At the NHM 2011 in Denmark, Nancy Thym presented the songs and life of travelling Bohemian harp ladies of the 19th century, who carried their harps through the world, and earned their living with song and music in streets, taverns and markets. Music history books are often silent about these underclass women; nevertheless, they left traces here and there, and inspired musicians, poets and writers. A detailed interview with one of these singing harp girls is given in Finlands Almänna Tidning (6th April 1865, page 2).

Thilo Viehrig held a lecture about strings on medieval lyres: The question of appropriate string material is of high relevance for the reconstruction of the earliest string instruments of the North, such as the Viking Age lyres whose stringless remains were excavated in Hedeby, Birka and Gotland, and lyres from later periods such as those whose stringless remains were found in Novgorod, Oslo and Kravik.