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Welcome to the Folk Viola website

"Folk Viola, a warm, rich, sonorous stringed instrument playing the traditional music of the world. A new and little explored repertoire and soundscape, deeply expressive and full of surprises. Music to stir the heart and send your feet leaping up to dance."

New folk viola album!
East Handed have just released a fantastic new album, IDI VIDI the result of two years intensive work, featuring Lindsay Aitkenhead playing viola.
IDI VIDI (go & see) is 11 traditional songs from Macedonia, each one a wry tale of love or woe, and perfect for dancing. Performing in East Handed with Lindsay are the fabulous Yugoslavian singer Vesna Panic and bass player Richard Neale.

Listen to track Jovano
For more details about the CD,
lyrics and artwork
Click here

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price only £10 + £2 p&p

If you would prefer
to pay by cheque,
email your order to
lindsay@folkviola.com
or telephone
+44 114 2817614

Folk Viola rationale:

Folk Viola started off as a passion, became my profession and then the title of my doctoral thesis in ethnomusicology at the University of Sheffield, England. The viola in folk music is ridiculously hard to investigate, because, like the violin, it is commonly referred by the name 'fiddle' in folk circles. The connection is not reciprocal, since unfortunately discussions and literature about the fiddle tend to mean specifically 'violin'. To complicate things, many audience members, including journalists, can't tell the difference... This means that there is no written history to speak of, so I undertook an ethnographic study of folk viola players and their music, mainly situated in the North of England.

Here you will find some of the who, what and where of folk viola playing. There are details of folk viola players and their bands, links to related websites and a couple of papers I gave at academic conferences. I am still performing regularly, in Britain with East Handed and in Italy with Tashbain, playing klezmer and Balkan folk music. I teach viola & violin for Sheffield Music Service and ethnomusicology at the University of Sheffield.

If you play folk music on the viola, please get in touch! Email me at lindsay@folkviola.com.
It is always great to hear from you!

Dr. Lindsay Aitkenhead