Ela With Strings
Original dreamscape arrangements.
Jazz and Brazilian Bossa Nova – classics and rare gems.
Pro musicians from the South coast jazz and classical scene form 9-piece band – swing jazz quintet & classical string quartet.
Thanks everso much to everyone who came to our sell out debut concerts at the Friends Meeting House in Brighton as part of Brighton Fringe Festival 2021! We had a wonderful time and were so pleased with all the lovely feedback!
We are currently hatching plans to put this concert on again.
If you are a promoter or you’d just you’d like to be the first in the know, then please email me to go on my mailing list – elasouthgate@gmail.com
Who are we?
Matthew Wall, Ela Southgate and Tim Wade
Matthew, Ela and Tim are behind the Ela with Strings project. As a trio they have been playing together for more than 10 years, performing at jazz clubs, concert venues as well as playing background music at weddings and parties. With regard to how the Ela with Strings project came about, Ela woke up one morning and the title just popped into her head! She asked Matt to arrange a song or two for the trio with a string quartet to hear what it might be like, and after a couple of years of writing on and off, they decided to make a whole suite of songs with a jazz quintet plus a string quartet.
If you’d like to chat about hiring Ela with Strings, please drop Ela a line at – elasouthgate@gmail.com
Our performers
Terry Pack on Bass
Terry started playing professionally aged 16 in 1974. Recorded four albums with The Enid between 1976 and 79. Played pop, rock, blues and jazz sessions and gigs between 1979 and 1998. Lived in Italy 1993-1998. Returned to UK in 1999, and focused on jazz. Many recording credits. Four albums as leader. Founded Trees in 2015.
Buster Birch - Drums
Buster Birch has an honours degree in music from the University of London and a post-graduate diploma in jazz performance from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He has performed at virtually every major concert hall and jazz club in London as well as major international festivals and toured in over 30 countries and played on more than 30 CDs. He has worked with many of the UK’s finest jazz musicians as well as The Royal Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra and deputised on West End shows. He is the drummer for ARQ (Alison Rayner Quintet), winners of the Parliamentary Award for “Best UK Jazz Ensemble 2018”. He is director of The Original UK Jazz Summer School and The Online UK Jazz School and he is co-founder and lead tutor for the award-winning BYMT Jazz School for children. Since 2018 he has published 24 books on jazz improvisation. He has his own critically acclaimed show “Buster plays Buster” featuring his own jazz quartet playing live to screenings of classic Buster Keaton movies for which he has arranged and scored all of the music.
Sheraine Lynsdale-Nock - violin
Sheraine had a misspent youth improvising pop music on her violin when she ought to have been practising her scales. Fortunately this has come in really handy and she now has a varied musical life playing in orchestras to teaching to running her function group: South Downs Strings.
Bimbi Urquhart - viola
Alexandra Urquhart trained classically as a viola player at Trinity College of Music and then the Royal College of Music. She has performed and toured with orchestras such as the Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as playing for a year in Chile with the Orquesta Filarmonica de Santiago. She played on the album ‘Bad Blood’ by Bastille, as well as playing as part of their string quartet at Glastonbury and on the festival circuit. She has recorded as solo viola with singer/songwriter Ben Rusch for his album Architects of Time, as well as playing on Tango Siempre’s album ‘Malandras del Tango’. She is a member of one of London’s finest string quartets, Titanium Strings.
Joe Giddey - cello
Joe Giddey is a freelance cellist who plays with many varied ensembles, working with orchestras, quartets, string ensembles, bands and recording sessions for film and television.
Orchestral work includes BBC Concert Orchestra, Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, Opera Holland Park, and New English Concert Orchestra and St Martin in the Fields Consort Orchestra. Joe has recorded for film work and theatre work, including ‘Gospel of Us’ with the National Theatre, ‘Backbeat’ West End show, string quartet music for Warner Bros and recently recording for Sony Playstation game music and the ‘Last Reef’ film in 3D.
Joe is also involved with many chamber ensembles, including the Montpellier Cello Quartet. They have in recent years embarked on a partnership with jazz vocalist Claire Martin OBE in a sound fusion of jazz-chamber music written for the ensemble by internationally renowned musicians and composers, including Richard Rodney Bennett, Mark Anthony Turnage, Joe Stilgoe and Django Bates.