Jon Bennett - Redwood Photography
|
Jon BennettJon has performed at festivals, arts centres and clubs in Lincolnshire, Shropshire, Oxfordshire and the North East since the 1980s. He has published children's songs commissioned by the National Cooperative Movement and the BBC and, with arrangements by Jacqui, has two books of original and traditional tunes published by Mel Bay. He's a previous winner BBC-radio/Folkwrite Magazine songwriting competition and a finalist of the International Songsearch competition. Jon's music has featured on the BBC's award-winning Global Echoes programme and on Radio 4.
Every year, with Jacqui, he manages and teaches Folk Orchestra, Songwriting and Ukulele courses at the National Centre for the Folk Arts (Halsway Manor) and Benslow Music, and has also run courses at festivals such as Common Ground (Scotland), Broadstairs Folk Week, BunkFest and the Ukulele Festival of Great Britain. He has written more than 80 reviews for Shire Folk magazine and is a staff/contributing writer for RnR Magazine. He founded Moonrakers in 1998. |
Jacqui graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, Australia. She subsequently became a full time member of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and later played with the Australian Opera and Ballet companies. She broadcasted and recorded recitals for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, gave many solo and chamber recitals throughout Australia, and toured China and Hong Kong. On moving to Oxford, Jacqui became a freelance musician, combining teaching, chamber music and solo performances with orchestras such as Milton Keynes Sinfonia, Oxford Symphony Orchestra, John Radcliffe Orchestra and Didcot Concert Orchestra. She plays an 18th century Italian baroque cello as well as a modern cello. She joined Moonrakers in late 2018 and from 2019 joined Jon as a tutor at the Folk Orchestra events.
|
Jacqui Johnson - Redwood Photography
|
Sarah Fell - Redwood Photography
|
Sarah has been performing across Oxfordshire as a solo act for a number of years. She won the Outstanding Vocal award at the Ox Factor in 2013 and appeared at Oxford Folk Weekend (two years running), Cowley Road Carnival and BBC Radio Oxford. She runs two community choirs in Oxfordshire and organises a number of musical events to support Sobell House hospice.
Sarah plays guitar and piano, and joined Moonrakers in 2016. |
Becki Luff
Becki gained her Bachelors and Masters degrees at The University of Manchester and The Royal Northern College of Music, studying with Eira Lynn Jones. Since then, she has performed at prestigious UK venues such as The Wigmore Hall, The Bridgewater Hall and The Sage, as well as giving a solo performance as part of the 13th World Harp Congress in Hong Kong. Becki loves to explore and develop harp music, both as a soloist and as a chamber musician; this has led her to work with a number of composers to perform premieres of new works. This passion motivated her current Arts Council project to explore the use of electronics with the instrument in order to write and record her own new works. Becki first began the harp whilst living on Anglesey and regularly competed and performed as part of the traditional Welsh music and folk festivals. She joined Moonrakers in 2021. |