Emma Mordue

Author: admin

  • Happy New Year!

    Happy New Year! It is nearly the end of January, and on a rainy rainy day I thought I would get on with some much neglected website admin. Bookings are coming in for the upcoming season, so it is a good time to update some of these pages. Starting with a quick catch up on the blog.

    November saw a return to the Dragon Festival in King’s Lynn with The New Cambridge Waits. We played at various locations around the city. There were lots of activities on offer, such as a dragon trail, and animal encounters, art things, and stalls to look at. We enjoy playing in King’s Lynn a great deal, and are looking forwards to being back there next year for their Hanse Day Festival.

    December brought in another return to Kentwell Hall for their Dickensian Christmas event. Alongside some private Christmas supper functions. Both of these required some Victorian music, and so for the past few months I have been learning to play the melodeon.

    Learning a new instrument is such a delight. You start out in a frustrating way, until gradually it begins to feel familiar and you can relax and play. I managed to gather half an hour worth of tunes, both festive and folky, and made my professional melodeon debut!

    One of the lovely things about playing at Kentwell Hall is that because I’m being a first person character musician, it means that I can be really flexible and relaxed with my playing. This in turn means confidence in a new skill can grow really quickly, as without the pressure of a formal setting it is easier to be bold, and take risks, and see where it takes you.

    Alongside the melodeon, I took my usual requests on the bagpipes. Asking most visitors what their favourite Christmas tune from any period is, and then giving it a good go on the bagpipes. Some tunes are more successful than others! A first this year was a request for The Prodigy, which I think was meant to trip me up, but being a teenager in the 90s, meant I delivered with absolute delight. Breathe by The Prodigy on bagpipes must be a first for anyone surely!

    Emma playing the melodeon dressed in Victorian clothing
    Festive Melodeon

    I have some more melodeon gigs booked already for this year, so I need to increase my non-festive repertoire.

  • The dual faces of October

    The autumn is such a beautiful time of year, the weather turning colder, but the sunlight low and warm imparting its glow onto the damp yellowing leaves.



    It is a very busy time of year for me, as I have two regular events that overlap. The first is Scaresville – The Haunted Village. This is an annual scare attraction set in the grounds of Kentwell Hall, in Suffolk. An hour of interactive scares, taking you into rooms and out into the woods and pushing you to confront all sorts of characters and devices along the way.

    I have the absolute pleasure of being the host at the start of the event, greeting about 1000 victims a night and sending them on to their doom. All with banging tunes, witty banter, and crazy dancing.

    Once half term starts my daytimes are then filled with the sounds of children skipping around the trees, as Kentwell’s family focused Halloweenies event means I spend the days as my dryad self playing music in the magical Hornbeam Circle.

    I do adore this event, the site is beautiful, the children are (almost always) wonderful, we have so many interesting philosophical conversations as well as musical ones.

    Even the smallest of visitors able to play my drum, to which I will often join in on a recorder, sharing a musical conversation that tends to start like two separate people playing and then evolve into listening to each other and really playing together, even the really young ones, which often takes parents by surprise!

    There are new visitors and families that have been many many years in a row, some whose tiny children have played music with me before they had legs long enough to skip around the circle, that now join in the dance. I have spent time with children that seem to never stop talking at all, and some that come in unable to make eye contact, hopefully all leaving with their hearts just a little bit fuller than when they arrived – I know mine always is.

    This then requires a very quick turnaround as daytime green is removed and nighttime blue is reapplied ready for the evening’s shenanigans.

    Both events are filled with a great team of performers both professional and volunteer, and are headed up by a brilliant creative production and build crew.

    My next event at Kentwell Hall will be taking Christmas requests on the bagpipes for their Dickensian Christmas event. Details available on their website.

  • Embrace The New Things

    One thing I absolutely love is doing new things, and this past week has had two new sessions added.

    The first was for Discover And Play Club who offer holiday sessions in schools across Ipswich. I had been recommended by a school I worked at earlier in the year, and I ran two Entertain Like A Tudor sessions for them. As always these were filled with lots of music and laughter, dancing and juggling together. The wonderful feeling when a child is convinced they can’t join in at all with juggling, and we find a path together and before you know it they are trying to balance balls on all different bits of their body and call gleefully across the room that they walked like that!

