French Balfolk Tunes Workshop

for Fiddle, Other Instruments & Rhythm Instruments

The VFS is pleased to host a Workshop with the amazing band Vinta, who will teach a few French Balfolk tunes. The workshop is open to everyone – VFS members and non-members.
Vinta is a fantastic band from Ontario who will be visiting Victoria for the workshop on the 12^th, a house concert on April 13^th and a dance on April 14^th at Encore (Former Victoria Event Center).  
Check them out here: https://www.vintamusic.com/

Workshop Description:
Balfolk band Vinta will teach a handful of favourite tunes they’ve learned during their time traveling, jamming, and dancing in France. Participants will learn the melodies of these accessible tunes but also learn about the dance grooves that really make the music come alive and are absolutely central to this style of playing. The workshop is intended for intermediate to advanced players, but the learning will be multi-dimensional and the tunes are accessible enough that just about anyone can benefit from it. Music will be taught by ear in this workshop, but sheet music will be made available after the workshop as a reference. 

The workshop will have three concurrent sessions: two for fiddle and other instruments (Intermediate/Advanced), and one for rhythm/chord players. The group will be divided into intermediate melody players, advanced melody players, and rhythm section players. The melody teachers will swap halfway through and we’ll come together at the end for to play the tunes as a group.
Each session will run for 45 minutes, with a 10 minute break halfway through, then a 20 minute session all together at the end. The rhythm/chord players session will run for the full 90 mins.  Come prepared to have fun, to move, and to learn about a whole different world of fiddle music!

Cost for whole workshop: $35 VFS members; $40 non-members.

To register, please send an email to vfsinfo@gmail.com (specify either the Fiddle/Other Instruments or Rhythm/Chord sessions and note the instrument you will be playing), along with your payment of either $35 or $40 via e-transfer to: victoriafiddlesocietypayments@gmail.com  

Vinta is Nathan Smith, Emilyn Stam, John David Williams, and Robert Alan Mackie, four brilliant performers and close friends at the cutting edge of European traditional music in Canada. Nearly a decade of these four musicians hanging out at fiddle jams around Toronto has culminated in this quartet, bringing new intensity to old tunes, and growing new tunes from old sources. A band of multi-instrumentalists and genuine scholars, Vinta is making music that is powerful, profound, and fiercely danceable.

Since forming in 2020, Vinta has performed at Mariposa Folk Festival, Gatineau Hills Fiddle Festival, Campbell Bay Music Fest, and Algoma Trad. They have released 9 EPs of traditional music and a beautiful 30-minute concert video with Sound Still Productions. Their first full-length album of original music “Beacons” is the recipient of the Canadian Folk Music Award for Instrumental Composers of the Year, 2024.

What is Balfolk? Balfolk music is a modern, lively, and often improvised genre rooted in traditional Western European folk dances—particularly from France, Belgium, and Scandinavia—revived for social, contemporary dance events known as “bals”. It blends traditional acoustic instruments like accordions, fiddles, bagpipes, and hurdy-gurdies with modern, often hypnotic, arrangements.