Welcome to free Summer concerts in Chagford every Friday lunchtime
Ian Atherton (accordion)
Alex Atherton (voice)
‘Of Stone and Earth’ perform a selection of their own original nature-themed songs weaving a magical spell to draw you deep into earth and sea. Influences include Icelandic music, folk and film music
Pete Canter (saxophone)
James Clemas (piano)
Jim Rintoul (double bass)
Expect accessible melodies, soaring improvisation and great rapport between three fine jazz musicians. Superb swing, bebop and latin jazz. Jazz standards, unusual twists and turns, and one or two of Pete’s well-crafted originals.
Elizabeth-Jane Baldry (harp)
Award-winning international musician performs enchanting harp music from across the centuries including rarely performed Victorian fairy harp music discovered in the British Library archives.
Joel Munday (violin)
Rising star virtuoso Joel Munday showcases the breadth of the solo violin repertory: mainstay sonatas by Bach and Ysaye, the infamously fiendish ‘Last Rose of Summer Variations’, and Igor Loboda’s powerful ‘Requiem for Ukraine’.
Meet the big bass flute and the tiny piccolo with music from all over the world. Popular classics, unusual sounds and new music. Ruth and Alex enjoy creating unexpected and surprising sound worlds
Dhevdhas Nair (piano/santoor)
Pianist and composer Dhevdhas has toured in Africa, India, Europe, and Scandinavia, with a range of jazz, rock, and world music groups. A classically trained pianist, he presents original solo piano compositions drawing on his experience of Indian, African, and European classical and folk music, along with some personal interpretations of jazz standards.
Love songs to the wild earth and flutes carved from native trees. Uniquely evocative music inspired by the neolithic Dartmoor landscape and paying tribute to the ancient clans who once dwelled here.
Dylan & Stephen perform original works especially written for the gorgeous tonal palette of this imaginative combination. They’ll also be playing well-known classics chosen to celebrate the singing quality of the trombone and the myriad of colours possible on the organ.
A diverse programme of music for viola and piano, including Howard Ferguson’s ‘Five Irish Folk Tunes’, and three works by fascinating British woman composer, Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979).
With fiddles, hurdy-gurdy, citole, early harp, cittern & percussion, Juliette and Steve present a hoard of instrumental treasures from the Middle Ages, Playford’s Country Dances and modern European folk-traditions.
Back by popular request! One of the South West’s leading sea shanty crews, Mariners Away perform energetic and skillful renditions of traditional sea shanties, their passion for music and their love for the sea shining through in every song
Of Stone & Earth are a husband and wife duo who use voice and accordion to explore the world of song through their own original compositions. They take their influences from their eclectic and wide-ranging individual musical tastes including the Icelandic music scene, contemporary folk and film music, to name but a few. The themes they cover in their songs include nature, especially the hidden and the overlooked, as well as the human condition and how we deal with our emotions. Their songs will enchant you, and you may even be caught in the magical web they weave.
"Music that talks to the soul and has a connection to the world around us... It stands out from the crowd with a very individual sound that will make you think, and give a different view on the familiar" Tony Birch, Fatea Magazine.
"A challenging, immersive record full of eerie wonder... Together, the two weave a slow spell, winding around in liquid spirals of sound. It is music to draw you deep into the earth, to a place where feral magic reigns... Folk music speaks to us all, at a primal level, connecting humanity through universal loves, fears, dangers and hopes. Of Stone and Earth know just how to tap into that rich vein." - Chris Wheatley, The Alternate Root
Sponsored by Fowlers Properties
Pete Canter is an accomplished jazz saxophonist, a prolific and original composer of jazz and contemporary music and a double bass player. He also plays the flute. His jazz repertoire draws upon swing hardbop, bebop and latin jazz, and upon his own compositions. He played on the 1980s London jazz scene, then in Wales, before moving to the Southwest where he has established himself on both the local jazz scene and further afield as a fine saxophone player, composer and band leader responsible for a string of creative jazz projects. He has recorded several well received jazz albums and has played at major U.K. festivals including Cheltenham and Teignmouth Jazz Festivals. He is joined today by two fantastic musicians and long-term collaborators, James Clemas on piano and Jim Rintoul on double bass, both in high demand across the South West. Expect accessible melodies, soaring improvisation and great rapport between three fine jazz musicians.
