Tutors
“Fabulous tutors! I welcomed the opportunity to try a range of sessions and the flexible approach.”
Hazel Askew
Folk voice
Hazel is a singer, multi-instrumentalist and composer from London, playing melodeons, concertina and harp. Hazel loves bringing songs from old manuscripts and recordings to life, and her engaging delivery of traditional songs along with her "shimmering vocals" (The Sunday Times), won her Best Female Singer at the Spiral Earth Awards.
She is a respected performer on the folk scene, most notably with BBC Radio 2 Folk Award-nominated trio Lady Maisery and traditional duo The Askew Sisters. Hazel is also a member of the winter collaboration Awake Arise, feminist collective Coven and won Best Album at the 2017 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards as part of 10-piece supergroup Songs of Separation.
With her sister Emily, they have recently produced The Askew Sisters Tunebook (32 favourite tunes) - we may well see this at HISS this year!
Rebecca Austen-Brown
Recorder, early fiddle
Since studying at the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Rebecca has been recognised for her work as a performer on recorders and early string instruments with an ARAM.
She has recorded and toured with many ensembles; most recently The Sixteen, Glydebourne Touring Opera, the Dufay Collective, The City Musick, I Fagiolini, the CBSO, La Nuova Musica and is a founder member of the Fontanella Recorder Quintet with whom she has recorded for BBC TV, Radio 3 and 4. She has toured with Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and the Young Vic. Having developed an obsession with electronics in recent years, she is devising programmes exploring the sounds of historical instruments with loop pedals and effects.
She is a regular film session musician and can be heard on soundtracks including The Hobbit, Les Miserables, Grand Hotel Budapest and Mary Queen of Scots.
Rebecca teaches at the Royal College of Music Junior Department, and has given classes in Oxford University, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Birmingham University and Conservatoire. She tutors in Benslow and is in demand both as an external examiner in UK Conservatoires and as regular guest adjudicator in the UK.
George Bartle
Sackbut
George Bartle has been making noise since he became a chorister in Ely Cathedral as a boy. Since then, he has graduated from the Royal College of Music in London and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland as a singer and sackbut specialist. He has performed with many early music ensembles in the UK and abroad and has regularly worked as a musician with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. He is also a virtuosic ukulele player with his duo Opera-lele and as a solo act Renaissance Uke Man. He is a member of The City Musick and George can be heard playing sackbut, slide trumpet, renaissance guitar and recorder as well as singing.
Tim Bayley
Reeds (also flutes, bagpipes, hurdy gurdy, harp and portative organ)
Tim Bayley has been involved with the Early Music world since the late 1970s, when he helped to establish one of the first revivals of a sixteenth century Waits band, the York Waits. He started as brass player but gradually moved into renaissance wind instruments covering all the reeds, recorders, flutes and bagpipes, then adding hurdy gurdy, harp and portative organ. Tim still performs with the York Waits, devising themed programmes of material from 1400-1600, touring at home and abroad and producing a variety of CDs and other recordings. He regularly leads playing day workshops for anything between four and fifty players, and coaches on the annual Chalemie Summer School. Tim also works in full time music education, teaching clarinet, saxophone and piano, and conducting a wide range of ensembles, bands and orchestras.
Anne Marie Christensen
Baroque violin
Anne Marie is a violinist, violin teacher and scholar with a particular passion for the string repertoire of the long 18th century and an interest in the connections in the history of the Arts (particularly the interactions between culture and society, which she explored in her Ph.D.). She enjoys exploring the depths of the cantatas of J.S.Bach, the galant style represented by Haydn, Boccherini and others, the fireworks of the Italian masters of the violin as well as folk-inspired repertoire and presenting these repertoires, both well known and forgotten, to audiences in concert or more informal settings. Originally a graduate from the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Anne Marie initially dreamt of a career as a violinist in a major orchestra in her native Denmark. However, the chance to study abroad with professor Milan Vitek at Oberlin Conservatory opened her eyes to early music and historical performance and she soon changed course to specialise in baroque violin performance, earning a Masters Degree.
John Dipper
Fiddle
A respected and established performer, composer, teacher and instrument maker, John grew up steeped in the traditions of Southern England. His unique playing style and compositions convey a deep understanding and passion for indigenous culture.
