David Chadwick & Marit Fält – Nyckelharpa & Mandola
May 5 @ 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
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David Chadwick is normally found performing on the violin as a member of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, having previously held positions with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. With these ensembles (as well as the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the Royal Northern Sinfonia and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra), he has toured around Europe, the USA and South America, Australia and east Asia.
His interest in the nyckelharpa began after working on a project with Shetland fiddle and Scottish harp duo, Chris Stout and Catriona McKay. At the time, Catriona had just recorded an album with one of Sweden’s very best nyckelharpa players, Olov Johansson, and it wasn’t long before curiosity got the better of David and he was diving into the traditional music of Sweden. Since then he has taken lessons with Olov Johansson, Josefina Paulson, Magnus Holmström, Torbjörn Näsbom Peter ‘Puma’ Hedlund and Emilia Amper – all recipients of the prestigious ‘Riksspelman’ honour and carriers of the tradition in Sweden.
The nyckelharpa, or keyed fiddle, is a bowed string instrument with 16 strings (12 of which are ‘sympathetic’ strings) and 37 keys. Images of the instrument can be found throughout central Europe from the fifteenth century, even earlier in Sweden. In fact, it is thanks to the Swedes than the nyckelharpa survives to this day – elsewhere in Europe, the instrument declined in use to the point of extinction, the only remaining unbroken tradition of playing was in Sweden.
Marit Fält is a multiinstrumentalist brought up in Norway of Swedish parentage. Growing up playing Swedish traditional music on the fiddle, she is perhaps best known as a Låtmandola player and is a leading proponent of using plucked instruments in a range of ways – equally as comfortable to lead as to accompany. Having graduated from Newcastle University with the highest performance mark ever achieved, she has toured internationally with a range of artists. Most known for her duo with Rona Wilkie, she is also gaining a reputation for her work as a composer – she has composed a soundtrack with Rona for BAFTA nominated documentary Sixteen Years till Summer, and premiered her New Voices commission Irrationalities in Celtic Connections 2020. Recently she released the Gaelic Christmas EP ‘Nollaig’ with Rona and 2022 will see her release albums with trio LYRE LYRE and her debut solo album.
