Distil England 3 will take place at Dillington House, Somerset from the 11th - 14th September, 2006.

Participants:
Andy Cutting
Andy has been consistent musical force since he came swiftly to prominence with the innovative Blowzabella. As well as a thorough grounding in the English tradition, Andy's influences extend way beyond these isles, particularly to the music of Central France and to the storming Quebecois tradition. These influences will be well-known to all those familiar with Andy's duo with English fiddle player, guitarist and singer, Chris Wood. Wood & Cutting have become one of the most influential, and enduring, duos on the scene; paving the way for the explosion of many of today's thrusting young newcomers.

Andy's commitment to, and sense of pride in traditional music, as well as his sensitivity and understanding of the form, has made him one of the folk scene's most wanted. As well as his ongoing work with Chris, Andy is currently playing with Kate Rusby (both in the Kate Rusby Trio and Kate Rusby Band), The John McCusker Band, Blowzabella. Andy also does many recording sessions and occasional tours with the likes of June Tabor, Fernhill, Sting, Pete Morton & Chumbawamba....to name but a few.

Amy Thatcher
Amy Thatcher plays traditional and free bass accordion, piano, keyboard, fiddle and performs traditional hard shoe dances. She spent her formative years doing the rounds in folk festivals in the UK and abroad with ‘Fosbrooks’ the school youth band from the North West of England and attended the ‘Folkworks’ summer school each year in Durham. She is establishing an enviable reputation as a highly accomplished artist. Her earliest and most influential tutors have included Karen Tweed and Murray Grainger (with whom she recorded the CD ‘Paper Bird’ in 2003). Amy is currently studying Folk and Traditional Music at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. She is an occasional guest tutor at ‘Folkestra’ for Kathryn Tickell and also enjoys tutoring at many ‘Folkworks’ events at ‘The Sage’ Gateshead.

Fiona Rutherford
Fiona's interest in traditional music began by attending courses with the Edinburgh Youth Gaitherin and the Feisean movement. She began playing clarsach at 14 and, at 16, gained a place at the City of Edinburgh Music School. At the school she particularly enjoyed the opportunities to study all different styles of music and became increasingly interested in composition. She is now about to enter her 2nd year of the BA in composition at Dartington College of Arts and values the chances that the course gives to work with other artists such as film makers and choreographers. Fiona has just finished writing and performing the music for 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' which was performed for 4 weeks at Rosslyn Chapel as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Roger Watson
Born in Mansfield, Roger now lives in Berkshire and has four decades of national and international folk music experience as a player, singer, songwriter and dance caller, having toured UK and parts of Europe and USA in the 1970s and 80s. His work has also covered recording, theatre and radio, as well as concert and dance performances, and his tutor methods for melodeon and concertina, first published in 1980, remain best sellers among English-speaking players. Once a secondary school teacher, he left to become the founder and Artistic Director of TAPS, and is responsible for the development of its inter-cultural policy and projects. He now tours with TAPS’ professional band, Boka Halat, in addition to the education work he carries out for the organisation, and his rare but significant solo appearances. He has introduced audiences, students, schoolchildren and teachers to English traditions of music and dance through creative projects in countries from Chile to Finland and believes firmly that the process of oral transmission is vital to the continuation of tradition.

David Faulkner
David is a full time community musician with Wren, a Devon based music organisation. David is at the forefront of the English pipe tradition. He is well known for his work with bands such as the Eelgrinders, Zephyrus, and the trio Moebius – with which he has appeared at the Armagh Pipers Festival, and at the North American bagpipe convention, at North Hero, Vermont, USA. His solo work has included tours and performances across Europe at festivals and piping conventions, including Edinburgh and Pencadre. He has collaborated on music and dance projects with Jo Freya and Karen Tweed. In 2006, he was the winner of the W A Cocks Memorial Trophy for Half-Long Pipes at the Morpeth Northumbrian Gathering. David has a wide knowledge of English and other traditional British music, as well as great enthusiasm for British and European traditional dance. His most recent CD, “English & Border Music for Pipes”, with accordionist Steve Turner, features mostly previously unrecorded 18th Century pipe music.

Brian Heywood
A working freelance musician, band leader, musical director, composer and producer with 25 years experience in the UK music scene and with the Australian music scene prior to that. Brian has worked primarily in the folk/roots/world fusion genre and is currently working in both concert and dance based ensembles. Skills include live and studio performance on electric and acoustic guitars, guitar synthesiser and bass guitar as well as lead and backing vocals. Also has composition and song writing experience, both solo and in collaboration with various
others as well as experience touring.

Sonia Slany
Violin soloist Sonia Slany has worked with many pop and jazz artists including Mark Knopfler, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Peter Gabriel, Sam Rivers, Laurie Anderson, Lee Konitz, Goldfrapp and Jim Hall. She writes and performs her own music with her group, The Solid Strings, with whom she records and works with world music and jazz artists, Michael Brecker, Salif Keita, Elvis Costello, Phillip Glass, Egberto Gismonti, Sakamoto etc.

