The Song Collectors Collective brings you their annual Gathering. This year taking place at St Mark’s Church, we present a celebration of the art of song collecting. As in previous years we will have insightful talks on various aspects of song collecting from esteemed invitees such as raconteur Hugh Lupton, ethnomusicologists Angela Impey and Shzr Ee Tan, Wren Music founder Paul Wilson, ethnobotanist Sarah Edwards and the prolific folklore archivist Doc Rowe. The Gathering will be followed by the The Nest Collective’s second UnampliFire festival featuring performances from some of the finest singers and storytellers working in the oral tradition. It will be a day of phenomenal stories, experiences, lives and melodies.

MAIN TALKS

Hugh Lupton – Song-Speak: A storyteller’s approach to the ballads

One of Britain’s foremost raconteurs, Hugh founded the Company of Storytellers has been instrumental in stimulating a nationwide revival of interest in storytelling. His appreciation of the oral tradition has also seen him pursue innovative collaborations with many musicians such as Helen Chadwick, Chris Wood, Rick Wilson and Liz McGowan. Hugh will explore the power of narrative in performance traditions.

Angela Impey – From the struggle for citizenship to the fragmentation of justice: Reflections on the place of Dinka songs in South Sudan’s Transitional Justice Process

Senior Lecturer in Ethnomusicology at SOAS, University of London, Angela’s research examines music as oral history and political testimony focusing on gender, land and cultural citizenship in southern Africa and South Sudan. In 2011 she launched a unique MA in Music and Development which examines how music’s agentive and imaginative capacities act in different contexts globally to advance local individual and collective interests and identities. She will be presenting some of her latest projects at this year’s Gathering.

Doc Rowe – Twenty-first century technology: The tools, tyranny and tributes

Described as “a national treasure”, folk archivist Doc lays claim to one of the most diverse and expansive collections of British culture of the last half century. His celebrated work spans from early days documenting Padstow’s May Day to the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance to Scotland’s Burry Man and beyond. We invite Doc to impart some of his knowledge from the archive and the field filming some of Britain’s most celebrated traditional musicians.

Shzr Ee Tan – Who owns culture(s)?: Appropriation, self- exoticisation and creativity at work when folksong becomes a commodity

Ethnomusicologist and musician Shzr Ee conducts innovative research into wide-ranging phenomena from Taiwanese aboriginal song to political-musical activism on the internet. A senior lecturer at Royal Holloway in London, she will be offering us a radically different perspective on folksong in Sinophone worlds.

Paul Wilson – Is Devon singing? A talk about folksong collectors and music educators

A founding member of the groundbreaking Wren Music, Paul and his team have been reinvigorating the community field of folksong in South West England for over four decades. As a collector and performer he was also awarded the Gold Badge by EFDSS, particularly for his vital contribution to the Baring-Gould collection. He visits the SCC this year with tales and recordings from his work collecting and archiving.

Sarah Edwards – When I went Walkabout: Collecting plant knowledge with the Songman

A Kew scientist with an interdisciplinary background across ethnobotany/pharmacology and biodiversity informatics, Sarah currently teaches ethnobiology at Oxford University. She has worked with Australian Aboriginal communities on medicinal knowledge and is author of the book Phytopharmacy: an evidence-based guide to herbal medicinal products, as well pursuing music in her spare time. This year she will be sharing plant knowledge collected “with the Songman”.

Tickets £15 (£12.50 Students & Concessions): http://thenestcollective.co.uk/shows/song-collectors-collective/