Watson Fellow Will Strum and Pick His Way Around the World
Watson Fellowship winner Ben Nelson '05.
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4/6/2005
Contact: Bill Giduz 704/894-2244 or bigiduz@davidson.edu
As Ben Nelson learned to play Appalachian old-time banjo and fiddle, he became part of musical communities in his hometown and at Davidson College. Now he’s received a $22,000 scholarship from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation to join musical communities in Gambia, Senegal, Ireland, and Scotland, where the American musical traditions of those instruments originated.
Nelson said, “This project is a very powerful opportunity to look beyond the immediacy of the music I’ve been around most of my life, and gain a cross-cultural and historical perspective on it.”
Davidson is one of fifty colleges and universities invited to submit nominees each year to the Thomas J. Watson Foundation, which annually presents fifty students from those schools with a grant for a year of post-graduate independent study and travel abroad.
Nelson will spend the first six months of his fellowship in Gambia and southern Senegal, learning to play the "ngoni" and "akonting," which are West African ancestor instruments of the banjo. During part of his time there, he will travel with and assist a Swedish researcher who will be filming a documentary on West African stringed music traditions. Nelson also anticipates living with a native Gambian musician who has established a folklore center for West African music in his village.
Nelson will spend the second half of his fellowship strengthening his fiddle skills under the guidance of non-professional fiddlers in Donegal County, Ireland, and the highlands of Scotland.
Nelson acknowledges the challenge of living in foreign cultures by himself, but this fellowship won’t be his first trip abroad. He spent spring 2004 in Madagascar, studying its conservation programs through the School of International Training. He also spent a month in France with Davidson’s summer program in Tours.
He’s counting on forming relationships with fellow musicians to help him prevail during his Watson year. “What’s most exciting is the opportunity to see deeply into individuals’ lives in different parts of the world through music,” he said. “Making friends through music will probably be the most sustaining and enriching part of the process.”
A native of Blacksburg, Va., Nelson was exposed to old time music from birth through his parents, both of whom play. He attended his first music festival when he was only six months old. But he learned to play piano growing up, and didn’t pick up a stringed instrument until his first year at Davidson, when he finally sought instruction from his father to learn the banjo.
He turned out to be a natural. “The banjo was easy for me to learn by ear without formal instruction,” said Nelson. “I already had the musical components in my head because I had been listening to the music for years. It was only a relatively easy matter of acquiring the motor skills.”
He began to hone that skill by playing on Friday afternoons with several fellow students, college staff, and a professor. Members of that group still meet for Friday night jam sessions in Mooresville.
“That has been a neat experience, because it’s a way to extend my musical community for inspiration and collaboration,” said Nelson. “It’s wonderful to have a musical release every Friday night.”
He also played banjo at various old-time music festivals in Virginia during the summer, but he didn’t start learning the fiddle until last fall. Again, he sought instruction from his father, who he cites as his greatest musical inspiration.
More than just enjoying the music, Nelson said making new friends is what he has loved most about learning to play old time. “I met and remain close to friends at Davidson through musical connections,” he said. “Now it’s going to help me reach communities abroad that I never imagined I would connect with.”
He’ll begin his travels in July. One of his goals is becoming adept enough at playing the ngoni, akonting, and fiddle to share his techniques and playing styles with friends in the American old time music communities when he returns.
“You become involved with old time because of the music,” said Nelson. “But you stay because of the community that surrounds it and the friends that you make I’m especially blessed to share the music with my family, because they provide an emotional center that keeps me coming back to old-time music.”
Nelson holds a John Montgomery Belk Scholarship, Davidson’s top merit award, and is majoring in environmental studies through the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies. He is writing a thesis entitled “International Conservation in Transition: Protecting Social and Ecological Processes at Ecoregional Boundaries.” He has been involved in Davidson Outdoors as a board member and as a trip leader for its Odyssey summer program for incoming students, and has played ultimate Frisbee for Davidson’s club-level team. He envisions a career working in the field of environmental sustainability.
The Thomas J. Watson Fellowship Program was established in 1968 by the children of Thomas J. Watson Sr., the founder of IBM, and his wife, Jeannette K. Watson, to honor their parents' longstanding interest in education and world affairs. Since the foundation's inception, it has granted more than 2,000 Watson Fellowship awards with stipends totaling approximately $23-million.
Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,700 students. Since its establishment in 1837, the college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently ranked among the top liberal arts colleges in the country by U.S. News and World Report magazine. Davidson is engaged in “Let Learning Be Cherished,” a $250 million campaign in support of student financial assistance, academic resources, and community life.
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