Conversations With Mountain Dulcimer Players

  Geoff Black is a mountain dulcimer player, dealer and tutor (not necessarily in that order) from Herefordshire, England. He has played the dulcimer on and off since the 1980s, but more seriously since 2009. You will find him at Nonsuch Dulcimer club gatherings as well as teaching at a number of folk festivals in the UK. He’s also a regular teacher on the online dulcimer festival circuit, teaching with his playing partner Duncan Gibbs (who lives in Wales). STEVE: Where to start? You are a man of many talents Geoff, so if you’re happy to do this can we start with Revels Music? When did you start up and was it solely to deal in mountain dulcimers? GEOFF:    Well, it started with my four children and the desperate search for playable and affordable instruments when they were growing up. They were into woodwinds (despite my best efforts!) and I ended up importing cheap old band instruments from the USA. So it was natural, later, when I found it difficult to get decent ...

  INTRO: I met Gianna Williams (very briefly) at the Nonsuch Dulcimer Club’s annual weekend in October 2023. Gianna is the first mountain dulcimer player I know of from Italy. I asked her to tell me something of her background: GIANNA: I’m based in the region of Liguria which is just over the border from the French Cote d’Azur, so we enjoy a very pleasant climate here and the best of Mediterranean and Alpine landscapes. What confuses people is that I’m a native English speaker because I was born in Australia, then when I was seven we moved to Chicago, Illinois and then moved again, this time to London, when I was 14. I moved ‘back’ to Italy permanently in 2001. I’ve been playing the mountain dulcimer for almost 10 months, so I’m technically a beginner I suppose! But I’ve taken it very seriously from day one and have worked hard on making progress as quickly as possible. STEVE: The dulcimer is a fairly uncommon instrument in the North of England, where I live, and I guess it is ve...