Line-up 2024
Ensemble Ypotryll
Medieval music
Ypotryll presents medieval European music, both sung and instrumental, dating from around the 13th to 15th centuries focusing chiefly on secular, non-liturgical music. Named after a mythical medieval monster, Ypotryll’s three members all sing and play instruments but most of the time Karen Jones sings soprano, whilst Rachel Tedd and Simon Pickard play various musical instruments that would have been used in this period such as psaltery, dulcimer, medieval harp, vielle, citole and recorder.
Our program at the Three Towers Festival will include music from the Cantigas de Santa Maria of medieval Spain and from the famous13th century Minnesänger Neidhart von Reuental alongside some early English, French and Italian medieval song.
Matthew & Andrea Redman
Chamber music for piano and and violin
Andrea and Matthew Redman are husband and wife musical patnership; Andrea is a Violinist and Matthew accompanies her.
Andrea studied at Melbourne University (the city that she grew up in) graduating with honours in Music. She then came to the UK to qualify as a luthier at Newark School of Violin making. In addition to teaching and performing (including string quartets and folk music), she is currently interim leader of the Mid Somerset Orchestra.
Matthew is a freelance musician, dividing his time between teaching and accompanying. He is Director of Music at St John’s Glastonbury having studied Music at Bristol University during which time he was Organ Scholar at St Mary Redcliffe. Amongst others, he studied with Iain Simcock at Westminster Cathedral and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO).
Emily Mullins
Harp recital
Emily has played for the CBSO, the BBC, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Bristol Ensemble, Orchestra of the Swan and many regional orchestras. She also plays with Bristol Ensemble’s Stephanie Gilbert as part of GEMS flute and harp duo.
Emily has a BMus from Birmingham University and teaches the harp at schools including Millfield, Clifton College, Kingswood, RHSB and Downside. She has also developed story telling workshops for primary schools and outreach concerts for care homes.
Swan Singers
Let us Garlands Bring. Shakespeare in music and words.
Formed in 2014, we are a group of local people who love to sing, performing mainly a cappella music from the Renaissance to the present day (though we do particularly love the earlier end of our repertoire). We perform three or four concerts a year and believe that it’s more than possible to work on producing the best possible sound and still have fun.
Our conductor
Tricia Rees-Jones was born and brought up in Yorkshire where she studied piano and viola. She was appointed a Choral Scholar at Royal Holloway College, London which fuelled her passion for choral singing. She has sung with a number of London-based chamber choirs including the Joyful Company of Singers with whom she won the Sainsbury’s (now BBC) Choir of the Year competition and several other major competitions throughout Europe.With this choir Tricia also made a number of successful commercial recordings and performed at major venues and festivals in the UK and beyond.
In 2001 she moved back to Yorkshire where she combined a teaching career with directing a number of choirs including the Langcliffe Singers, Viva Voce youth choir and the Giggleswick Choral Society as well as numerous school choirs and ensembles. She also created the charity ‘Tutti’, which brought together teenage instrumentalists, conservatoire students and professional musicians in innovative events and projects including a Baroque Strings weekend.
She is an active member of the Association of British Choral Directors and was involved in the creation of the innovative Cambiata North West choir, specifically for teenage boys whose voices are changing. They appeared in the War Horse Prom at the Royal Albert Hall in 2014 and performed to great acclaim at the RNCM in August 2015.
Now based in Somerset, she directs the Swan Singers chamber choir and the Wells Cathedral Junior Choir ‘Song Squad’, and continues her singing with Vox Coelestis chamber choir under Nigel Short.
The Gonnella Brothers
American song book music
Brothers in music, Mark and Ray have been playing together since their early teens. They were introduced to jazz through mentor and band leader Pat Kelly, creator of the Berkshire Youth jazz orchestra (BYJO) with Mark and Ray as founder members. The band became a nursery for some great jazz musicians including “strictly” band leader Dave Arch, Loose Tubes trumpeter Lance Kelly and jazz professor Steve Waterman.
Although completely surrounded by his musical family (with a name like Gonnella what would you expect?), Mark’s life took a different path that led him to the role of media director at Arsenal FC. Now retired and having rekindled his love of the tenor sax in recent years, Mark has managed to link up again with former buddy and local trumpeter, vocalist and band leader, Ray Montague (Magna Jazz, Mendip swing) to present this collation of tunes from the American song book. They are joined by Dean Brodrick on keys, Dave Payne on drums, and Tony Bevir on bass. We hope you enjoy this debut from these two “brothers” in jazz.