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Old Fiddler's Convention Draws Instrumentalists from Beyond the Blue Ridge

The 80th Old Fiddlers Convention in Galax lasts until late Saturday night. Some people may think the convention is all banjos and fiddles and high lonesome harmonies. But out in the campground, a person might encounter uilleann pipes, concertinas or even a didgeridoo. This week, they might hear a Nepalese cousin to the fiddle called a sarangi.

Many musicians at the Old Fiddlers Convention in Galax come from just a few hours drive away, but others travel from England and Australia and Japan. ShyamNepali came from Nepal - and he brought his sarangi.

A sarangi is a Nepalese relative of the fiddle. It has four strings and is played with a bow. But notes come from fingers placed between strings rather than on top of them and the sarangi stands in a player’s lap instead of being held beneath a fiddler’s chin or in the crook of an arm. Carved from one piece of wood - Shyam’s brother carved his - it has a goatskin head, sort of like a banjo. 

Nepali is on a two-pronged mission, performing to raise money to benefit survivors of the recent earthquakes in Nepali and learning about traditional Appalachian music and how the fiddlers conventions and other events that help preserve that traditional music might be adapted to help preserve Nepal’s traditional music - music that nearly died out, Nepali says, but is enjoying a renaissance.

“In Nepal we have different tribes. One tribe plays music, so it only belongs to them. But at the moment, it’s changed a lot. People start to understand what it music and they really want to learn.”

One thing Nepali has learned is the cliche about music being a universal language is right, particularly traditional music.

“All folk music, from all over the world, there is a native language which is very similar and we could understand each other.”

Apparently, they understand each other pretty well. At the Appalachian String Band Music Festival - most people call it Clifftop - there’s a band category that allows instruments that aren’t typical to Appalachian string band music. Nepali and his sarangi joined a group. They won third place.

“It was not a fixed band. We just met there and we start to talk and it was really beautiful.”

Nepali is spending the week at Galax, playing his sarangi and meeting people who share his love of traditional music and his desire to see it continue to thrive.

“And I was really, really impressed by all this music and it is beautiful, beautiful.”

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