National Folk Festival masterclasses

Very few music festivals have education components in their programs, but the National Folk Festival does and does again. First, it revives its masterclass program through its partnership with Music for Everyone (MFE), an arts/music organisation that operates out of the Ainslie Arts Centre in Canberra, and second, it has dedicated interactive pages for teachers and students on its website as an add-on plug in.

The masterclasses for students at intermediate and advanced levels will be held on 27 and 28 March ahead of the festival that runs over Easter. Presenters fiddle and cello players Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas, guitarist songwriter David Olney, fiddler Donal Baylor, Celtic guitarist Kevin Dempsey, vocalist Carolyn Robson and piano accordionist Karen Tweed will conduct classes in two sessions each day, the first from 10.00am to 1.00pm with a break for lunch and the second from 2.00 – 4.00pm.