Alex Bishop is a guitarist and guitar maker based in Wiltshire. He runs a workshop hand- building folk and gypsy jazz-style guitars, repairing and restoring musical instruments, and teaching guitar making and playing. He is artist-in-residence at The Pound Arts Centre in Wiltshire.
Tom Newell studied Violin at Trinity College of Music. He is a violinist with his own quartet and currently does voluntary work at Cecil Sharp House. In 2017 he completed his MA in Ethnomusicology at SOAS. (SOAS University of London is the leading Higher Education institution in Europe specialising in the study of Asia, Africa and the Near and Middle East). He also performs with Sam Lee and the Nest Collective’s ceilidh band the Ceilidh Liberation Front and jazz ensemble Alex Mendham & His Orchestra.
Aidan Shepherd studied as a pianist at Leeds College of Music, graduating in 2005 with a BA (Hons) Jazz Studies. He holds teaching positions at various schools in the South-East as well as working for the Sidney de Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health. His main focus is on composition and performing as an accordionist. He also performs with chamber folk ensemble Arlet, experimental jazz quartet Ruby Rushton, and the Papylonian Babooshkies.
Programme
Effra are a contemporary trio, comprising violin; guitar and accordion, whose original music draws upon the traditional stylistics of the British Isles and beyond. Blending these old sounds with elements of classical, and jazz composition, delivered with virtuosity, sensitivity and drive, the group present a sound-world quite unlike anything else.