John’s most recent album - Unearthing, by Patterson Dipper - was in both Mojo Magazine’s and The Guardian’s Top 10 Folk Albums of the Year (2021). The two previous albums John recorded and performed were in The Times Top 10 Folk/Roots albums of the year. (Tricks of the Trade by Dipper Malkin, and Alchemy by the Emily Askew Band).
As an experienced workshop leader and teacher, John’s knowledge, experience and enthusiasm combine to make him a much sought-after tutor in academic institutions, festivals, music-camps and academies. He has taught at venues and events including the Australian National Festival, Sidmouth Festival, Ashokan, Goldsmiths University and regularly teaches on the Folk Music degree course at Newcastle University, the World Irish Music MA Course at Limerick University and Southampton University. Throughout lockdown, John has been running very successful series of workshops on Zoom, with people from all over Europe and the USA attending.
John’s passion for vernacular music led to his degree dissertation focussing on the interpretation of field recordings, looking at intonation, tuning and expression. With his knowledge of the construction and physics behind the workings of the violin and concertina, and his musical knowledge and approach, he is able to offer a unique insight into the world of music and music making.
John has recorded on several films including the Hobbit, as well as the TV series Poldark. He currently performs with the groundbreaking duo Dipper Malkin, in the trio Alma with Adrian Lever and Emily Askew, in a duo with superb singer and guitarist James Patterson, the highly acclaimed Emily Askew Band, and with Vicki Swan and Jonny Dyer in Purcell’s Polyphonic Party. John is also working with the much vaunted storyteller Nick Hennessey on various projects.
Since returning to the UK in 2014, John has been involved with 6 new albums, personally recording, editing and producing, Patterson Dipper Unearthing, Alma Varieties, Dipper Malkin’s Tricks of the Trade, and The Emily Askew Band CD Alchemy. John also works with renowned storytellers Hugh Lupton and Nick Hennessey, and has taken part in many international collaborations with artists from France, Sweden, Quebec, France, Ireland, America, Hong Kong, China, The Gambia and Finland.
Alison Kinder
Viols
Alison is a founder member of Chelys consort of viols where she enjoys researching, performing and recording programmes covering all aspects of consort music. She also has a particular interest in 'Renaissance' viols (early viols made with no soundpost) with The Linarol Consort, who play on copies of the earliest surviving viol made by Francesco Linarol. Alison has a great love of working with singers, and the affinity between the sound of the viol and the voice. One of her favourite places to be is as the gamba player with Musica Secreta, an all-female polyphonic ensemble specialising in the research and performance of music by and for early modern women. Venturing into the 18th Century with a beautiful 7-string viol named Flo, Alison plays with lutenist Lynda Sayce in Apollo's Revels, and the Christian Baroque ensemble Dei Gratia where she also plays baroque violin. Alison also loves making the music she enjoys accessible to as many people as possible - the best audience reactions are from people hearing something for the first time with no idea that they were going to enjoy it so much! That is a particular focus of the relatively new group, Sounds Historical, who aim to play in local churches to local audiences with fun and accessible programmes.
Alison read music at Oxford University before being given a scholarship by Trinity College of Music where she studied viol with Alison Crum, where she was awarded the college’s Silver Medal for Early Music Studies.
A keen teacher of both children and adults, Alison is a tutor on a number of Early Music courses including the Easter Early Music Course, HISS and Norvis, and she regularly leads workshops for the various Early Music Fora. She is co-director of Rondo Viol Academy, which runs weekend courses for players of all standards from Elementary to Advanced. Alison teaches viol and violin both privately and in schools.
tbc
Lute, theorbo
Info to follow shortly
Catherine Strachan
Baroque cello
Catherine Strachan grew up in Aberdeen, where she benefited from a superb start to her musical education thanks to the local authority music service and local youth orchestras. Catherine studied modern and baroque cello performance with Myra Chahin and Alison McGillivray at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (formerly RSAMD), and followed this with an MA in baroque performance practice at the University of York. Catherine is now based in York, where she enjoys a varied career as a freelance cellist and string teacher. She also plays with various local ensembles including Otley Baroque, Leeds Baroque and York Guildhall Orchestra. Upcoming projects include a performance of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with Thirsk Sinfonia in summer 2022.
