Anne Marie Summers

Anne Marie Summers

Bagpiper, Multi-instrumentalist and Singer

specialising in Historical and Traditional Music

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Anne Marie Summers has great experience in the field of early music.  Her main instruments are the several varieties of bagpipes she has collected, along with recorders, hurdy gurdy, medieval lap harp and clarinet, and she has a rich alto singing voice. Anne Marie also plays other rare and ancient instruments, including pibgorn, saz, bone flutes, horns, gemshorn and different kinds of percussion.

As a singer with bands such as Misericordia and Gaïta, she has a working knowledge of medieval French, thirteenth-century Spanish and Old and Middle English pronunciation. Her range is alto/tenor and her style leans much more toward folk than opera. She has a particular interest in British traditional song, which she has performed with various bands as well as unaccompanied.

You can listen online to her singing the medieval English Brid one Brere, the traditional English Andrew Carr, and the Welsh Myn Mair.

 

Her interest in bagpipes and hurdy gurdy led her into the world of French and Breton music and in 1999, with hurdy-gurdy player Steve Tyler, she won the coveted duo competition at St. Chartier with two pieces of dance music of her own composition.
You can listen online to her playing bagpipes on the medieval Italian Saltarello.

 
Other interests include seventeenth-century music, particularly the tunes from the Playford collection, and acoustic improvisation.  In various bands, she covers music from a very broad sweep of British and European history.

She has a great deal of experience in working with children of all ages and regularly leads school workshops in historical music and traditional European songs and dances.  Find out more about Anne Marie's Music for Children.

Bands:
Anne Marie is a founder member of the early music ensemble Misericordia, which she formed in 1994 with Steve Tyler (hurdy gurdy, gothic harp, citole, and lute). They regularly perform at concerts and other events around Britain and Europe as a duo or with other guest musicians, and have made numerous recordings, which are available at the band website.
The Wendigo
Primarily a dance band, playing French, Breton and English-style music for keen Euro dancers. The line up is Anne Marie on pipes, clarinet and vocals, Julian Sutton (also of the Catherine Tickell band) on melodeon, and Steve Tyler on hurdy gurdy and cittern. As well as playing for dances, they also give workshops and perform concerts. Two recordings available.
Squeake’s Noyse
With singer, storyteller and musician Thor Ewing. Music, stories and workshops for historical events, re-enactments, schools, banquets etc covering such diverse eras as Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Viking, Medieval, Tudor, Civil war and Napoleonic. Performances are in authentic period costume.
www.squeake.co.uk
Mandrake! – The Medieval Carnival Band
The medieval wall of sound! A big, loud costumed band – with a hint of Samba.
www.mandrakemusic.co.uk
Magpiety
Formed to explore the traditional song repertoire of the North of England, and specialising in two-part vocal harmonies accompanied by Scottish small pipes and melodeon and accordion. The full band includes singer Esme Ryder, melodeon-player Frank Lee, Phil Tyler on fiddle and Steve Tyler on cittern. One recording available.
Zephyrus, The English Bagpipe Orchestra
Six of England’s top pipers and an excellent percussionist. This band was formed and is led by Jon Swayne (founder member of Blowzabella) and is out on it’s own playing harmonically rich and rhythmically complex music written for the band by Jon and played on three different pitches of pipe for a wide melodic range.  An utterly luscious and rather brain-boggling sound. A recording is in the making and will be out soon.
Far Black Furlong
An improvisation group based on the Shropshire-Welsh border, producing some pretty off-the-wall sounds. Recordings only available from Woven Wheat Whispers.

Schools:
Anne Marie has been conducting workshops for school children for over ten years. With Misericordia there is a programme for children who are studying Medieval and Tudors, and with Squeake’s Noyse the programme is extended to cover many other eras from Roman to Napoleonic with music, songs, stories and dances.
She also gives workshops on traditional music and dances from all over Europe including France, Brittany, Italy, Bulgaria, Britain and Sweden, and often teaches songs to go with them in the original language.
She has worked with children of all ages and abilities and even holds regular music sessions for pre-school and nursery children.
CRB enhanced disclosure certificate and references available.  

Find out more about Anne Marie's Music for Children.

Born in Llandeilo in 1969 Anne Marie grew up in Wales and Scotland, and travelled the world playing music coming back to form the band Misericordia.  She now lives on the Welsh border and is married with two young children.

 

 

 

email Anne Marie Summers here

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