating popular fiddle camp, Mull Fiddle Week, and lecturing at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where she delivers a bespoke programme of technique lessons for the fiddlers on the BMus (Hons) and Masters in Traditional Music Degrees.

Flora Curzon

Klezmer tradition

London-based violinist Flora Curzon started playing Klezmer music at Klezfest (London) in 2010 and has since performed internationally with her critically acclaimed duo Fran & Flora (‘brave and classy’, The Guardian), London Klezmer Quartet and International Klezmer Collective and has taught Klezmer workshops at KlezKanada, Klezfest, KlezNorth and Halsway Manor. She has performed at The Wigmore Hall, Sadler’s Wells, Sintra Festival, Schleswig Holstein Festival, KlezMore festival, Jools Holland, Tiny Desk and BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, and collaborated with companies including Barokksolistene, English Baroque soloists, Teaċ Damsa, Sam Lee and MishMash Productions. Record releases include Precious Collection (Fran & Flora 2024), Hold Still Liminal (solo 2023) and Unfurl (Fran & Flora 2019), all heavily inspired by her Klezmer research. She trained in both ‘modern’ and ‘historical’ violins at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she was awarded several prizes.