A Brief History of UK Autoharps

As I write this in August of 2022, the UK Autoharps club has existed for over twenty years and survived a worldwide Covid epidemic. Changes in the volunteers who help to run its activities over that time (and in the technology which enables us to stay in touch) have ensured that there will always be support for the playing and enjoyment of the autoharp – whether you are a beginner or more experienced player. As someone who was ‘there at the start of it all’, I’ve been asked to assemble a brief timeline of events.

Nadine Stah White, August 2022

Pre-1997 – Mike Fenton, a former primary school head teacher, ran his autoharp-based business, a travelling autoharp roadshow, taking a van-load of autoharps to schools across the UK and working with groups of school children. In the process, he inspired and intrigued numbers of school teachers. Many of them bought good-quality Oscar Schmidt autoharps through Mike, and he provided informal support for them in learning to play the instrument.
Easter of 1997 – The first week-long autoharp class at the then-expanding Sore Fingers Summer School in Oxfordshire, taught by Mike Fenton, had twelve students. Many were school teachers on their Easter break. I was fortunate to have been in that class, as was Heather Farrell-Roberts, who would go on to support UK Autoharps in several roles: as President, UKA, and organiser of tutors for UKA events. The following year’s autoharp class had 16 students – and class numbers rose thereafter. Autoharp has featured in Sore Fingers Week every year since 1997.
September 1998 – first stand-alone ‘Autoharp Day’ – Interest in autoharps and autoharp tuition had been growing. Mike Fenton had a dream of being able to run shorter weekend events in addition to the once-a-year Sore Fingers Week (which while wonderfully inspirational was more of a time and money commitment than many could afford). At the same point, I had taken an early retirement from part of my job in education and had time to devote to organizing a one-off Saturday ‘Autoharp Day’, I worked in conjunction with Mike, using his list of contacts to advertise the event by post, and choosing as a central venue the village of Drayton in Oxfordshire where I lived. The event ‘broke even’ – and was greeted with enthusiasm and requests for more, so I organised three further stand-alone Autoharp Days over the following year (one per school term). There was continued and growing interest.
December 1999 – A group of interested individuals met in Mike Fenton’s living room, and ‘UK Autoharps’ was born! Officers chosen at that meeting were President: Mike Fenton, Vice President: Heather Farrell-Roberts, Secretary: Nadine Stah White and Treasurer: Chris Younger. The new organization took over the running of three annual ‘UKA Days’ and has continued to refine the structure of these events– including defining the roles of the various volunteers who make organizing these events possible. A UKA Newsletter Autoharp Notes began a few years later to report on autoharp news in the UK and beyond. Shortly afterwards, it was followed by the first UKA Website. And eventually there were also two UKA Facebook groups – one for ‘Members Only’ and the other open to anyone to join.

Developments in ‘UKA Day’ programming have continued over the years. These have included:

Moving the location of UKA Days to different locations. These have been largely in the southern half of England (as they rely on the services of volunteer ‘local venue organisers’ who work with the programme organiser to make arrangements for a suitable venue. They also provide other information (i.e. travel directions and a list of local accommodation for individuals who need to stay overnight) as well as making arrangements for any optional extra events.
Adding ‘optional extras’ has become common as a way to extend the autoharp activities beyond a single Saturday (for example pub music sessions on the evening before or after the UKA day finishes or a tour of the local area where the event happens). These options are especially appreciated by individuals who have had to travel to a UKA Day and book overnight accommodation to stay locally.
In one case, the UKA Day formula has been extended to become a ‘long weekend’ in the summer. The Scottish Autoharp Weekend (‘ScAW’ for short) began in 2010 after I had relinquished my any official role in UKA and had been living in Scotland for a few years. Because annual Autoharp events like UKA Days and Sore Fingers Weekend were happening a long way away from Scotland (and also because Scotland is a big place, where folks might have to travel a long distance) the UKA day format was adopted for Saturday, but events extended over the weekend for those staying locally – a ‘meet and greet’ pub session on Friday, a concert on Saturday evening (followed by another pub session) and a further autoharp gospel event on the Sunday. In recent years, the ScAW weekend has been extended with an optional full day ‘Master Class’ on the Thursday by led by an invited special tutor – so visitors to the event have had the option of staying in the Dumfriesshire village of Moniaive for a four-day weekend. ScAW is self-funding, but UKA provides invaluable support for online booking and in holding the funds. In 2023 The ScAW ceased to be as a tutoring weekend. Now it is an Autohrp gathering which many members attend to play together and just cath up with each other.

Rising to the Challenge of Covid! (using the medium of Zoom to reach further than ever before)

From March of 2020, UKA’s officers worked hard to find ways of continuing to offer support to their members despite the isolation of Covid Lockdowns and restrictions. Using the medium of Zoom, they have offered their members long-distance online workshops, including monthly tutorials by Karen Mueller and individual workhops by Ivan Stiles and John Hollandsworth. They have organized two full days of online workshops free of charge for their members, each ending with an evening concert (Bryan Bowers and Neal and Coleen Walters), and UKA continues to organize a monthly Zoom song-and-tune circle, the ‘Meet, Greet and Warble’.

So… ‘watch this space’ to see what’s next for the UK Autoharps organization as it works to continue and to expand its support for those who enjoy the autoharp across the UK!

2023 – UKA resumed live events, check Calendar of upcoming events. These now run along with the on-line events which continue and are very well attended.