Fulbright in Wales Brainstorm

Helo pawb!

I am a U.S. university student who is interested in applying for a Fulbright scholarship to study/research abroad. I am a music performance and music theory major with a focus on classical music. (My primary instrument is French horn, but I also play alto horn in our British brass band.) I would love to have the opportunity to study music in Wales, particularly traditional Welsh music (such as cerdd dant, the crwth, folksongs) or the rich history of mining choirs and bands. But mostly, just a way to connect the Welsh language to the music, since the language is an important aspect of the music.

It’s very difficult to get a Fulbright in the U.K., and right now, this seems to be an impossible dream, but for this American, Wales and her unique music and language is very important, so it’s at least worth considering.

Right now I’m still brainstorming for a focus topic and the like; I’m open to pretty much anything! If you have a suggestion or recommendation, please let me know!

Diolch!

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I’m not quite sure how the Fulbright works (although, of course, I’ve heard of it). Do you need to come up with a focus to get you here, so that you can (at the same time) also study Welsh music? Or would studying Welsh music be your topic? What sort of things are they looking for - do you need to demonstrate some sort of connection back to the USA, or is it just topics of academic interest they’re concerned with?

In terms of Welsh traditional music, I don’t know a lot myself (yet…), but I think http://www.clera.org/saesneg/cleratoday.php looks like being a good place to start finding out more.

I’ll think some more.

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I don’t know enough about the field to be able to help with topic brainstorming, but if (once you’ve nailed down the shape of your application) it would help to have some connections or words of support from traditional musicians here, we could certainly reach out to a few and ask… :sunny:

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I have a friend (also a Welsh learner) on the faculty of the music department here in Cardiff, so if you have any specific questions I could ask him for you. But note that we also have the Welsh College of Music and Drama here, and there does tend to be a split here between universities (which teach theory and musicology) and conservatoires (which teach performance). I

The music department at Bangor university (in north Wales) always used to be very good. Perhaps looking at the websites of those three institutions would also be a helpful place to start.

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Dear Brooke,
In your search for help in getting a Fulbright to study Welsh music be sure to contact Gwenno Dafydd. Her email addresses are gwennodafydd@hotmail.com and gwennodafydd@mantol.co.uk. I am confident she will be able to help you.
Pob bendith, Caroline

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