Mike Baldwin : Organologist : Historian : Researcher : Writer: Harp maker : Restorer
2010-2018: PhD, Musical Instrument Technology, London Metropolitan University.
Thesis title: The harp in early nineteenth-century Britain: innovation, business, and making in Jacob Erat’s manufactory.
2016: Won 'Let Teachers' Shine' award. Funded to research the impact of forest learning and outdoor spaces on the communication of autistic students.
2019: Published first book, 'Mizen: Rescued Folklore, Histories and Songs from Ireland's Southwest.'
2019: Awarded 2019 Terence Pamplin Award for Organology from The Worshipful Company of Musicians to undertake a project reconstructing a Hochbrucker 1728 single-action harp for research on repertoire and technique by early pedal harp specialists and students.
2019: 'Mizen: Rescued Folklore' featured in four episode of the 'Encounters with the Good People' podcast. Episode 1 examines my family's connection with the folklore of the Mizen Peninsula; episode 2 recounts tales of the good people from Goleen and its environs; episode 3 focuses on the place of landscape in folklore, and episode 4 discusses the place of the sea in the folklore of Ireland's Mizen Peninsula.
1988-1990: Tutored by Gordon Davey, a painter, graphic artist, and luthier, I made my first harp, aged 14.
1992-1995: BSc (Hons) Music Technology, City of London Polytechnic (Later London Guildhall University). Dissertation title: The Mechanisation of the Harp, 1794-1845.
1995-1996: Trainee harp maker at Pilgrim Harps, South Godstone Surrey.
1997-2008: Occasional harp making and restoring.
2000-2001: Postgraduate Certificate of Education (P.G.C.E.) Science specialism, Brunel University.
2001-to date: Early years, primary, behavioural, and secondary special needs teaching.
2008-2010: MA Musical Instrument Technology, London Metropolitan University.
Thesis title: The Erat Harp Company: An Analysis of Company Papers, 1821-1824.
2010: Awarded AHRC Studentship - five years of research funding for doctoral study on nineteenth-century London harp makers.