Sponsored by Paul Henderson
“She is a great artist and consummate performer. She can draw more tone colours out of the instrument than any other harpist living in the world today.” David Watkins, Professor of Harp, Guildhall School of Music
Elizabeth-Jane Baldry is a harpist and composer who has been in love with the sound of the harp for as long as she can remember. She studied music at Exeter University and (pre-Covid) presented around fifty performances a year from recitals in historic houses or on specialist arts cruises to weddings and funerals. She is the only silent movie harpist in the world, performing live accompaniment to cinema screenings of early film. Her compositions have been used by ITV, the BBC and by Irish, Japanese, Danish and Canadian film, radio and television. She has performed to sold-out audiences in the US, in Italy, in Germany and in France.
Elizabeth-Jane's unique research into Victorian Fairy Harp Music has led to a CD with worldwide distribution; radio and TV broadcasts; a West End stage show with actor Simon Callow for which she also wrote the songs; appearances at the Royal Academy of Art exhibition of Victorian Fairy Paintings and at Prince Charles's unveiling of the restored Elfin Oak Tree in Kensington Gardens; involvement in the major French exhibition Dragons, Elfes et Fées; and an appearance in the award-winning Canadian television documentary The Fairy Faith.
Her uniquely rich tone on the harp has graced several film/TV soundtracks screened in over thirty countries including America, Canada, Iceland, Kenya, Iran, South Africa, Poland and Cyprus.
Elizabeth-Jane lives here in Chagford.
Sponsored by The Late Mrs Jane Saunders
Rising star virtuoso Joel Munday showcases the breadth of the solo violin repertory: mainstay sonatas by Bach and Ysaye, the infamously fiendish ‘Last Rose of Summer Variations’, and Igor Loboda’s powerful ‘Requiem for Ukraine’.
‘An excellent violinist who performs with intense feeling and with a delightfully deep, warm tone.’ - Lady Camilla Panufnik
‘A truly remarkable violinist and musician who really holds the future of classical music in his hands.’ - Zsolt Bognar (pianist and presenter of ‘Living the Classical Life’)
‘A future star in the making and a great young music ambassador.’- Roger Hendy (Music Director of the Isca Ensemble and artistic advisor to the Joanna Leach Foundation)
British violinist Joel David Munday performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician. He has given concerts in Europe, America and Asia, and 2023 sees his debut performances in Holland, Spain, Bulgaria, Serbia and Germany. While his extensive repertoire incorporates all of the major violin works, he has a particular interest in exploring less-known and contemporary music. Joel made his concerto debut at age 15, performing Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante in St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh.
In 2017, he performed Korngold’s Violin Concerto with the Royal College of Music Junior Department Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jacques Cohen. The same year he was invited to perform his debut concert at the Wigmore Hall and became a Festival Artist for the Two Moors Festival for which he presented a number of critically acclaimed recitals. He appears regularly as soloist with numerous UK-based symphony and chamber orchestras.
He regularly works with acclaimed pianists Julian Trevelyan, Thomas Kelly and Lucas Krupinski, the latter with whom he performed a number of highly successful live-streamed recitals during the Covid-19 pandemic. These were broadcast from the home of Lady Camilla Panufnik to homes around the globe. In 2021, he formed the Adeos Duo with violist Vanessa Hristova. The duo are already regularly giving concerts in London and further afield.
Joel has been invited to festivals and mastercourses including IMS Prussia Cove, Encuentro de Musica de Santander XXI, the Keshet Eilon Mastercourse, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, the New Virtuosi Mastercourse, the Friend's International Violin Academy, the ISA University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, the Erben Geigenbau Masterclasses in Munich, and the Pila Music Festival in Poland. He has taken masterclasses with pedagogues such as Vadim Gluzman, Shmuel Ashkenazi, Hagai Shaham, Qian Zhou, Chaim Taub, Yuzuko Horigome, Itzhak Rashkovsky, Rodney Friend, Marienne Piketty, Petru Munteanu, Ilya Kaler, Lewis Kaplan and Joel Smirnoff. Last summer he attended the NCH Mastercourse in Dublin, where he studied with Mihaela Martin.
