Giles Lewin

Background

He was born in Essex in 1960 or slightly earlier.

Career

At age nine, he sang the female lead in Mozart"s "Bastien et Bastienne". At Cambridge University he acquired a love of Irish traditional music His admiration for William Lawes led him to join a group called The Medieval Players (1981–1987).

In 1983 they performed Rabelais"s "Gargantua" with actors, puppets and acrobats.

Their version of medieval music was gutsy, compared to most early music consorts of the time. In 1989 Lewin spent several months in Cairo to study Arabic violin under Ashraf al Sarki.

Lewin is a vocalist and plays fiddle, vielle, rebec, gittern, shawms, recorder, mandolin, pipe and tabor. His most remarkable skills are as a player of the Arabic violin and as a player of the single-drone medieval bagpipes.

The Carnival Band evolved out of The Medieval Players.

The combination of, Andy Watts, Bill Badley and Jub dates from 1985. They have recorded as a backing band for Maddy Prior. The songs on "The Bells of Paradise" were first performed at the 2003 York Early Music Festival.

Alva also performed at Street John"s, Smith Square in 2001 as part of a live performance for British Broadcasting Corporation"s "Late Junction".

She is involved with jazz, singing with Keith Tippett. In 2008 he accompanied Maddy Prior at the British Broadcasting Corporation Electric Proms.

Lewin is currently based in Oxford. Solo release In 2008 Lewin released a solo album The Armchair Orienteer (PRKCD103), including a mix of traditional folk tunes and some original tracks.

Folkworld said of the album "the most impressing thing is Giles" versability in quite a lot and quite different styles".

Achievements

• In 1987 he became a founder member of the Dufay Collective. In 2004 Lewin became a founder member of Bellowhead and left in late 2007.

Membership

Currently a member of The Carnival Band, he was also a founding member of the folk band, Bellowhead. He was also a member of the group "Afterhours" (1989–1995). He is an occasional member of the Egyptian group Maqaam.

Lewin joined up with Vivien Ellis, another member of the Dufay Collective and the Carnival Band to become the duo Alva in 1997, specialising in the music of the troubadours.

Ellis has been a member of Sinfonye since 1989, and is a member of The Broadside Band. Marguerite Hutchison, a member of Magpie Lane, also occasionally performs with Lewin as a duo.