What Kitty said.

A few years ago Mary and I went to a Balkanfolk seminar in Bulgaria, during which we got (amongst other things) beginners lessons on traditional Bulgaian instruments: gaida, kaval, tambura, tapan. It turned out that our teachers were professors of music from universities and national music academies. We were impressed at how their traditional music and dance was taken seriously at least as a subject of academic study. Of course you were still more likely to get a conversation out of the archetypal "man in a pub" about football than about traditional music, but at least it had some respectability and was considered a fit sunject for serious study.

The course at Newcastle is in its infancy. Speaking to some of the students has revealed some room for improvement in the details of the course. There have been communication problems between the folk performers running the course and the academics running the university, but the recent appointment of Vic Gammon to head the course should help enormously to bridge the gap as he understands the academic and folk worlds and speaks both languages.

There's some great performers coming out too - but that almost doesn't matter. It the fact they they are doing it at all that matters, and helps to raise the public consciousness about it.

Anahata