Martin Gordon - recorders, crumhorns, cornamuse, gemshorn; Janet Powell - recorders, crumhorn, gemshorn, shawm, harp, voice; Scott Baker - lute, 'ud, hurdy-gurdy, Renaissance guitar, cittern, voice; Marilyn Hughes - Medieval fiddle, treble viol, voice; Robert Edwards - recorders, crumhorns, bass curtal, virginals; Nick Bowman - recorders, gemshorn, shawm, bass viol, voice; Eli Williams - virginals, harp, percussion, voice; James Brookemyre - Recorders; Sarah Gooda - recorders, cornamuse; Eric Hadley - occasional readings and voice.
Influences
No definate influences, although we do listen to other consorts like Surina and the City Waites. Founding member Steve Todd has been the main guiding light.
Now well into our second decade of music making, Pavane Early Music Consort evolved from an adult education class started in late 1991 to explore music from the 16th and 17th centuries and in 1992 it became an independent group and began making public appearances. With the help of funding from various bodies we purchased a wide variety of authentic medieval and renaissance period instruments - renaissance recorders, crumhorns, rauschpfeifs, percussion, shawms, curtals, lutes, cittern, theorbo, oud, gemshorns, viols, virginals, rebecs, fiddles, hurdy-gurdy... as well as costumes, drapes and medieval tents.
We are constantly in demand at indoor and outdoor venues of every kind, from barns and battlefields to castles and stately homes. We are minstrels at historic sites for CADW and others, we provide musical atmosphere at weddings, Elizabethan banquets and medieval fayres. We have appeared in a TV series made by Wild Dream Films for Channel 4 about the English Civil War, arranged workshops for children and danced ceilidhs for the more energetic. In 2006 Pavane were ask by Newport based ballet company, Independant Ballet Wales, to provide music for their production of The Canterbury Tales. Pavane went into the studio - the result being a soundtrack for the dancers to perform to on tour. They also joined the company for ten of their dates. 2008 saw Pavane record a Christmas CD and play for Everman Theatre's production of 'Woyzeck'.
Our repertoire, which we are constantly developing, consists of a broad range of instrumental music and song from early medieval through Tudor and Elizabethan periods to the Restoration (ie from about 1100 to 1650). Our style varies from lively and raucous to courtly and domestic.
2009 looks set to be an eventful year for Pavane, with a string of dates at some of Wales' most beautiful historical sites, plus other concerts.
