Chris Wood, internationally acclaimed singer, fiddle-player, guitarist and composer, is set to perform at UU next week as part of the Autumn Season of lunchtime concerts.

In his youth Chris Wood played at all the major folk festivals in Britain during the weekends and summer. In 1986 he gave up a career in graphic design to embark on a professional career in music making and studied with Lisa Ornstein in Quebec, exploring the relationship between English and Quebecois fiddle repertoire.

It was his collaboration with Andy Cutting that brought him onto the English acoustic music scene and his collaborations with Martin Carthy, Andy Irvine, John Kirkpatrick and Andy Cutting have marked him out as one of the most perceptive and expressive musicians around today.His passion for and interpretation of English traditional music put him at the forefront of contemporary performers.

Alongside his professional performing career he also has a successful teaching career regularly taking workshops in schools around the UK and Europe as well as Goldsmiths College, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Irish World Music Centre in Limerick.

He is also a sought after composer with commissions from radio, television and theatre, including The Royal Shakespeare Company and The National Theatre, as well as live pieces for choir, string trio and acoustic ensembles.He was recently commissioned by the English Arts Council to write a folk symphony based on the River Medway in his native Kent and was named BBC Radio 3’s Artist of the Week for this composition after it was broadcast on the station in April 2004.He has presented programmes on RTE Lyric FM on the subject of the traditional music of England and Lyric FM has been playing music from his most recent CD Ghosts, recorded with his trio The English Acoustic Collective.

Chris Wood will perform at the Octagon, Coleraine campus on Monday 18^th and the Great Hall, Magee campus on Tuesday 19^th October.

Lunchtime Concerts start at 1.15 and finish at 2pm.Admission is £3 and tickets are available on the door

For further details please contact the Cultural Development Office, Coleraine campus on 028 7032 4683 or Magee campus on 028 7137 5658.

For further information, please contact:

Press Office, Department of Communication and Development
Tel: 028 9036 6178
Email: pressoffice@ulster.ac.uk