    The second was for Cambridgeshire Holiday Orchestra where for the first time, assisted by Amy, I ran a session for mixed ability and mixed instruments incorporating some playing. So we learned a dance and sang a catch (or round) and learned a tune by ear using a drone as a nice safe fall back point and building up the tune. We answered lots of questions about Tudors and instruments and music and dance and went away thinking an hour wasn’t long enough! We managed to pack a lot in.

    Emma and Amy entertain the students with the bagpipes

  • Easter Holidays sessions

    It is so lovely to get an email saying a teacher has recommended you. Following on from my schools sessions in January, I’m now going to be back at Castle Hill Junior school with Discover And Play Club, as part of their Easter Holiday Club offering.

    Also in the Easter Holidays I’ll be leading a session alongside Cambridge Waits band mate Amy Keller at Cambridge Holiday Orchestra which should be fun too! A very different kind of session than those I usually do, so I’m looking forwards to adapting for some young musicians.

  • Juggling schools for Wolsey

    January saw me booked to see about 400 primary school children across 3 different Ipswich schools. Organised and funded by the Wolsey 550 project. I had created a new workshop titled “Entertain Like A Tudor” where in about an hour, we imagined we were travelling entertainers and had a go at learning some of the skills required. This included the usual music and dance, but for the first time I added whole class juggling.

    Juggling balls in a box decorated with medieval hares

    With a rough idea in my head of how to approach this to best empower success, I dedicated the final 20mins of the session to juggling.

    “They loved the juggling particularly – they said it was fun and they loved to have a go”

    I learned so much from these first outings, and it went so much better than I thought it would. The great thing about juggling is it is easy to differentiate between different abilities. All achievements are huge achievements to be celebrated. Dropping balls is funny, it’s ok to laugh at ourselves. We ended each session with a great balancing procession around the room headed up with me playing music and finishing by tipping the balls back into their box. Absolute joy all round.

    I love the transaction that happens when you give yourself up to play, and the room comes with you. We all give each other so much and I leave with more than I arrived with. Hopefully the participants all feel the same.

    Castle Hill Juniors

    If you’d like to book juggling for your school or group get in touch. It is suitable for any age, any physical ability. It isn’t just about juggling three balls – it teaches balance and coordination, but also resilience, perseverance, light heartedness, group support, confidence, body awareness and so much more.

  • Wolsey 550 Project write up

    Another great article in the Ipswich Star, following the Wolsey 550 Project.

    https://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/news/24829485.opinion-wolsey-550-project-big-hit-ipswich

  • Merry Christmas

    From Kentwell Hall’s Dickensian Christmas event.

  • New Juggling Workshop Addition

    A whole basket of juggling balls

    Having taken delivery of many many many juggling balls I can now offer juggling teaching either as part of my life as a travelling player session, or by itself either historically or not. I’ve been teaching individuals to juggle at many events over the past few years, it’s good to be able to offer it to more people at once.

  • Looking back on the Wolsey550 project

    A great article looking at the project evaluation from the Wolsey 550 project.

    https://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/news/24741009.ipswich-thomas-wolsey-themed-project-evaluates-progress/?ref=socialflow&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR22TuqAKYshzgD7pCd8y9P0lA5XNlS9gUfwQYyUmNliOYD7c0SctTgqwN4_aem_NGu7Xf7n6DMkf0vE6EgRgw

  • News report from huge parade

    As part of the Wolsey 550 project in Ipswich I ran workshops in local primary schools, teaching tudor music and dance, which we took to the streets of Ipswich as a huge parade to celebrate the end of the first phase of the project. Nearly 350 primary school children joined me for what might be the biggest Pavan (a tudor era processional dance) Ipswich has ever seen. Alongside songs with Tracey Raynor from Suffolk Music Hub, and both The New Cambridge Waits and The Colchester Waits, it was a spectacular event, all coming together on the Cornhill to watch a performance from another school facilitated by local performance company Gecko, before all singing together at the end. This news report gives a flavour of the project and the event.