Alison Sudol
Alison Sudol is a singer-songwriter, musician, actress and video director. She has released 3 critically acclaimed albums under the moniker A Fine Frenzy (EMI) during which she toured with Rufus Wainwright, Sean Lennon and Brandi Carlile, and released Gold-certified album ‘One Cell In The Sea’, peaking within the top 30 in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Poland. Making her comeback to music as Alison Sudol in 2018 she released two EPs, ‘Moon’ and then ‘Moonlite’, both co-produced with Yard Act and Gruff Rhys’ producer Ali Chant and featuring Portishead’s Clive Deamer and Adrian Utley and John Parish.
Cassandre Balbar
Cassandre Balbar is a performer, an events organiser/curator and an academic. She started playing the recorder at the age of five. She studied early music in Orsay with Jean-Pierre Nicolas, Sébastien Marq, Maud Caille and Jean-François Novelli. Other influential teachers include Jean Tubéry and Patrick Bismuth. She collaborated for several years with the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, directed by Olivier Schneebeli.
Millicent Chapanda
Millicent Chapanda is a British-based Zimbabwean Shona cultural artist, traditional mbira player, percussionist, singer, dancer and storyteller. Her music is nourished by Zimbabwean traditional ceremonials where vibrant spiritual & secular music is a key part of bringing people together in devotion, praise, reflection & celebration.
Saied Silbak
Saied Silbak is a Palestinian composer and Oud player born in Shafaa`mr, a city located in the lower Galilee of occupied Palestine. His music has been performed around the world at festivals and concert series in Palestine, the UK, Belgium, France, Morocco, Argentina and beyond.
Fredy Clue
Embark on a musical journey with Fredy Clue, a trailblazing folk musician infusing the Swedish folk tradition with a modern hug. Armed with the enchanting sounds of the nyckelharpa and soul-stirring vocals, they craft modern Nordic melodies that intertwines folk music, tradition and queer narratives. From solo performances to band collaborations, their show has resonated across Sweden, northern Europe, and the USA. As WJ Quinn acclaimed in 2023, "Fredy really is a creator of remarkable experiences, a true innovator in the folk art space." Fredy will continue to push boundaries and pioneer new realms in 2024 and beyond!
Fyfe Dangerfield
Fyfe Dangerfield, perhaps best known as the frontman of the band Guillemots, was born in the land of Birmingham, England in July of 1980, and found himself tottering towards the family’s piano by the age of three. A childhood of listening almost entirely to the Beatles followed, and in 1988, Worcestershire replaced Birmingham as home, the doorstep countryside nurturing a growing love of birdwatching, alongside the daytime playlists of BBC Hereford & Worcester.
Rebekah Reid
Rebekah Reid is a vibrant and versatile violinist, composer and loop pedal artist, specialising in classical/jazz repertoire and improvisation. Known for her distinct style combining virtuosic violin performance with live looping and electronics, Rebekah effortlessly blends influences from jazz, classical music, minimalism, hip hop, world music, folk and electronic dance music.
Esther Swift
Likened to Kate Bush, Eddie Reader and Joanna Newsom, singer-songwriter and harpist Esther Swift is an up-and-coming musician in the Scottish folk music scene. Whilst being heavily influenced by her folk roots, Esther’s music also combines jazz, blues and minimalist references. With a passion for pushing the boundaries of folk and classical harp music, she has become a prolific songwriter. A deep love of Scotland, the Scottish Borders (where Esther grew up) and nature continually inspire and influence her music; the songs of her new EP 'The Mairches' which features cojon, string quartet and trumpet, are based on her life growing up in The Scottish Borders.
Byron Wallen
Byron Wallen is widely recognised as a seminal figure in world jazz, he is constantly travelling the world recording, teaching and performing. He has been playing trumpet in various contexts, live and on record, alongside legendary musicians such as George Benson, Andrew Hill, Chaka Khan, Ingrid Laubrock, Hugh Masekela, Courtney Pine, Mulatu Astatke, Red Snapper, Lonnie Liston Smith, Style Council, Jack Dejohnette, Jean Toussaint, Cleveland Watkiss and King Sunny Ade. He has visited East Africa, Morocco, Nigeria, Indonesia and Belize (his parents' homeland). On tour Wallen often works with local musicians, developing new ideas for his performances and compositions.
