Music Performance Scholar Heather is a unique student, balancing her studies with performing and teaching folk music, as well as excelling in hockey and other sports. A perhaps unlikely pairing of passions, but she makes it work harmoniously! Hear from Stand-out Scholar Heather:
“I’m Heather Moss. I study Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Kent and have just started my second year. I am a sports fanatic, playing mainly hockey at Uni but also running, swimming, and going to the gym in my spare time. However, I am also a Folk Flute Musician. This has taken me all over the country, teaching workshops and tunes to many young people. A fun fact about myself is that I have been attending folk festivals since the year I was born!”
Tell us about the Folkshop group and your Folk-filled summer.
“I started Folkshop last year, about two months into Uni, not knowing what to expect from it. It started off with just a few people turning up but now has expanded into about 8 of us! The main difference between Folkshop and other music groups at the Uni is that I teach the music by ear rather than with sheet music which has been a new experience for the folk group members. We have just come back from playing our first professional gig at a Tenterden folk festival, which was an amazing experience! I hope to continue expanding Folkshop and have some new opportunities regarding folk music over the next couple of years.
“My folk-infused summer was a hectic, crazy but amazing opportunity! The summer started when I stewarded at Ely Folk Festival, helping at the box office and also playing in many different sessions throughout the weekend. Then Sidmouth Folk Festival followed this, which is a weeklong festival! I was a core tutor running youth music workshops, which happened daily and concluded in the participants performing all the tunes that we had taught them in a performance at the manor pavilion.
Then next stop was Folk East, where I helped steward on the youth tent which included helping in all the youth music workshops and other activities. I then attended Halsway Manor Advanced Youth Summer School for a week where I learnt so many different skills from new tunes to how to set up my own PA system and creating our own tunes. This week was led by some amazing and very talented musicians in the folk industry. I then attended Towersey Folk festival where I led a youth music workshop every day which involved teaching the participants tunes and arrangements and ended in a performance to the public.
My summer concluded with me running a two-day folk music residential alongside Finn Collinson. We taught youth participants, who had never played folk music before. Teaching them the basics of folk music and all the different styles of folk tunes.”
What advice would you give to other students?
“My advice to other students is to go for any opportunity you have. I never imagined when I started at the University of Kent to set up and run my own folk group, but here I am running this amazing group. It has given me some great opportunities and I have made some wonderful friends. So even if it might seem scary, give it a go!”
What are your plans for the next year?
“Next year I will hope to have another crazy, folk-infused summer, attending all the same festivals as last year. I am also hoping to go abroad and attend an Ethno world music camp. This is where participants from many different countries meet and teach different tunes that originate from their own country (i.e., folk music). Then of course I will come back to Uni next year and hopefully finish my degree and live my crazy sport/music Uni life!
I will also continue to run Folkshop for another year. I am looking into maybe running my own folk music festival along with some other friends from around the area of Kent as unfortunately Tenterden folk festival is not happening again. I will also hopefully find someone to continue the tradition of folk music at Kent even once I’m gone!”
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