Right: 'Sweltering Night' and 'Bulgarian frenzy' with Världens Band at Musicport in October 2016

International Bagpipe Day was celebrated on 10 March once again all over the world with events in Greece, France, Spain, the USA and England among many other places. Personally, I celebrated by shooting a short video in the medieval town of Lincoln and then going to the first ever Newcastle Piping Festival organised by Andy May and the Northumbrian Piping Society with the support of other piping societies from the British Isles. 

Bonnendis has been recording their first album and playing various concerts at Bath Spa University (15 March) and Saint Ethelburga's in London for a Celebrate Life Event (26 March). Amaraterra has also kept busy with sold out Jamboree nights. The next event will be on 1 April with tickets already selling fast! Världens Band was nominated once within the top three Best World Music Band for the Swedish World and Folk Music Gala which was won by the fantastic Tarraband.

Lecturing in non-Western Pop Music at University of Lincoln has also been a lot of fun the last few weeks and I even had the pleasure of Charu Hariharan from Världens Band skyping in during the Bollywood class to answer the students' questions. Research-wise, a bilingual article written for the Musique & Technique journal was published online on 21 March. Focusing on elements of research developed during my postdoc within the Sorbonne-Universités GeAcMus project in Paris, it is entitled: 'An interdisciplinary study of the 1832 conical Boehm flute: history, geometry and acoustics'. 

Happy New Year! 2017 announces the start of many things. After ending a wonderful post-doctorate within the Geste-Acoustique-Musique project for which I worked with the Lutherie-Acousitique Musicale team (Sorbonne-Universites) for a year, I am moving to the beautiful city of Lincoln to start a new position as Lecturer in Music at the University. The department, part of the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre (LPAC) opened in September 2015 and I look forward to working with its dynamic team, helping to shape the programme with (hopefully) lots of World Music!

Touring with Världend Band is a constant adventure. We started off with a two week residency at the beautifully peaceful Stensund Folkhögskola before hitting the road. We started with a couple of concerts in Hylte, we set off for Denmark where we played at the brand new venue Turbinen in Denmark (4th band to play there!), at the cosy Huset in Aalborg, in Viborg and Aarhus making new friendships on the way.

We travelled for two days through Germany, Holland and the UK, with a stop in London to speak on A World in London radio show with DJ Ritu, to get to Santiago de Compostela and network at Womex as well as party every night in the best local bars with local musicians. We are now in the middle of our UK tour with fantastic gigs all over. We closed  Musicport where we were invited for the third time running. We also played at the first ever Ouseburn World Music Festival organised by Matthew Jones in Newcastle. We will be in playing at Rich Mix in London for an alternative Hallowe'en evening on 31 October with a secret after party planned. All in all, touring with Världens Band has got to be the best experience ever!

September has been a busy month with Amaraterra kicking if all off with a concert at Rich Mix and a sold out gig at our usual Jamboree night. Amaraterra also won the Battle of the Bands contest organised by World Music Network. What a great start to the season! Bonnendis received excellent feedback from our Rich Mix debut on 10 September. The sold out event on the theme of hope gathered Iraki, Anatolian and Greek musicians.

One of September's highlights was presenting my thesis in Mallorca at the Sant Domingo Cloister in Pollença to a diverse audience of about 150 people as well as sharing my experience on IB3 radio and on the local news. We stayed in Mallorca a couple more days to measure some acoustic properties of the xeremies as part of the Geste-Acoustique-Musique project. After Mallorca, we presented part of our ongoing research on the quena at the Woodmusick conference in Barcelona.

Next on the list is Världens Band's band 2016 autumn tour, kicking off with two concerts at Cornucopia Festival in Yorkshire on 23 and 24 September. See you there!

September started in style with sunny Amaraterra at Rich Mix. Amaraterra will return to its favourite venue on 17 September: Jamboree! It will be great to see our usual crowd after the summer. Bonnendis has had a busy summer with a photoshoot and a brand new video shot in an abandonned village in Rhodes. You'll be able to hear us live at Rich Mix on 10 September at the Amal-Hope Celebrate Life event, gathering Turkish, Syrian and Greek artists and storytellers.

September will aslo be busy research-wise. We will be presenting some of our current research findings at the Woodmusick conference in Barcelona (7-9 Sept) but most importantly, I will be presenting my thesis in Mallorca to all the people who welcomed me and helped me during my thesis. This will take place on Saturday 3 September in Pollença.

August will be a quiet one this year, an opportunity to recharge batteries before a great start with two concerts at Rich Mix in London. We will open the academic year on 1 September with Amaraterra with a fully Italian night and continue in the warm mediterranean vibes with Bonnendis on 10 september along with Olcay Bayir and other Middle Eastern acts, an event co-organised by Celebrate Life Events and Arts Canteen. Looking back, July was a fantastic month with three main events: a beautiful graduation ceremony at SOAS University to celebrate the end of the PhD saga, two fantastic gigs at WOMAD with Amaraterra and playing on Cambridge Folk Festival's two main stages with Världens Band. What a treat!

Summer is underway with festivals and exciting trips. The highlight of the season is playing at WOMAD (a dream come true...) with Amaraterra on the Charlie Gillett stage hosted by BBC.  Another wonderful gig is Cambridge Folk Festival with Världens Band where we will be playing twice as well as giving workshops. See you there! We'll also be taking a few promo pictures with Bonnendis and preparing for our upcoming gig at Richmix on 10 September with Celebrate Life events.

It's been a good time for both music and research! Amaraterra's concerts are as wild as ever; World Scatterlings is back with a concert at Green Note on Friday 22 April; I'm performing with a specially formed trio on Saturday 23 April at the Rabbit hole a new take on Greek and other other traditional music; Varldens band is actively organising its upcoming tours and it's now official that we are headlining the World Music Stage at Cambridge Folk Festival on 29 July (!!!). Research is also very active. I presented at the annual British Forum for Ethnomusicology on the same day that an article on alternative learning strategies in French Conservatoires got published online at the JOVMC!

February is as busy as it gets. With two concerts with Amaraterra, both at Jamboree (6 Feb) and at Saint Ethelburga's (13 Feb) and the World on 3 broadcast with Lopa Kothari (5 Feb) and a concert at Bolivar Hall with World Scatterlings (6 Feb), there is a lot of music going on. 
But concerning the piping world, the flagship event is the upcoming International Bagpipe Conference with 2 days of events and speakers from all around the world flying in to talk about different bagpipes. Concerts, talks, films, jam sessions and dancing... welcome to the National Bagpipe Centre in Glasgow on 26-28 Feb 2016. See you all there and Long Live the Bagpipes!