The BBC Proms is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in central London. Robert Newman founded The Proms in 1895. Since 1927, the BBC has organised and broadcast The Proms. Each season consists of concerts in the Royal Albert Hall, chamber music concerts at Cadogan Hall, additional Proms in the Park events across the UK on the Last Night of the Proms, and associated educational and children's events. The season is a significant event in British culture and in classical music. Czech conductor Jiří Bělohlávek described the Proms as "the world's largest and most democratic musical festival".
Nordic folk music includes a number of traditions of Nordic countries, especially Scandinavian. The Nordic countries are Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.
Stemming from Sweden, the nyckelharpa, meaning "keyed fiddle" or "key harp"(lit.), is a bowed chordophone, similar in appearance to a fiddle or violin but larger, which employs key-actuated tangents along the neck to change the pitch during play, much like a hurdy-gurdy. The keys slide under the strings, with the tangents set perpendicularly to the keys, reaching above the strings. Upon key-actuation, the tangent is pressed to meet the corresponding string, much like a fret, shortening its vibrating length to that point, changing the pitch of the string. It is primarily played underarm, suspended from the shoulder using a sling, with the bow in the overhanging arm.
Bellowhead is an English contemporary folk band, active from 2004 to 2016, reforming in 2020. The eleven-piece act played traditional dance tunes, folk songs and shanties, with arrangements drawing inspiration from a wide range of musical styles and influences. The band included percussion and a four-piece brass section. Bellowhead's bandmembers played more than 20 instruments among them, whilst all performers provided vocals.
Traditional Nordic dance music is a type of traditional music or folk music that once was common in the mainland part of the Nordic countries — Scandinavia plus Finland. The person who plays this kind of music might be called speleman (Swedish/Norwegian), spelman (Swedish), spel(l)emann (Norwegian), pelimanni (Finnish) or spillemand (Danish). Finnish traditional dance music is often called pelimanni music in English, while there does not seem to exist a similar, widespread term for the corresponding music from the other countries. It is often more meaningful to distinguish between the traditional dance music from different regions than between music from the countries as such. Some concepts in the field can be defined as Norwegian or Finnish, but most are either common to all four countries or local. Besides the dance music tradition, all countries also have other traditions of folk music that are not shared to a similar extent.
St David's Hall is a performing arts and conference venue in the heart of Cardiff, Wales.
Pekka Kuusisto is a Finnish musician.
The Nordic Council Music Prize is awarded annually by NOMUS, the Nordic Music Committee. Every two years it is awarded for a work by a living composer. In the intervening years it is awarded to a performing musician or ensemble.
Blazin' Fiddles are a contemporary Scottish fiddle band from the Highlands and Islands. They formed in 1998 to showcase Scotland's distinct regional fiddle styles. The band have a number of awards, including; the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards Live Act of the Year, Album of the Year and Folk Band of the Year. Their records are released on their own indie Blazin' Records label. They have been described as "...the Led Zeppelin of the Folk World."
"Peerie" Willie Johnson was a Scottish folk guitarist and bassist. He was respected as an influential and innovative musician in the Shetland folk scene. Since 2005 there has been a "Peerie" Willie Guitar Festival" each year on the islands.
Scottish Ensemble is a professional string orchestra based in Glasgow, Scotland and led by Artistic Director and violinist Jonathan Morton.
The title of riksspelman is a generally recognized badge of mastery for Swedish folk musicians. It is an honor bestowed upon bearers of the silver or gold Zorn Badge, awarded annually by the Zorn Jury, a panel of experts under the auspices of Svenska Folkdansringen. The silver Zorn Badge is the highest award attainable for musicians who play before the Zorn Jury in their annual Zorn Trials. The gold Zorn Badge cannot be sought, but is reserved for one or two master musicians pre-selected by the Jury.
A spelman is a player of Swedish folk music. The term has also the same meaning for Norwegian folk music, and corresponds directly to the term spillemand in Danish traditional music. Less often spelman may be folk musicians from other Nordic countries, from other European countries, from non-European countries, and even musicians in other genres. The meaning of the Swedish word spelman is very similar to that of the English "fiddler," except that it is not tied to a specific instrument. Because of the commonality of the fiddle in Swedish folk music, the word is often translated as fiddler in any case. Technically, the actual Swedish word for fiddler would be "fiolspelman".
Gaffa is a free Nordic music magazine with local editions in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Gaffa is Denmark's largest and oldest music magazine. It has been published since 1983 and has 320,000 print readers and 750,000 online readers each month.
Anna Clyne is an English composer, now resident in New York City, US. She has worked in both acoustic music and electroacoustic music.
Vilde Frang Bjærke is a Norwegian classical violinist.
Dreamers' Circus is a Nordic band consisting of Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, Ale Carr (Sweden) and Nikolaj Busk (Denmark).
Drew Kolstrup, known professionally as Drew Sycamore, is a Danish singer and songwriter.
