Distil England 2 will take place at Dillington House, Somerset from the 26th - 29th September, 2005.

Participants

Jo Freya
Jo is multi-instrumentalist (saxaphones/clarinets/whistles), singer and composer. She has played in some of the most influential bands in the development of English roots music eg Blowzabella, Scarp, Token Women and The Old Swan Band. Jo specialises in pan European music while having strong roots in the English tradition.

Luke Daniels
Luke Daniels is one of the select band of musicians who have managed to redefine an instrument simply by the way they play it. His first album 'Tarentella' made when he was just 19 years old was nominated for BBC folk album of the year. He is known to both Jazz and Classical enthusiasts alike through his award winning work with jazz/world fusion group 'Scarp' and as a commissioned composer and soloist for the English National Opera. Also an accomplished pianist and guitarist he has worked as a songwriter with Eleanor Shanley and Ian Maidman (bass player and producer for Paul Brady). He has been the accordeonist with De Dannan, Reeltime and Riverdance at various stages of his career.

Shona Mooney
Shona is originally from the Scottish Borders and has been exposed to music all of her life. In 1999 & 2000 she and her two friends Lillias Kinsman-Blake (flute) and Ross Horne (bass) reached the 'BBC Radio 2 young folk awards semi-final'. Shona decided to further her education after reading about a new course in folk and traditional music based in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Shona worked with other fiddlers from the Borders (Innes and Lori Watson, Allan Hyslop and Rachel Cross) in a project called 'Borders Young fiddles' - promoting the traditional music of their area and combining it with their own compositions. The CD was released in 2004.

Danny Kilbride
Danny started life in a first floor flat in Cardiff after his parents went jazz dancing with the Ballet Rambert in 1962. He did his first guitar gig in the local folk club at nine years old and went on to play with folk bands, punk bands, jazz from hell and funksters from heaven. He was part of the groundbreaking Welsh language band Yr Hwntws; regularly performs and records with Huw and Tony Williams; works with his brothers Bernard and Gerard as the KilBride Brothers and has worked on TV projects, one-off compositions and toured extensively.

Paul Wilson
Paul Wilson is a highly skilled community music worker, composer / arranger, performer and teacher with over 25 years of professional experience. He is currently Music Director of Wren Trust, the Devon based Community Folk Arts company which he co-founded with Marilyn Tucker in 1983. He uses music from traditional English or world music sources and original composition techniques to create high quality work of originality and flair.

Jonathan Preiss
A tremendously versatile guitarist and composer, Jonathan Preiss is equally at home performing music from the classical guitar repertoire, playing Brazilian music, jazz, avant-garde chamber music or baroque concertos. As soloist and as an ensemble guitarist Jonathan has performed at venues throughout the UK, including St Martin-in-the-Fields and St James' Piccadilly. Festival performances have included Bath International Guitar Festival. In addition to the groups and ensembles of which he is a regular member, Jonathan has also performed with, amongst others, saxophonist Rob Hall, sitarist Dharambir Singh, music-theatre company the Clod Ensemble, baroque orchestra the Georgian Camerata, the LPO, and British Youth Opera.

Martin Keates
Martin is one of the two founder members of Jabadaw. He started learning the piano at the age of 15, detoured by way of the hammered dulcimer, and eventually took up the hurdy-gurdy in 1992. He was recently described by Nigel Eaton as a "teenage hurdy-gurdy whizzkid", even though he was born in 1970, in Wantage, Berkshire. He also plays drums and melodeon. Martin also played with Jabadaw Trio, and currently plays with Oates Nelson Keates and in a duo with Miranda Rutter. (See Distil England 1)

Bella Hardy
Bella has been singing ever since she could, and started learning the fiddle aged 11. The highlight of her musical career so far has been meeting all her friends, playing Cambridge Festival main stage with The Pack and playing outside in a thunderstorm at a festival in Italy with OLA. Her family has been a great musical influence, along with Carole King, Theresa Tooley, Joni Mitchell, Tori Amos, Kristina Olsen and The Watersons.

Workshop Leaders

Judith Weir is one of Britain's most wide-ranging and prolific composers. She studied composition with John Tavener and has taught composition in Glasgow, Oxford and Princeton.
She has written three full length operas and worked with the National Theatre and the RSC. Together with storyteller Vayu Naidu, Judith has created a blend of storytelling and music entitled Future Perfect which has toured England and India.
She has had work commissioned from her by musicians such as Jessye Norman and Simon Rattle, and has been involved in a long term collaboration with the Schubert Quartet. From 1995 to 1998 she was associate composer for the City of Birmingham Symphony. Current projects include works for the Florestan Trio, The New York Young People's Chorus and a piece for soprano Alice Coote and pianist Julius Drake.

Mihály Borbély studied classical clarinet and jazz saxophone at the Bartók Conservatory and the Liszt Academy of Music in Hungary and subsequently worked in different musical styles from folk and world music to jazz and contemporary music. He was originally trained on clarinet and alto saxophone, but later took up the soprano and tenor saxes as well as folk instruments like tárogató, folk flutes, kaval, dvojnice, fujara, ocarina, bombarde and zurna.

Paul Rogers should be well known to anyone with even a passing interest in British free jazz. His ability to swing hard, sing sweetly and get down, dirty and abstract has made him bassist of choice for top improvisers like Evan Parker, John Stevens and Keith Tippett.