About us
Phoenix Folk Ltd exists to promote participation and performance in folk and acoustic music, song and dance across the North East of England. We aim to be a friendly face of folk music, to help keep alive the great traditions of folk music and to encourage talent and personal musical development. You can get in touch with us here!
From 2009 until 2017, classes took place at Ouseburn Farm in Byker. Since 2017, weekly classes, followed by a steady session/singaround, have been held in Cullercoats. 2020 saw the launch of a new class programme in Gosforth and the creation of the Phoenix Chamber Folk Ensemble. The Covid-19 lockdown led us to find new ways of playing and sharing music, leading to the development of our innovative online tunes sessions, our weekly singaround and our Virtual Ensemble. These popular sessions have brought together musicians from around the world.
At all of our activities, musicians and singers with a range of experience levels will find they are warmly welcomed.
Maurice Condie, Adam Holden & Marina Dodgson
(Phoenix Folk Directors)
Maurice Condie
Maurice is Founding Director of Phoenix Folk Ltd. He has taught guitar regularly since 1982, and for 9 years, was the “in house” guitar tutor for Folkworks. Maurice has played in a range of bands since the end of the 1960s. He performs solo and in a number of bands including folk duos Another Penny (with Adam Holden), Miggins Fiddle (with Marina Dodgson) and The Sunday Trio. For more information, please click here.
Adam Holden
Adam Holden is a songwriter and performs solo and in folk duo Another Penny (with Maurice Condie) . He plays guitar, piano and sings. Adam grew up in East London playing classical music and listening to songwriters from as many sources as he could find. His songs touch on immediate social, domestic and natural landscapes but are also rooted in a love of political ideas. “Songs give us a small piece of the world”, says Adam, “and the good ones allow the listener to feel and do something different”. They might even be, as one of his songs has it, “a teacher, a comfort, a rebellious friend”. His solo EP “Playtime for Everyone” is available to stream and download at: https://adamholden.bandcamp.com/album/playtime-for-everyone.
Marina Dodgson
Marina is a fiddle player and music arranger/composer based in Newcastle upon Tyne. She performs in a number of small ensembles including folk duo Miggins Fiddle, The Sunday Trio and the Miggins Fiddle Ceilidh Band. She holds competition titles in both small ensemble performance and composition, and writes harmony arrangements of traditional tunes for the Phoenix Chamber Folk Ensemble and the Phoenix Virtual Ensemble. Her harmony arrangements have also been adopted into the repertoire of the Tyneside Fiddle Alliance and other local folk ensembles, and are available through the Fiddle Tunes in Harmony project.