Two days of fantastic music from around the world

Apr 25 2008 by Val Javin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

MUSIC is universal and there will be nowhere better to savour that than in Saltaire next weekend.

It’s worth the trip on May 3 and 4 to spend a weekend learning about and sharing music from across the world brought to the region by the Yorkshire Dales Workshops.

The weekend’s main concert is at the Victoria Hall. It offers a combination of high- energy dancers, the Krylati Dancers, or Winged Ones, and two of the best-loved solo singers on the folk scene.

Sara Grey’s repertoire is based in the US tradition and Martyn Wyndham-Read brings songs from Australia.

For other treats look no further than the Sam Pirt and Gary Hammond duo, who present world music on accordion and percussion, plus the Mussanzi Family Choir singing songs from the Congo.

This weekend of discovery and celebration starts with opportunities to learn songs from around the world with a choir leader and to learn to dance and drum with the Big Drum Nation Dance Group.

It’s sure to be fun and that feel good factor will continue thanks to mini-concerts and shared singing sessions with a choir from the Ukraine and artists from The Congo, The Caribbean and France.

Workshops start at 10.30am on both Saturday and Sunday. Sunday workshops include French and Breton singing with Yannick Minvielle-Debat and a solo songs and ballads workshop with Sara Grey, a must for singers working on interpretation and style. The Yorkshire Garland Project will be presenting Yorkshire songs and talking about where they were collected.

Tickets from Yorkshire Dales Workshops on 01535 631166 or by e-mailing office@ydw.org.uk

Prices start at £5 for some single workshops or £10 for two daytime events and concert tickets for £8.50 or a special price of £5 for under-18s.