Crasdant

.

The five band members are Robin Huw Bowen (triple harp), Stephen Rees (fiddle & accordion), Andy McLauchlin (flute & pibgorn), Huw Williams (guitar & clogging) and Chris Bain (fiddle).

Robin Huw Bowen is Wales' best-known triple-harpist. Born into the Welsh community in Liverpool, England into a family originally from Anglesey, he learned to play the simple Celtic Harp while at school, inspired by the Breton harper, Alan Stivell. In 1979 he received a degree in Welsh Language and Literature from Aberystwyth University. Bowen is noted for his research and publications of the traditional dance music of Wales and also his research and recording of the music of the Welsh Gypsies, much of which is reflected in Crasdant's repertoire. In 2000 Bowen was awarded the Glyndŵr Award for “an outstanding contribution to the arts in Wales.”

Stephen Rees, born in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, first came to prominence as a teenage member of the traditional Welsh music band Ar Log from 1982 until 1994. He was educated at Amman Valley Comprehensive School and is a graduate of Selwyn College, Cambridge. Since 1998 he has pursued an academic career, lecturing in music at Bangor University. He is especially interested in researching Welsh traditional music, including performance practice of the Renaissance and Middle Ages. When not lecturing or performing Rees works on music programs for Welsh language television.

Andy McLauchlin was born in Hertfordshire, in the south of England, but he claims that his fascination with Welsh culture and music began during a school trip to Snowdonia at the age of fourteen. McLauchlin went to Bangor University where he studied biochemistry. He later he learned to speak Welsh and has played a prominent part in the musical life of Wales for many years, playing a variety of instruments in folk groups and dance bands.

Huw Williams is Wales' foremost exponent of the art of clogging, a form of step dancing, which he has been performing since the age of fifteen. He has won several titles at the Welsh National step-dancing championships and several eisteddfodau. Williams is also well-known as a singer-songwriter and began his professional career as part of the folk duo 'Huw and Tony Williams' and regularly broadcasts on BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio 4.

Crasdant's latest recruit is fiddler Chris Bain. A native of Chicago, USA, he grew up in a musical family surrounded by the traditional music of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, as well as bluegrass and classical music and began playing violin at the age of five. Although the fiddle is his main instrument, he also plays guitar and mandocello. Bain spent an exchange year at Bangor University. He also plays with the US Celtic group "Bua".

Albums

* Cerddoriaeth draddodiadol Gymreig / Welsh traditional music - 1999, Sain SCD 2220
* Nos Sadwrn Bach / Not Yet Saturday - 2001, Sain SCD 2306
* Dwndwr / The Great Noise - 2005, Sain SCD 2487

External links

* [http://www.crasdant.com/ Crasdant]
* [http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/millennium/artist_detail.cfm?artist_id=CRASDANT Crasdant at the The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, USA]

References