Joel has won top prizes at numerous international violin competitions, including First Prize and Special ‘Sofia Music Weeks’ Award at the XXV International Competition Dobrich in Bulgaria, the Sponsors Award at the Pila Festival, Poland (2021), first prize at the Royal College of Music Concerto Competition (2017), first prize at the Two Moors Festival (2016), third prize at Whitgift International Music Competition (2017) and String Prize at the Gregynog Young Musician Competition (2018).
Joel initially studied for eight years with Michael Johnson, before being admitted to the Royal College of Music Junior Department in 2016 to study with Professor Ani Schnarch on a full scholarship. In July 2022 he graduated with First Class Honours at the Royal College of Music, where he held a scholarship to continue his studies with Professor Schnarch. In September 2022 he commenced a Postgraduate degree at the Royal College of Music, also as a scholar.
Joel plays a violin by the world-renowned luthier Florian Leonhard, which is kindly on loan from the Royal College of Music and a bow by Arnold Voigt. He is represented by Mr Roger Hendy, and is grateful for the generous support of Talent Unlimited, the Joanna Leach Foundation, Help Musicians UK, the Dulce Haigh Marshall Trust, the Stephen Bell Charitable Trust, the Kathleen Trust and the Isca Ensemble.
Sponsored by Anthony & Kit Newsome
A programme of Dances and Dreams, with music by J.S. Bach, Amanda J. Fox and Saint-Saens.
Ruth and Alex find common ground in their love of sharing classical music with all ages and in their belief that new, unusual and forgotten sounds are as essential, exciting and expressive as the familiar sounds. Audiences comment on the joy of witnessing the fluidity and ease that Duo Tutti bring to their musical partnership. Ruth plays with “liquid purity, technical assurance and emotional integrity”, whilst critics describe Alex as playing with “lyricism”, “muscular precision and supreme delicacy”. Known for their “satisfying” programming, Duo Tutti look forward to welcoming you on a musical journey.
Sponsored by anonymous donation
Dhevdhas Nair is a UK based pianist and composer for film, dance, and theatre. He trained in Western classical music, jazz, and North Indian classical music, and spent many years living and playing music in various parts of Africa. He has toured internationally with African, jazz, mediaeval and world music groups. A former member of chart topping Lesotho and South Africa band Sankomota, he has worked with Hugh Masekela, Paris-based African band Ujamaa, John Etheridge, Marcus Vergette, Dave Holdsworth, and Ray Carless. Currently, he is writing and recording new tracks to be released on the online audio distribution platform, Bandcamp.
In today's super connected world, we can hear music from anywhere and everywhere, all clothed in the various colours of their respective cultures, but all pointing to the same truth, that music is as essential to human beings, as food, water, shelter, and love.
Dhev says: “Once, when I was eighteen, doing a live broadcast in a television studio in Khartoum, Sudan, the band seemed to be taken over by some sort of extraordinary telepathy. The whole place erupted, cameramen, technicians, newsreader, everyone started cheering and dancing, and there were big smiles everywhere. We all knew something very special was happening. Afterwards the band stumbled out somewhat dazed to sit under a tree and recover, and I knew then what live music was capable of. I think this is why people really go to concerts. Because every now and then this amazing thing happens, and we all, musicians and audience, go on a journey together which is so fulfilling and nourishing. If I can play a part in making that happen, I consider it a good night’s work".
Sponsored by Sally’s Newsagents
Carolyn and Nigel are renowned musicians and artists who live and work on a thousand-year-old farm in the ancient belly of Dartmoor. The inspiration for all their work is drawn from the raw beauty, untamed spirit and primordial memory of this ancestral land. Their creative output includes music albums and concerts, books and workshops, paintings and art installations, traditional flute and drum making. They have built a large Neolithic-style roundhouse at their farm, a ceremonial ancestor house created from granite, oak and grass/reed thatch, which sits at the heart of the teaching circles and gatherings they host on their land. Their recorded albums (such as Weaving the Land and Nine Prayers North) and live performances form a mystical weave of ancient instruments, wild songs and tender music, using wooden flutes, clay & tin whistles, overtone flutes, piano, small pipes, dulcimer, Jura guitar, cello, many types of hand drums and percussion.
