Award Recipients
2018/2019
Holly Clarke
Holly Clarke is a traditional singer and musician from Coniston in Cumbria. Her research focuses on repertoire from Cumbria and she will be creating a recital of revived Cumbrian material for a modern folk audience.
She is also recording an EP of traditional repertoire, self written songs and compositions that all revolve around the supernatural stories surrounding nature. She is also researching Scandinavian ballad and song traditions. As if that wasn’t enough, she is starting a podcast focusing on singers and instrumentalists of her own generation, rooting out the ideas and predictions for the future of traditional music as well as discussing women’s representation in folk music.
2017/2018
No award made
2016/2017
Grace Smith
Grace Smith is a fiddle player and clog dancer, working on research into traditional music of Northern England, with a focus on the Cleveland region. She is a postgraduate student on the MMus course at Newcastle University.
She will be looking into archive material, social history and historical sources to inspire a newly created performance at the end of the academic year.
2015/2016
Niles Krieger
The inaugural Ewan MacColl Memorial Award was made to Niles Krieger. Niles, from Connecticut in the United States of America, was drawn to Newcastle after discovering the Folk and Traditional Music degree at Newcastle University online.
After completing his undergraduate course, he decided to continue his studies at Newcastle University with a Master’s degree. He is currently researching the connections between the folk music of the British Isles and New England and other states in the northeastern USA.
Niles said: “I am honoured to receive this award, as I have always admired Ewan MacColl’s work as a songwriter, performer and collector. Like most people, I first encountered his music through well-known cover versions of ‘Dirty Old Town’ and ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’”.
“I later discovered the Radio Ballads through the involvement of fiddler Dave Swarbrick, whose playing has been a big influence on mine for years. I was captivated by the dramatic narrative and stark realism of these works, as well as by MacColl’s and Peggy Seeger’s emotive singing. Their work will undoubtedly play a role in my research, and the MacColl family’s generous award will enable me to fund my research costs.”
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