Hi. We are an acoustic duo from the Blue Mountains outside Sydney.
We play an eclectic range of music from classical, roots and celtic to jazz, film music and contemporary popular.
Violin and vocal virtuosity, combined with imaginative string accompaniments make for a rich, engaging listening experience. Our interpretations are often very different from the norm, but never lose the beauty and character that drew us to the music in the first place.
Rebecca Daniel
Violin, Piano, Voice
Rebecca started learning violin at four and sang professionally at nine. At twelve she was the first child to perform “Flora” in The Turn of the Screw, touring the UK directed by Sir Nicholas Hytner and conducted by Sir Roger Norrington. She then joined the Tudor Consort of Rochester Cathedral.
She studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Emanuel Hurwitz and The Amadeus String Quartet, and was a member of the Chamber Orchestra under Trevor Pinnock and Simon Standage. She led the Manson Ensemble, and performed throughout the UK with the Parnassus Ensemble, before being invited to Australia to play with the ACO.
Rebecca has been in demand ever since, working with the SSO, and performers as varied as Pavarotti, Nureyev, Barbra Streisand, Shirley Bassey and Stephen Bishop- Kovacevich.
Performing credits include: John Denver, Bread, INXS, Men At Work, Tommy Emmanuel, John Farnham, Olivia Newton-John, Anthony Warlow, James Morrison, James Galway and the Chieftains, and with Will Ackerman at Carnegie Hall.
She was Concertmaster for Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Beauty and the Beast and The Sound of Music, and performed in West Side Story, A Little Night Music and The Hunting of the Snark.
Movie and TV credits: Black Robe, Strictly Ballroom, Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Moulin Rouge, The Magic Pudding, South Pacific, Moby Dick, Brides of Christ, Fields of Fire, Day of the Roses, and Come In Spinner.
Her recording credits include: INXS, Iva Davies, Marc Hunter, Noiseworks, Grace Knight, Tom Burlinson, Janet Seidel, Lee Kernaghan, Troy Cassar-Daley, Toni Lamond, Tim Draxl, David Campbell, Kate Ceberano, Wendy Matthews, Margaret Urlich, Peter Cousens, Robyn Dunn, Christopher Gordon and Fiona Joy Hawkins.
Rebecca plays an Andrea Castagneri violin, dated 1741.
Leigh Birkett
Guitar, Bouzouki, Mandolin, Voice
An accomplished accompanist, Leigh has toured extensively.
As a guitarist, he specialises in the altered tunings favoured by modern world musicians and he is adept at applying this approach across an unusual array of genres.
Leigh has a reputation as an arranger of rare imagination and his popularity centres on his ability to produce original, beautifully sensitive interpretations of the music being played.
He performs in bands in a broad range of genres: Modern Celtic, Balkan Gypsy, Western Swing, Jazz, Folk Rock, Australiana and Baroque.
AUDIO
A selection from more than three hours of songs and pieces we have up our sleeve for Christmas/Yulefest entertainment.