They make many of their own instruments and regularly teach flute and drum making on Dartmoor. Nigel carves flutes that carry the songs of these islands, using woods indigenous to Britain, including oak, yew, ash, holly and thorn. Carolyn creates traditional frame drums from skins sourced from the moor and prepared by hand at their farm, primarily red deer, wild horse and salmon. They have travelled across the world with their work, including Australia, USA, Japan, Jamaica, Canada, Central & South America, Siberian Arctic, Russia, throughout Europe and Britain. Their concert tours have carried them from Dartmoor to Scotland, from mountain temple to tundra camp, from festival tent to ritual cave. On their Dartmoor farm they regularly host concert events that have included Rivenstone, a much-loved festival of sacred world music, as well as intimate evenings of music and myth shared beneath the canopy of a beautiful tent hung within a grove of trees.
https://www.seventhwavemusic.co.uk
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A soul-stirring mix of music from Eastern Europe: klezmer, gypsy, Russian, Romanian, Ukrainian and Hungarian folk music and songs. Authentic music sung and played with sensitivity and style. The word 'družba' means friendship.
Basil Bunelik started his musical training in 1960 in Lviv, Ukraine, largely based on folk music of the Soviet Union. Later, in London, he joined the Balalaika Dance Group, playing accordion for them and also Mazeppa Cossacks. He then moved to Devon to work for Dartington Music College and formed Troika which performed East European music throughout the UK and abroad for about ten years. In 1988 he was awarded a British Council grant to study folk music in Romania and in 2001 he was awarded a grant from the Jewish Music Institute to run a series of klezmer workshops and concerts in Devon, and in 2015 he was invited to perform and give klezmer workshops in Malta.
Lisa has been playing Klezmer and Eastern European music for the past twenty years. Her interest in this rich folk tradition began when she lived in Greece, where she first encountered the intoxicating beauty of Balkan dance music and song. On returning to England, she pursued this further by participating in the annual Klezfests in London, and the workshops run by Basil and Merlin Shepherd in Exeter. More recently, she has immersed herself in Hungarian gypsy music, especially the music and songs originating from the villages of the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe. She has performed on violin, accordion and vocals in various bands, including Devon based 'Hazaar', as well as with Basil for the last decade.
Rupert McDonald (known as Rupes McD) is a professional guitarist with many ongoing activities including teaching at Exeter Guitar School and performing in blues bands as well as Hazaar where he first encountered and became enraptured by klezmer and gypsy music.
Sponsored by Rue des Fontenelles
STEPHEN began his musical career as a chorister in the choir of Coventry Cathedral and gained his degree in music at the University of Huddersfield. For many years he was Director of Music at Exeter Cathedral School and Assistant Organist and Director of the Girl Choristers at Exeter Cathedral. Many former pupils, including one of the world’s most recognisable pop stars, went on to enjoy national and international success in the music world. Stephen founded the Girl Choristers’ section of Exeter Cathedral Choir in 1994 and directed it for 22 years. In this capacity, he has numerous broadcasts, recordings and foreign tours to his credit. He was also the musical director of Exeter Cathedral’s nationally recognised Chorister Outreach Project, working to promote singing in Devon's primary schools.
Stephen directs “Isca Voices” a highly acclaimed choral group of former choristers from Exeter Cathedral Choir who perform a wide range of sacred and secular music. Isca Voices have toured to both Rome and Paris singing in prestigious venues including St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City and La Cathédrale de Notre Dame in Paris.
DYLAN comes from a long line of brass players in his family, stretching back over a hundred years through the traditions of the china clay industry and St Dennis Brass Band in Cornwall.
He was a Specialist Musician at Wells Cathedral School, and an Associated Board Scholar at the Royal College of Music. He also has Post-Graduate Diplomas in both Orchestral Performance and Advanced Solo Performance.
Dylan has a successful professional career as a trombonist, having played with the London Sinfonietta, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the London Concert Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and many more. For twenty years he was a member of Jubilate Brass, performing for all the major services and enthronement ceremonies in Canterbury Cathedral, which were often televised around the world. He now lives in Devon, with his wife Davina and his two young sons.
