Success Stories
I am married and live in Bath with my partner Sue and adopted daughter. I have a snowboarding son who lives in Vancouver and works in marketing. During my instrument making career I have made more than 500 instruments, mostly of the Hammered Dulcimer type. I have had 8 different workshop spaces. and am currently at Hensley, Road Bath. Among the many dulcimer clients I have had are a few note-worthy! Listed in order of my Random memory! Peter Gabriel, that one always looms quite high! Greg Knowles - Percussionist and Composer - he played some specially commisioned instruments live onstage with the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden and on tour in Australia. Anna Calvi band's (Twice Mercury award nominated)! multi-instrumentalist - Mally Harpaz. Charlie Winston's Ben Edwards, see Ben playing a Dulcimer introduction to a stadium gig. Dr. Colin Heuhns and Royal Academy of Music. National Trust (Aeolian Harp). Dizzi Dulcimer - Dulcimerist and Composer . Joy Smith - Harpist - played Dulcimer with Paul Hartnol (one half of Orbital), Rob Lane TV and film Composer with a huge array of awards including a BAFTA and several Ivor Noelle's Etc., Royal Danish Theatre, they used it in Cabaret, National Theatre Scotland, Old Vic Bristol, Hetty Feather Live, The Bedouin Shakespeare Company and many more. Most of the clients though are just people with an interest in this remarkable and inspiring instrument with a fascinating history that spans from Ethnic via Gypsy to High Art and back again! One further note. I have also made quite a number of Aeolian Harps including one for the Acoustics Research Centre in Salford and a 2 meter long one for the National Trust which I installed in late summer 2014 at Claife viewing station overlooking lake Windermere. Christmas day 2014 BBC 4 screened Royal Opera House live recording of The Royal Ballets 'The Winter Tale' in which a Dulcimer/Cimbalom hybrid Greg Knowles and I created takes centre stage for quite a hefty chunk of the 2 1/2 hour-ish piece.
I love hearing Richie Havens singing to my instrument!
I was running Dulcimer playing workshops one year at Womad and I met Peter Gabriel's colaborator and producer Richard Evans. He called up some time later and asked me to take some instruments over to Real World. I got to see the writing room and later we got invited to a live recording with Shiv Khumar Sharma.
Anna Calvi's multi-instrumentalist Mally Harpaz came over to Frome where my workshop was at that time with the bands first drummer (who resigned just before their first proper tour) to check out some dulcimers. This was when they were recording their first album. The Dulcimer they chose, a Maestro classic eventually made it on to the the track Eliza on the album One Breath
Royal Opera House. Its very unusual for a ballet to have a stage band, especially when they are playing real instruments and not miming. Some of the players in this band are also performers from other West End stage shows including The Lion King. I made the percussion instrument that is centre stage of the band it is a mini Cimbalom. Designed exclusively for this performance and conceptualised by the player Greg Knowles who commissioned it. The nitty gritty design work was done by me. I later made a sister instrument to this one that was bought by The Bolshoi Ballet when they performed this show.
The Royal Danish Theatre ordered a bespoke hackbrett specificly for this production of "Cabaret". Unfortunatly I didnt get to hear where they were using it in the performance,
Dizzi Dulcimer - I made dulcimers for Dizzi for about 10 years or so. The Dizzi Signature Dulcimer, Dizzi Delight, Dizzi Delux, Dinky Dizzi were all designed by me. She is concentration on other things these days.
I was commissioned to make this 2 M long double Aeolian Harp for the National Trust. It has been in position on site at Claife Viewing station on the side of Lake Windermere for 8 or so years.
