The SCC Gathering is a celebration of folk and oral cultures in the fine company of some of the leading folklorists, singers, musicians and storytellers in Britain today. As in previous years, we will have insightful talks from esteemed invitees such as:

+ the phenomenal Scottish singer and song collector – Margaret Bennett

+ leader of the James Madison Carpenter Collection Project – Dr Julia Bishop

+ virtuoso kora player – Kadialy Kouyate

+ Romani folklore, animism and otherworld spirits from the author of We Borrow the Earth – Patrick Jasper Lee

+ founder of The Nest Collective and co-founder of The Song Collectors Collective – Sam Lee

+ folklorist extraordinaire and author of Folk Song in England, The English Year, The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, London Lore, and many, many other books – Steve Roud

+ Lead Curator of World and Traditional Music at the British Library – Dr Janet Topp Fargion

+ highlights from our recent song collecting trip to Ireland, which was filmed and recorded by Radio 4, who will be broadcasting a 2-part documentary on song collecting and the work of the SCC on May 1st & 8th

The Gathering will be followed by some informal drinks at the Travelling Through… bookshop and cafe on Lower Marsh, from 4pm. We hope to be doing more open song collecting trips, so this is a great opportunity to discuss future opportunities to join us on the road.

If that wasn’t enough! In the evening, Sam Lee will be in conversation with Shirley Collins, and then presenting Singing With Nightingales Live with Kadialy, both 5 mins walk away at the Southbank Centre (listed as separate, ticketed events).

It will be a day of extraordinary stories, conversations, lives and melodies. Please join us!

Registration for the Gathering opens at 9:45am.

MARGARET BENNETT

Margaret Bennett is a folklorist, writer, singer and broadcaster. She was brought up in a family of tradition bearers, Gaelic on her mother’s side (from Skye) and Lowland Scots on her father’s. School years were spent in Skye, Lewis and Shetland before studying in Glasgow. In the mid-sixties, the legendary Hamish Henderson, singer, poet, folklorist and political activist inspired her career choice. In 1968 she emigrated to Canada to study Folklore at Memorial University of Newfoundland, after which she spent a year in Quebec as a folklorist for Canada’s Museum of Civilization. From 1984 to 1996 she lectured at The University of Edinburgh’s School of Scottish Studies and now teaches part-time at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. A prize-winning author, she has written ten books, contributed to over 40 others, featured on media productions and several musical collaborations with her son, Martyn Bennett (1971–2005). She is widely regarded as ‘Scotland’s foremost folklorist’ and was made an Honorary Professor of the Royal Scottish Academy in 2012. www.margaretbennett.co.uk

DR JULIA BISHOP

Dr Julia Bishop gained her PhD in Folklore from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1993, having previously gained an MA in Folk Life Studies at the University of Leeds in 1983, and a BA in Music at the University of Cambridge (1982). Her interests have come together in two main areas of research – traditional music and children’s folklore. As a part-time research fellow of the Elphinstone Institute, University of Aberdeen, she leads the James Madison Carpenter Collection Project which aims to make this extensive and fascinating body of traditional song and drama available online and in a critical edition. She also studies children’s play and folklore, past and present, and haa edited the final and hitherto unpublished volume by the Edinburgh teacher, James T. R. Ritchie, based on play he collected in the 1950s and ’60s.

KADIALY KOUYATE

Kadialy Kouyate is a musician, a singer songwriter inspired by the West African Griot repertoire. Born into the great line of Kouyate Griot in Southern Senegal, Kadialy’s mesmerising kora playing and singing style have been appreciated in many prestigious venues as both a soloist and in different ensembles. Since his arrival in the UK Kadialy has played a significant part in enriching the London musical scene with his griot legacy. He has been teaching the Kora at SOAS university of London for the last decade and he has also been involved in countless musical projects both as a collaborator and a session musician. kadialykouyate.com

PATRICK JASPER LEE

Patrick Jasper Lee comes from a Romani Gypsy background, and he brings the folklore, mythology and traditions of the ancient Romani people to his books. He also has Asperger’s syndrome, and advocates autistic thinking as a means of assisting self-awareness and developing observation skills. His fiction/non-fiction books on Romani Gypsy themes are unique to his indigenous culture. His first book We Borrow the Earth was published by Thorsons, HarperCollins; his current works (including the second edition of We Borrow the Earth) are now published by Ravine Press. He is keen to portray the contrasting realms of invincibility and vulnerability within human nature in his books, and campaigns to reintroduce people to the benefits of primitive psychology as a means of seeing the world and nature in their original forms. www.patrickjasperlee.com

STEVE ROUD

Steve Roud is the creator of the Roud Folk Song Index, an expert on folklore and an author of numerous books on the subject. He was formerly Local Studies Librarian for the London Borough of Croydon and Honorary Librarian of the Folklore Society.

DR JANET TOPP FARGION

Dr Janet Topp Fargion is Lead Curator of World and Traditional Music at the British Library. Her general research interest is the discipline of Ethnomusicology, with a focus on the music of Africa, particularly of South Africa and the Swahili Coast in East Africa. Her research currently centres on ethnographic sound recordings as sources for ethnomusicological investigation. Janet is an active member of the British Forum for Ethnomusicology and the Archiving Committee of the Society for Ethnomusicology and is chair of the Research Archive Section of the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives. In 2015, she co-curated the British Library major exhibition West Africa: Word, Symbol, Song.

We hope you can join us for this special day.