In years 2022 and 2023 we co-created an Erasmus+ project: European Fiddle Gate. The project connected European influent folk violin educators. The overall objective was to raise an awareness of the importance of the folk music in education. Integration of folk music in the established classical and jazz educational institutions was discussed. A web database was created as a tool for a better orientation within a large amount of European fiddle tunes.
partners:
Bahnhof Leisnig (GER)
&
Društvo za ENO glasbo / Society for ONE music (SLO)
Two international conferences of folk violin educators took place:
August 21st – 28th 2022, Bahnhof Leisnig (PDF, video)
August 13th – 20th 2023, Bahnhof Leisnig (PDF, video)
1. Folk Fiddle Curriculum for crossover studies:
- minimum standards for crossover teachers to introduce one style
- integration of the folk styles into established classical and jazz education
- starting to build more solid basis for a folk violin curriculum
2. Fiddle Gateway web platform:
- evidences of individual repertoires of tunes for individual players
- common repertoire of multiple players
- create personal wish list of tunes to learn
- definition of the classic repertoire in the regional folk styles
- which are most played tunes?
- guide for non-folk teachers in choosing tunes (level, region, technical speciality)
3. Organising Fiddle Gateway Jams in different countries.
4. Discussion, sharing experiences and visions for fiddle education.
5. Echoes of the conferences:
- 2023 ESTA international conference in Cardiff.
- Full video of Cardiff 2023 presentation is here.
- 2024 ESTA international conference in Porto.
- An international Working group ‘ESTA folk’ was created inder ESTA international at the international ESTA conference in Porto (P).
- Debate about folk education at Fiddlers on the Move 2024 . Full debate video is here.
- Many international collaborations (Oscar Beerten, Darko Piller in Slovenia; Galicia Fiddle at Bahnhof Leisnig, Craig Judelman, Barja Drnovšek and Bojan Cvetrežnik giving workshops in Galicia, Alfonso Franco writing about Galician Fiddle for Chris Haigh new editions (Scoot editions), Bahnhof Leisnig and Galicia Fiddle participating the Erasmus+ project, inclusion of the content in PhD of Natalija Šimunivić, Slovenian players taking more workshops in Piroman Style from Darko Piller in Vienna…).
- Database presentations (Tübingen, Brussels, Ghent)