Paul Clarvis
Paul Clarvis brings his unique style to all musical genres and has worked with musicians ranging from Mick Jagger, Nina Simone, Steve Swallow, Harrison Birtwhistle and John Dankworth to Paul McCartney, John Taylor and Moondog. He has recorded with Gordon Beck; Brian Ferry; Marc Ribot; Sam Rivers; Richard Thompson; The Orb,McFly,Cat Stevens John Adams; Michael Nyman; Loreena McKennitt; Mark Anthony Turnage and Michel Legrand. He works with many London orchestras, plays ethnic percussion on TV and film sessions, and was the late Leonard Bernstein's preferred percussionist in London.

Workshop Leaders:
David Bedford
Bedford was born in London. He studied music at the Royal Academy of Music there under Lennox Berkeley, and later in Venice under Luigi Nono. In the late 1960s, he was engaged to orchestrate Kevin Ayers' album, Joy of a Toy, on which he also played keyboards. This led to him playing keyboards with Ayers' band, The Whole World.

Through Ayers, he met Mike Oldfield, then The Whole World's bass guitarist. In the 1970s he conducted and orchestrated Oldfield's Orchestral Tubular Bells album, an orchestral adaption of the record that made the Virgin record label a serious player. Bedford subsequently made a number of records for Virgin, some using orchestral forces, others featuring Bedford's keyboard playing. He later went on to work with a wide variety of musicians, including Elvis Costello, Lol Coxhill, A-ha, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Robert Wyatt, Madness and Billy Bragg.

All this time, Bedford was also writing avant garde classical works. One of his better known works in Star Clusters, Nebulae and Places in Devon (1971), for chorus and brass instruments. In With 100 Kazoos (1971), an instrumental ensemble is joined by the audience who are invited to play kazoos. He has combined skilled and non-skilled musicians in other works as well, with Seascapes (1986), for instance, combining a full symphony orchestra with school children, and Stories From The Dreamtime (1991) written for 40 deaf children and orchestra.

From 1968 to 1980, Bedford taught music in a number of London secondary schools, and he is noted for the large amount of educational music he has written for children. The musical notation he uses is often unconventional, frequently making use of graphic notation, thus opening his works up to be performed by children and others who cannot read conventional notation.

In general, Bedford's music has a tendency to harmonic stasis, the main interest instead being created by shifting timbres and textures. In his music for voice, he has set many texts by the poet Kenneth Patchen.

From 1969 to 1981, he was Composer in Residence at Queen's College, London, and in 1996 was appointed Composer in Association with the English Sinfonia. In 2001 he was appointed Chairman of the Performing Right Society, having previously been Deputy-Chairman.

David Bedford is the brother of the conductor Steuart Bedford, and the grandson of the composer, painter and author Herbert Bedford and the composer Liza Lehmann.

Keith Tippett
For over thirty years Keith Tippett has been at the forefront of contemporary European jazz and new music – as a pianist, composer, bandleader, band member and musical educator. Tippett’s work ranges from his unique free improvisation as a solo pianist and with duos and small groups such as the quartet Mujician, to compositions for, and performances with, contemporary classical groups (including the Composers’ Ensemble, Kokoro and the Kreutzer String Quartet) and large-scale works for Jazz Orchestra.

As an educator, Keith Tippett has a natural aptitude for coaxing new freedoms from musicians of all ages and abilities. He has worked with junior schoolchildren in artist-in-education projects and in extended workshops with aspiring jazz musicians in Britain and other countries, including Germany, Italy, Soviet Georgia and South Africa. He has been co-director of the Dartington International Summer School jazz course for the last decade, holds Honorary Fellowships at both Dartington College of Arts and the Welsh College of Music and Drama where he is currently a visiting tutor in piano and improvisation and director of the College’s Jazz Ensemble.

In the last two years he has given improvisation workshops at the University of Bristol Music Department and relaunched the Rare Music Club. Besides regular solo and small-group work, 2002 has seen the world premiere of Dance of the Dragonfly, commissioned and performed by percussion group Ensemble Bash; composer-in-residence on a new music course in Aldeburgh with Joanna Macgregor; and (following a Festival appearance in Victoriaville, Canada in May), a further performance in Lisbon, Portugal with his current twenty-one piece jazz orchestra Tapestry.

Kuljit Bhamra
"One of the most prolific and dedicated Asian music producers to come out of Britain"
London Asian Guardian

Kuljit Bhamra is perhaps the most influential musician in the British Asian music scene, having recorded over 2000 songs to date. Composer, producer, tabla player and pioneer of the Bhangra phenomenon. Kuljit has worked both independently and collaboratively on film scores for over 15 years, producing soundtracks for award winning films Bhaji on the Beach, Bend it like Beckham, Masala Beans and playing percussion on the soundtracks for The Four Feathers, A Little Princess , Wings of a Dove and The Guru.

He worked on Andrew Lloyd Webbers massive hit musical Bombay Dreams for which he gave a truly breathtaking performance as on-stage percussionist. He also acted as Indian Music Consultant for the musical adaptation of M M Kayes The Far Pavilions.

Kuljit has received international acclaim for his phenomenal performances throughout Europe, USA, Canada and Africa with his own band Taala and also with other renowned artists including saxophonist Andy Sheppard and pianist Joanna McGregor.
http://www.kuljitbhamra.com