They have the firm belief that ‘music is itself an international language and when your performance is from your heart, you can touch others’ hearts’

‘We have Muslim, Jewish and Christian backgrounds but our music is a reflection of our artistic individuality which when fused creates a unique dimension and a further exploration of it. We hope to please and inspire people, and we work for equality, reaching out with friendship across all borders and communities’ says the band.

Karen Jørgensen: vocals

Sarah Yaseen: vocals & darbuka

Radia Moraleda Sanchez: overtone vocals

Salam Suso Yamour: harp and vocals

Anne Eltard: violin

Maren Hallberg: accordion & harmonica

Anja Præst: bass clarinet

Her solo performances are memorably compelling, whilst her voice & guitar playing are a major factor in the success of contemporary Scottish folk bands Hecla who she toured with to Romania, Australia & Denmark, and current band Eabhal, who won Scotland’s ‘Battle of the Folk Bands’ in 2018 and were nominated as ‘Up and Coming Artist’ at the MG Alba Trad Awards.

She came together with Eabhal on South Uist to revive old tunes, write new tunes, borrow good tunes and add a few more. Kaitlin & Eabhal have since toured nationally including performances at Glasgow’s legendary Celtic Connections Festival, in the USA & in China, and have just released a fine debut album ‘This is How The Ladies Dance’ in 2019 where Kaitlin’s deep & yearning vocal style is showcased on the traditional Irish tune ‘Càit’.

Kaitlin also performs with pianist Catriona Hawksworth from Heisk and has recently toured & recorded with world music collective Rafiki Jazz.

She lives in the UK, performs internationally and has been featured on BBC Radio 3 World on 3 with her band MUHA. Her songs tell timeless stories of love, living & belonging, as well as of the darker side of Eastern European folklore with tales of abandonment, plots, battles, or preparing for death. Her traditional vocal style is lyrical & hypnotic, capturing her audiences’ imaginations to evoke mystical scenes and natural landscapes. Iryna performs & records solo and with her band MUHA

With MUHA and their new album REKA (River) she offers a new way for contemporary Eastern European music influenced by multicultural society in the UK. MUHA combine the melodic beauty of Eastern European folklore, North Indian Kathak rhythms, Cuban beats and original lyrics, and their live act is a musical feast rooted in the Slavonic tradition but cultured from the world.

Dmitry Fedotov (acoustic guitar)

Iryna Muha (vocal, guitar, hurdy gurdy, berimbau, harmonium)

Louise Clements (bass, Indian rhythms, vocals)

Nikki McKenzie (percussion)

Originally from Israel, Noga Ritter is an inspiring singer-songwriter and workshop leader. Composing & singing in Hebrew and English & more, her music melds the Afro grooves and contemporary jazz sounds of her current new band that features some of London’s finest young musicians, whilst her sincere and forceful lyrics take us from the intensely personal to the political.

After studying at the Guildhall School of Music and LCCM, Noga has performed and collaborated with musicians from around the world, singing in various languages and genres. She released an album and toured with her band Vocal Global, and has worked with Mike King Collective, The Grand Union Orchestra, Abdoulaye Samb and Minnjiaraby (Senegal), Jyotsna Srikanth (India), Sahad & The Natal Patchwork (Senegal), Sura Susso (Gambia) and Randolph Matthews. Her creative work is recognised by awards from PRS Foundation & the Arts Council of England.

Noga enjoys travelling the world with her music, learning from other cultures and creating exciting cultural collaborations. She has performed at London’s Royal Festival Hall, Hackney Empire, Vortex Jazz Club and Rich Mix, at Edinburgh Festival and across Europe to Senegal, Israel and Argentina.

As a much sought-after workshop leader & facilitator Noga works regularly for Live Music Now, Barbican Creative Learning and CREATE,  performing and leading workshops at special needs schools, hospitals and care homes. She is also a member of Music Action International leading songwriting workshops for children and refugees.

Noga Ritter’s band perform from a quintet up to a 9-piece, and are always ready to take the audience on a wild journey of soulful music, that will lift their spirits and make them dance to those irresistible grooves.

As a solo artist she performs, broadcasts & records as Sarah the Sufi, singing mainly in Urdu the language of poetry & love, but also in Punjabi, Arabic & English, whilst accompanying herself on acoustic guitar, the 1-string ektara or with Arabic derbuka

Sarah is a radiant & positive force on the current world music scene, as a frontline singer with Womad favourites Rafiki Jazz, with her own back-to-the-roots trio Ruhaani, and with Sufi duo Roses of Fatima, whilst recent collaborations include with Sacred Sounds & the GRRRL and Passerine projects, alongside regular touring as guest singer with Denmark’s all-women global ensemble Radiant Arcadia

Now, Mariachi Las Adelitas play their music to rebel against male-domination within their genre. Delighting audiences with tight harmonies and the sounds of Mexico, Mariachi Las Adelitas perform mainly as a six-piece band but can expand to up to ten musicians.