Tarek Elazhary
Tarek Elazhary, an Egyptian oud player and composer, graduated from the Arab Oud House in 2014 under the mentorship of the renowned Iraqi oud player, Nasser Shamma. He has participated in numerous local and international festivals with the Arab Oud Orchestra.
Otto Hashmi
Otto Hashmi is a recorder player and solo artist from London. His most recent EP ‘Music for the End Times’ fuses sounds of the post-covid London club scene with recorder harmonies inspired by early music and was followed by UK and EU performances including supporting acclaimed jazz musician Shabaka Hutchings’ for his first solo set on indigenous flutes.
Simmy Singh
Simmy Singh is a versatile violinist and composer, born and raised in South Wales to an Indian father and English mother, whose ambition is to push the boundaries of classical music and its audiences and to explore creativity and different genres with the violin. She believes in diversity and connection and is passionate about applying these values to the projects she undertakes.
Kaito Winse
Singer, dancer and multi-instrumentalist Kaito Winse is the guardian of the rich oral traditions of his homeland. Born in the middle of the desert into a family of griots in Lankoué, a village in the north of Burkina Faso, Kaito had only to bend down to pick up the legacy.
Bethan Lloyd
Bethan Lloyd is a Welsh artist whose trance-inducing vocals expand over an ocean of rave-inspired production, harmonic layering and otherworldly ecstasy. Her sonic exploration has taken her from training as a classical singer, immersing herself in Berlin’s experimental music scene, to learning with shamans, masters and the ancient teachings of the natural world. In her latest album, Metamorphosis, Bethan, producing alongside Pre-Human bandmate and master of noise Isaac Ray, takes her intense explorations of the spirit and emotional realms and blends them into something playful and danceable, a gritty experimental pop.
Ford Collier
Ford Collier is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and performer of folk music who specialises in weaving influences from diverse traditions into his music. Since starting his music career in his teens, he has performed at festivals including Glastonbury, regularly toured the UK, released six studio albums with the bands he founded, Mishra and The Drystones, and accompanied legendary Indian kathak dancer Padmashri Guru Pratap Pawar. Performing on low whistle, guitar, and an array of percussion including tabla and calabash, Ford's diverse skills as an instrumentalist, composer, and improviser have made him an established figure on the UK folk scene and a respected educator of all ages, abilities, and needs.
Mohamed Errebbaa
Mohamed Errebbaa was born in Rabat, a Moroccan musician and Master in the GNAWA world. He spent a decade travelling throughout Morocco, studying the diverse regional musical traditions under some of the leading musicians in the country. In southern Morocco, he immersed himself in the study of Issawa, Deqqa folkloric percussion, and became especially passionate about the three-stringed Gnawa bass lute, the Guembri. After mastering these traditional musical forms, he launched his international career.
Yijia Tu
Yijia is a singer-songwriter from China interested in exploring her cultural identity and diverse traditions through music-making. Yijia attended 'Sing My Song’ at the age of 16 and launched her music career as a singer-songwriter in China after winning the 16th CMA (Chinese Music Awards) for ‘Media’s Choice Album’ and the nomination for ‘Best New Chinese Female Artist’ for the Chinese Media Music Awards.
Eliza Marshall
One of the most multi-faceted flautists of her time, Eliza’s musical path has followed her musical passions; diverse, organic and without boundaries. From tours with Peter Gabriel, recording Sam Smith’s Bond Theme, Top of the Pops with Katie Melua, to holding the flute chair at The Lyceum Theatre in London’s West End for The Lion King since 2015. She has appeared as soloist on numerous blockbuster films, video games and BBC drama and documentaries, on albums with Paul McCartney to Stevie Wonder, and worked with leading orchestras from The BBC Concert Orchestra to The London Symphony Orchestra.
Tara Franks
Cellist Tara Franks composes, curates and facilitates a myriad of creative projects working across genres and art forms. Her work centres around collaboration, both when working with other professional artists and within the community. As co-founder of acclaimed string duo Balladeste, she has been interviewed on Radio 4 Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio 3, Soho Radio and NTS. She has worked with renowned artists including; Kae Tempest, Akala, Jocelyn Pook and Jasdeep Singh Degun and is a core member/composer of contemporary trio Quest Ensemble. Tara also collaborates on cross-arts projects for theatre, dance and visual artists, including creating the sound score for the acclaimed show ‘Foreign Body’ by Imogen Butler-Cole.