ORIGINS
Music at the Heart of Teesdale (M@HoT) was formed in 2011, with support from the HLF-funded Heart of Teesdale Landscape Partnership.
The project set out with 2 aims:
To research as far as possible, historic recordings of folk song and dance.
To establish a youth folk band, with the aim of reviving some of this traditional music in a new generation of musicians
Over an initial 3-year funding period, over 80 songs, tunes and dances were uncovered by researcher Mike Bettison, bringing together for the first time recordings made over a 120 year period by the likes of Ralph Vaughn Williams, Joan Littlewood & Ewan MacColl and Alan Lomax.
During this period, M@HoT’s youth band Cream Tees was establish. Led by Neil Diment with support from TCR Hub, Teesdale School, Durham Music Service and Newcastle University’s Folk & Traditional Music department, a fledgling group of young folkies emerged; soon establishing a now legendary fondness for biscuits and an inclusive workshop methodology that championed learning music by ear.
GROWING ROOTS
Since then, M@HoT has continued to grow, expanding our delivery of folk arts workshops across South West Durham. As well as on-going research and our term-time music workshops with Cream Tees and our new youth folk band Wear’d Aliens, M@HoT deliver bespoke programmes of Folk Music & Dance workshops for primary & secondary schools & community groups; run intergenerational Rapper Dance workshops; host public music masterclasses with guest tutors; and larger scale public events, performances & public commissions.
If you would like to read more about our projects, click here.
TEAM
Project Coordinator - Rupert Philbrick
Project Assistant - Elinor Creaby-Atwood
Lead Researcher / Treasurer - Mike Bettison
Secretary - Rosie Cross
