9:10am Thursday 18th February 2010
By Mary Zacaroli
Giles Lewin is one of those lucky people who has known what he wanted to do from an early age and went on to do it. After studying music at Cambridge University in the mid-1970s, he carved out a successful career playing ethnic traditional music from Arabic, Eastern European, Irish and English traditions; as well as medieval and renaissance music.
His main instrument is the traditional fiddle, but he also plays bagpipes, medieval fiddles, the Arabic oud, traditional wooden flutes and recorders.
For many years he toured extensively with groups such as the Dufay Collective, who specialise in early and renaissance music, and Bellowhead, which plays traditional English music with many twists.
Like many creative people, Mr Lewin’s career developed organically. When he left Cambridge, he was a specialist in early music, but after moving to London in 1979 was beguiled by the Irish pub scene.
He said: “Their way of making music was something that I hadn’t really encountered.
“In classical music there’s not much freedom in what you do and it’s very much about technique and expressing someone else’s genius, a historical disclosure of something, whereas with Irish music, it’s very immediate and like a conversation.”
Mr Lewin, 53, found the whole field of traditional music appealed to him on many levels and immersed himself in it.
He added Arabic music to his repertoire after a trip to Egypt in the 1980s with The Dufay Collective.
“I loved the freedom of the melody. When you play Western music, it’s pretty restricted to the notes of the piano and you don’t fill in those notes very much. Arabic music is all melodic and rhythm-based,” he explained.
“It doesn’t really have a harmonic base, which is what constrains Western classical music. And there’s lots of improvisation.”
The life of a professional musician can be precarious, particularly when starting out in a niche area.
“It was very tough in the early days and I resorted to busking,” he said.
“I used to go on trips to Germany and play the recorder with a guitarist. Then, when I started on the Irish music, I’d play the violin.”
Even so, it was a much easier profession to get into at that time.
“Nowadays, it’s more competitive even in the niche areas where I work. It’s more global, less of a closed shop.”
For budding professional musicians, his advice is to be single-minded and prepared.
“You need to be versatile and you have to find out where the demand is. It also helps to get known for one thing. Find ways around lean patches; it takes a long time to make a career.”
He thinks youngsters are far more clued up about publicity and using the Internet. Indeed he’s taking a leaf from their book and is in the process of developing his own website.
His career path changed when his daughter, Eliza, was born six years ago.
He said: “It made me focus much more on home life. I wanted to do less touring, particularly as the children get older, as it becomes more difficult to leave.”
After William was born three years ago, he gave up being a permanent member of the Dufay Collective and Bellowhead, instead concentrating more on working from home, although he still does gigs for the groups and long-time collaborators, such as Maddy Prior.
Having built up a solid reputation over 30 years, Mr Lewin has no problem finding work.
In fact, he only has to wait by the telephone. While waiting, he teaches the traditional fiddle, composes music for TV and stage productions, records music for films such as Ridley Scott’s up-coming Robin Hood and has started playing more with Oxford players, such as the Arabic group Maqam and the accordionist Pete Watson. He also organises a local band of musicians to play at ceilidhs.
Last year he released his first solo CD of music, The Armchair Orienteer, infusing it with all the musical traditions he loves.
The title refers to the journey that he takes the listener on, and the fact that the CD was recorded at home.
On the YouTube website, you can see him playing two of the songs, St Agnes Waltz and Eliza’s Swing/Twice Around the Floor.
It doesn’t mean the touring is quite over. This February he was in Kuwait on a British Council-sponsored trip in a collaboration with five British and several Kuwaiti musicians.
There were concerts and a recording session, which may be released commercially.
“What I do is kind of schizophrenic in some ways,” he said.
“I’m gigging with Arabic stuff one week, and the next doing something with early music. Actually putting different hats on is the most difficult part of it.”
Given that he obviously enjoys his eclectic life, it doesn’t sound that difficult. And it is obvious Mr Lewin has achieved what many of us wish for in our work life — fulfilment and contentment.
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