Immersive. Social. A week of music, dance, and new friendships.

Whether folk is your go-to, or you’re trying the genre for the first time, young musicians and singers are welcome to come and immerse themselves in folk music, song, and dance at the Folkworks Summer Schools.

The Summer School is based at Durham School in County Durham, where residential young people will stay, and non-residential young people will be welcomed throughout the day. Our experienced and welcoming pastoral staff will look after the young people 24/7, supporting them to have a fantastic week. The venue has great facilities, good food, homely and comfortable shared rooms.

Young people from both Youth and Junior Summer School will work towards an informal sharing performance at Durham School on Friday 14 August.

What will you learn?

The 2026 Folkworks Summer School is open to musicians and singers. You don’t need to have played folk music before (your experience can be from any style of music), but you must be comfortable playing your instrument/singing.

During the course, you will learn repertoire from a team of experienced folk music educators, who will share techniques, skills, and insight into exploring folk material, as well as ways to take these ideas forward and make them your own. Everyone will also have the chance to do some dancing! There will be lots of mixed-instrument ensemble workshops, and classes will all be tailored specifically for the young people at the Summer School.

The tutor team will be working with both Youth and Junior Summer Schools across the week. Both age-groups will spend some time working together, as well as separate workshops in smaller groups. Working on some repertoire across both age groups, including ‘big tunes’ and ‘big songs’, will be a great shared musical experience.

When enrolling, young people are asked to include their main instrument, as well as any other instruments played – please give us as much information as possible about your musical experience so far. We can cater for any acoustic instruments; players just need to have their own instrument.

If you have any questions about any of this, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Who is teaching?
Our Musical Director is Grace Smith. Other tutors to be announced.

How do I pay?
There are several ways to pay for Folkworks Summer Schools:
• Pay in instalments: This option will split the Summer School ticket price into 2 instalments to be paid through our Box Office.
• Full payment: You can pay in one full payment through our Box Office.
• Bursaries: Financial aid is available for Folkworks summer school.
Making Music transforms lives! Make Music: Young People helps people discover skills and confidence and has helped people go on to work, study and most importantly LOVE music throughout their lives.
This experience should be available to anyone and we are keen to encourage applicants from the widest possible range of backgrounds. If finances could be a barrier to your child or young person joining us, please tick the box in the application form to find out if a bursary is right for you. We’ll send more information once your application form has been received.

Submission of your form:
Please be aware that the submission of this application form is not a confirmation of your booking. We will use your application information to allocate places based on the capacity at the venue, and the numbers of musicians and singers across both Youth and Junior courses.

Sometimes online forms are not able to be removed from our website as quickly as booking requests come in, you will therefore be informed if your request has been unsuccessful.

So what happens next?
Your Application form will be reviewed and your place will be confirmed within 2 weeks. If you do not receive an email within this time, please contact fwss@theglasshouseicm.org

On receiving confirmation of your place, you will be given an order number with details about ways to pay and bursary information if requested.

A further form which will ask for Information about dietary requirements, medical and access requirements, parental consent and anything else we may need to be aware of, will be emailed out by Friday 12 June. This information is vital to us if we are to provide the best care for young people.