Richard Thomas
Cornett
Richard studied at the University of Wales, Bangor for five years and, as part of his Master of Arts degree, undertook research into the William Shaw Silver State Trumpets housed in the Jewel House, at the Tower of London. Richard also pursued two years study at the Royal Academy of Music under John Wallace, David Staff, Jeremy West and Ray Allen, and has recently completed a further year of study with Bruce Dickey at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Switzerland.
For some time Richard has been interested in the performance practise of historical instruments and has studied the natural trumpet, keyed bugle, slide trumpet, cornett and, believe it or not, the bagpipes. Subsequent to studying these instruments Richard has gone on to perform and tour with a wide variety of ensembles including The Wallace Collection, King's Consort, Florilegium, Concerto Polacco, London Pro Arte Baroque, Counterpoint etc.
In addition to directing QuintEssential, Richard is currently a member of the Holbein Consort (ensemble in residence at Hampton Court Palace), is involved with the music for the Globe Theatre and regularly gives educational workshops dealing with music and history
Mary Tyers
Recorder, flute, consorts,
mixed instrument ensembles
Mary Tyers is an experienced and enthusiastic teacher, conductor and performer. She delights in helping the amateur musician develop their technical and interpretive skills through exploring the music they both love to play.
Mary has over thirty years experience as an instrumental teacher, maintaining an extensive private teaching practice across the north of England. She also tutors on residential courses and summer schools, including NORVIS and HISS; coaches ensembles at Durham University; leads workshop days; and is in demand as a popular visiting conductor to SRP branches and festivals.
Based in the north-east of England, Mary performs regularly with local period instrument orchestras; including Newcastle Baroque, the Yorkshire Baroque Soloists, the Durham Singers Ensemble and the Bishop’s Consort. Having recently ‘retired’ from the classroom she is also enjoying the luxury of having time to perform baroque chamber music and to return to her folk roots, the latter including collaborating with fellow tutor, Stewart Hardy (fiddle).
Nancy Johnstone
Administrator
We are joined for HISS 2026 by Nancy Johnstone, as Administrator. She was a Bursary student on the course in 2025.
Alongside her role as Administrator of HISS, Nancy is a composer based in Glasgow; currently studying for her Bachelor’s degree at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Nancy is passionate about historical music and working with renaissance musicians, having written and performed several new works for crumhorns, shawm, and baroque oboe d’amore; as well as commissioning new music for period instruments and electronics.
Graham Coatman
Director, choral training,
keyboards, continuo
Graham Coatman is a composer, conductor, choral trainer & keyboard player. He has worked as vocal coach, education animateur & continuo player with The English Concert, Charivari Agréable, BBC Philharmonic, English Northern Philharmonic, Orchestra of St John's Smith Square & creative music theatre projects with the major opera companies, including Opera North, ROH, ENO Baylis Programme, WNO, Glyndebourne, ETO, etc, and many notable venues, including the Soyuth Bank Centre, Wigmore Hall, Chichester Festival Theatre, Warwick Arts Centre,etc. He has led large scale sub-regional and national projects for Youth Music, Creatve Partnerships, and several festivals and LEAs.
Formerly Senior Lecturer in Performance Studies & Composition at Leeds College of Music, on his recent move to the south west he took up a part time Lectureship at Bath Spa University. His PhD research into medievalism in contemporary music at Huddersfield University led to papers delivered to the inaugural Middle Ages in the Modern World (MAMO) Conference 2013 at St Andrews, and a "special lecture" at the International Medieval Congress, Leeds in 2015, and published in the proceedings of the British Academy (OUP 2017). He is Director of 20,000 Voices, promoting the benefits of singing to all, with whom he was UK leader on the EU Erasmus+ choral conductor training programme ADDUP, working with colleagues in France, Italy and Poland.
Currently Graham directs a number of choirs and choral projects in the south west, including the 130 singers of Salisbury Community Choirm with whom he toured in 2024 to France, working with the Moris Orkestra (Rennes) and in Paris.
“Great tutors, fun sessions and a chance to meet a lot of amazing and friendly people - what more could you want!”