Sponsored by anonymous donation
Programme:
Chris Artley (born 1963)
Reflection (2019)
Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979)
[Untitled] (1917-18)
Chinese Puzzle (1922)
I’ll bid my heart be still (1944)
Howard Ferguson (1908-1999)
Five Irish Folk Tunes (1928)
1. Lament
2. A Hushaby
3. The Green Bushes
4. Cradle Hymn
5. Jig
Rhian Samuel (born 1944)
Blythswood (1998)
1. Tangled Webs
2. Gannets Diving
3. …to become the song
Leonie Anderson - viola
Leonie grew up in London and was a Junior Exhibitioner at the Royal College of Music. She studied viola at Guildhall whilst an undergraduate at the University of Bristol and continued there as a postgraduate scholar under Roger Chase and Jack Glickman. She was immediately invited to teach at Junior Guildhall, alongside freelancing with groups including the Endymion Ensemble and the London Mozart Players and was also involved in many contemporary music recitals and workshops for the Arts Council. Leonie has since enjoyed performing across the U.K. and Ireland, in Europe, the UAE and, earlier this year, South Africa.
Leonie recently relocated to Barkham on Exmoor (www.barkham-exmoor.co.uk) where she hosts concerts and retreats alongside teaching in North Devon and at the University of Exeter.
Lorraine Homewood - piano
Born and educated in Northern Ireland, Lorraine trained in Piano and Academic Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music before starting her professional life as a music teacher and artist manager. Whilst working with the Arditti String Quartet, Lorraine raised funding for hundreds of new works, including the Stockhausen ‘Helicopter Quartet’ and pieces by Stewart Copeland, Philip Glass and Harrison Birtwistle amongst many others. She is an experienced piano teacher and accompanist and has worked at both the Royal Opera and more recently at Glyndebourne Opera.
After a successful second career in the finance sector, Lorraine relocated to a small-holding in North Devon in 2018, together with her husband, four dogs and a herd of alpacas, with the ambition to focus once more on her musical life.
Lorraine now performs regularly in local recitals, alongside a growing teaching practice. She sings alto in the South Molton Singers, is the rehearsal accompanist of the North Devon Choral Society and Music Director of the Barnstaple Ladies Choir.
Sponsored by Astor’s Bookshop & The Beehive
Violinist & vielle-player, Juliette Primrose has enchanted audiences around the globe, starring as dancing fiddler of Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance; holding orchestral positions in The Phantom of the Opera, Westside Story; supporting legends such as Dame Shirley Bassey and Dionne Warwick; recording metal alongside members of Guns n Roses; country fiddle with Dukes of Hazzard stars & band, and session-playing at Capitol Records.
Juliette delivers a myriad of musical styles with real spirit, but her greatest love is medieval music. She has studied medieval performance and musicology in the US and Europe, with renowned specialists such as Benjamin Bagby, Randall Cook, Crawford Young and Dr Mauricio Molina.
Steve Tyler is best known as a hurdy gurdy player, renowned for his rhythmic and inventive playing, and is equally at home with early music, traditional melodies or modern compositions. He has performed with such diverse artists as English folk singer Jackie Oates, German industrial/electronic musician F.M.Einheit and South African puppeteer John Roberts, and has played for theatrical productions, historical/traditional dances and mixed media performances. Steve records dark multitrack music mixing hurdy gurdies with dulcimer, reed organ and diverse instruments, inspired by patterns in nature, mathematics and the imagination.
Sponsored by the Van der Steens
Mariners Away is a well-known sea shanty crew based in South Zeal. The crew was formed in 2008 and has become one of the leading and most popular sea shanty groups in the South West region of England.
The group consists of potentially 12 members, but usually perform with eight or nine. They can be seen throughout the year at various events in both Devon, Dorset and Cornwall, including popular shanty festivals, county shows, pub-hosted events, and private functions. The crew have been a regular performer at the Falmouth International Shanty Festival since 2009.
In the past year, Mariners Away performed in over forty gigs, including a solo event at the prestigious Plough Arts Centre in Great Torrington and a guest appearance at the famous Sidmouth Folk Festival. The crew is thrilled to be returning to St. Michael's Church and unanimously agreed that last year's performance was one of their most enjoyable and rewarding shows of the year.
Mariners Away's popularity can be attributed to their skillful renditions of traditional sea shanties, which are known for their lively rhythms and catchy melodies. Their performances are always energetic and engaging, with the crew's passion for music and their love for the sea shining through in every song.
If you are a fan of sea shanties and happen to be in the South West of England, don't miss the chance to see Mariners Away perform live. With their captivating performances and impressive repertoire of sea shanties, they are sure to leave a lasting impression.
Sponsored by All Seasons Southwest