This uniquely all-female Mariachi band use traditional Mexican instruments in their performances, showcasing talent on vihuela (a smaller, percussive Mexican guitar), violins, trumpets, guitarron (a large Mexican bass guitar) and guitar. Each member of the band is a talented, diverse and capable musician in her own right, with no less than three members performing as lead vocalists.

With musicians from Colombia, Cuba, England and Mexico, the band say they were ‘formed in 2013 out of the desire to shatter stereotypes within the field, creating a positive platform of expression for the UK’s female mariachi musicians’- and they have succeeded!

In 2018 they played at the Women’s Mariachi Festival in L.A, California, sharing the stage with twice Grammy award-winning Mariachi Divas. Past clients and venues for whom and in which the band have played include the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Mexican & U.S. Embassies in London. Las Adelitas have also serenaded actress Salma Hayek at a private event, performed for Sophie Ellis Bextor and played at the opening of Arcade Fire concerts in London’s Earls Court.

Mariachi Las Adelitas seek to offer a truly Mexican experience to their hosts & audiences, performing in a selection of four authentic mariachi outfits made to measure in Mexico. The band are highly adaptable, presenting a number of different formations, styles and a wide repertoire of music- including mariachi classics and a selection of English-language numbers, arranged in the mariachi style

http://www.mariachilasadelitas.com

Millie’s mission is to bring the lived experience of women in Zimbabwe onto the international world music stage through performance, and although her music goes deep into ancient cultural heritage, it’s clear that she is keen to sing out loud for change on gender issues and the barriers affecting women in the diaspora & back in her home-country, and this gives her a real edge onstage.

A Millie Chapanda performance is a celebration Shona-style that calls on dancing ancestral spirits to rise through the trance of mbira’s cascading notes to answer the call of the voice & the insistent pulse of deep ngoma drum & hosho shakers

Since arriving in the UK 20 years ago, Millie has been an essential part of the lively Zimbabwean cultural diaspora, first recording & touring with the legendary Batanai Marimba and World Muzik Makers, then collaborating with Anna Mudeka, Kuda Matimba’s Harare & Zee Guveya’s Heritage Survival Band before performing & touring with the late great Chartwell Dutiro in his last years. She has performed onstage at WOMAD, London Barbican & Royal Festival Hall, at Shambala & countless other festivals and arts venues over the years.

Millie is also the founder of Mbira Blues, a UK forum that shares & connects traditional mbira musicians, mbira enthusiasts, academics & cultural activists, and is a key member of the Midlands arts & refugees network Celebrating Sanctuary Birmingham.

Onstage: vocals, mbira, ngoma, hosho, storytelling

Haymanot’s music constructs a compelling conversation somewhere between the avant-garde & the traditional, whilst her singing has an astonishing and diverse range which mesmerises her audiences. She performs solo & in duo with Iranian virtuoso percussionist Arian Sadr.

Haymanot’s repertoire is rooted in interpretations of iconic Amharic language songs & musical scales like Tezeta and Ambassel. Of these pieces, she says ‘when I sing these songs I always sing them differently depending on what I get from the musicians I play with and the whole atmosphere. I like to be free! So the way I sing is always new even if I’m playing on the same scale and using the same words. Sometimes I play something new which I don’t even remember when I leave the stage. I want to give my audiences the new me always. What makes me happy is that I know that I gave them something they can take with them. People tell me that my singing is therapeutic for them and they thank me for singing, but the truth is that I am also happy while I’m singing’ 

Haymanot’s 2019 debut album Loosening the Strings (Vacilando ’68) captures profound soul and enchanting spiritualism, connecting to a sense of deep reflection on her roots. The music is experimental, improvised and daring, & has that feeling of a field recording about it.

Haymanot’s unique style has won her well-deserved recognition as a star emerging artist on the UK African & World Music scene, with live performances for BBC Radio 3 at Free Thinking Festival SAGE Gateshead, London African Music Festival at VORTEX, for Sam Lee’s NEST Collective, at WOMAD Charlton Park, Celebrating Sanctuary Southbank & Rich Mix, Journeys Festival International Leicester, Platforma Festivals & Conferences Leicester & Manchester, Talking Gigs Sheffield, and in front of the House of Commons at a Partners for Change event.

‘The ambience of those performances is reflected on the album, and using only the krar and a drum, it’s a bold debut. Yet it doesn’t need anything else as it’s simply beautiful’ (African Music Guide)