Edinburgh International Harp Festival - Workshop

Delyth & Angharad

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Family Band - Nightmare or dream combo?

Mother and daughter duo Delyth & Angharad Jenkins, known affectionately as DnA, will reveal the secrets of playing in a successful family band. As well as playing a selection of their music, they will lead the audience through the process of choosing and arranging repertoire. They will give a glimpse into how they rehearse, and will show how a piece can develop in the course of a rehearsal session. With honesty and humour, they will divulge what it’s really like to be on the road and performing together in a family band.

Tutor: Delyth Jenkins - Delyth began her musical career in the 1970s with folk group Cromlech, and then instrumental trio Aberjaber. She has also composed and performed music for numerous theatre productions, and has collaborated with poets and story tellers. Her latest collaboration is with her daughter Angharad Jenkins, together often known by their initials DnA. As well as playing in various groups, Delyth has also released four solo albums and has published several collections of her own compositions and arrangements of traditional Welsh tunes.

Tutor: Angharad Jenkins - Angharad is a fiddle player and composer, who was recently described as ‘one of the dynamos of the Welsh folk scene’, pushing the tradition into the twenty-first century. A founding member of the celebrated folk group Calan, she has toured extensively across the world and has worked with poets and artists and on theatre productions. She also plays with her mother, the harpist Delyth Jenkins, and the new Welsh ‘supergroup’ Pendevig. Whilst working for trac, the folk development organisation for Wales, she founded, currently manages and also teaches at two residential courses for young people.

Line Up

“this music is rooted in tradition but altogether original sounding and beautifully written… a thing of beauty,” Cerys Matthews, BBC 6 Music

DnA by name, DnA by nature: music is in the very DNA of this hugely talented mother-and-daughter duo from Swansea, Wales. Both enjoy international reputations not only as soloists but as members of such bands as Calan, Brethyn, Aberjaber and Cromlech. Whether they’re vamping up a traditional oldie or minting something entirely new, there’s a timeless beauty to these intimate and irresistible conversations between harp and fiddle.

Delyth and Angharad started performing together in 2007 when the organiser of the Gower Folk Festival offered them their first gig as a duo. Despite having independent music careers, it hadn’t occurred to them that this mother and daughter combination could indeed be a very special collaboration.

Since then the duo have performed extensively, and have been played on local and national radio (including BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 6 Music).

The release of their debut album Adnabod, in May 2013 on the fflach:tradd label has generated great praise and critical acclaim, securing them an appearance in the WOMEX opening ceremony in Cardiff, October 2013.

Their live performances, which have been described as “visceral and intense” (Timber and Steel blog) demonstrate the connection between these two musicians. Music is truly in their DNA.

About Delyth

Delyth was brought up on the border between Wales and England, with her family roots deep in the Montgomeryshire countryside, whilst living just over the border in Shropshire. She came to Swansea, south Wales to go to university, and there she stayed; it was there that her two daughters were born.

She only took up the harp in her early twenties, but since then she has come to be regarded as “one of the leading exponents of the Celtic harp.” (Dirty Linen)

She started her career with the Swansea-based folk group Cromlech, and then moved on to be one of the founding members of the pioneering instrumental trio Aberjaber, a group that cherished the traditions of Wales whilst at the same time moving that tradition forward in new and exciting ways.

In recent years Delyth has concentrated on her solo career, releasing 4 solo albums to great critical acclaim.

About Angharad

Angharad was more or less born to the sound of music. In the months before she was born, Delyth was busy touring with Aberjaber, and so the bump that was to be Angharad was quite literally a prop for the harp.

Naturally, with music very much part of her up bringing, it’s no surprise that Angharad has gone on to become one of the leading lights of the folk music scene in Wales today.

As well as playing with her mum, Angharad plays fiddle with other bands including the young and vibrant Welsh folk band Calan. With their toe tapping jigs and reels, show stopping displays of traditional clog dancing and haunting songs, Calan have succeeded in putting Welsh folk music firmly on the map. They tour the UK and Europe regularly.

On top of her musical career, Angharad works as Project Officer for trac, the traditional music development agency for Wales. Angharad also plays fiddle with the BBC Radio 2 folk award winning singer-songwriter Blair Dunlop, the all-girl fiddle group Brethyn, as well as session work with all sorts of musicians.

Find out more about Delyth here. Find out more about Angharad here.

THE MUSIC

Delyth and Angharad Jenkins take inspiration from traditional Welsh folk music and interpret it in new, and sometimes surprising ways. Through pushing the boundaries and experimenting with the natural timbres of their instruments, Delyth and Angharad create beautiful and haunting soundscapes on the harp and fiddle.

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CONTACT

email: delythjenkins@btinternet.com Twitter: @dnafolk t: +44 (0) 1792 360150 m: +44 (0) 7727 149010

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