Liz’s journey began in the ‘70’s in Oxford with violin and bassoon, extending beyond classical boundaries (with three grade 8 medals) to embrace international folk, gypsy and birdsong influences. In 1986 she graduated in music at Manchester University, then worked in Italy as an orchestral violinist.

Liz has combined her childhood love of chamber music with a great interest in world music and cultures. She was a founder member of world music group Orbestra, researching and performing internationally. She has developed her own style of playing, greatly influenced by time spent with gypsies in Eastern Europe, plus ongoing research into the interface between gesture, movement and sound in violin playing.

Liz spent Christmas 2009 in Brazil on a British council Artist links residency with the Conference of Birds. Summer 2010 has included a staged duet with counter-tenor Michael Chance in Peter Cowdrey's opera 'The Lovely Ladies' at Chrisities auction house London; and indoor outdoor performances and dance collaborations in Tuscany. 'Firebird' her group featuring Anglo-Latin-American improvisations, and gypsy-inspired trio Jubovski all display Liz's unique embodiment of the classical-gypsy spirit.

“Liz Cowdrey's nifty violin was stunning.” - (The Independent)

“The potency and beauty of her sound and her masterly handling of the bow” - (El Pais, Cali, Colombia)

“Strong resonances of the gypsy spirit and the tremendous swing of Stefan Grappelli's violin” - (Hi-Fi World)

Jub's career has covered a wide range of musical styles. He's worked in avantgarde theatre with Station House Opera, been a member in the Indie pop group The Band of Holy Joy, as well as working with more conventional groups like English National Opera, London Contemporary Dance Theatre,London Mozart Players and the London Chamber Orchestra. He also co-founded the prize winning Kreisler String Orchestra which went on to win the 1986 Jeunesses Musicales Competition in Belgrade. Jub has been a longstanding member of the Carnival Band.www.carnivalband.com He can often be seen playing and singing with them and their long-time collaborator Maddy Prior. Twenty-two years and 12 albums later they are still going strong. Over the years he has worked with many notable artists including Youssou N'Dour, Tanita Tikaram, Abdullah Ibrahim, Ian Carr, Loose Tubes, Brian Eno, Sting, Joss Pook, DJ Krust, Zero 7, the Brodsky and Duke string quartets.

He is a founder member and trustee of the Adderbury Ensemble and Oxford coffee Concerts in Oxfordshire and is also a founding member of the Bristol Ensemble. He’s taken up the challenge of contemporary music with groups such as Opus 20, Lontano, Orbestra and Ixion.

A diversity of musical projects have included, theatrical work with Gloria Theatre Company's “A Picture of Dorian Gray”, an extraordinary world music collaboration with experimental cellist David Darling and the Wulu Bunun singers of Taiwan. One recent highlight, has been to work and tour the world with dynamic choreographer Hofesch Schecter and his dance company's production of "In Your Rooms."

Film and TV work includes recorded contributions to the sound tracks of David Attenborough's BBC television series “Life in Cold Blood”, Franny Armstrong’s eco pic “The Age Of Stupid” and Andrew Piddingtons “The Killing Of John Lennon”

Concert collaborations have included performances with musical savant and blind pianist Derek Paravicini, one of which was broadcast on CBS 60 MINUTES. Another recent outstanding collaboration in Bristol saw him perform with legendary drum and bass supremo Roni Size and Reprazent.

Despite all the amazing projects he has one secret claim to fame and that is, he created and sang on the jingle “Bring Chris Evans On” for Chris Evans’ Friday drive time show on BBC radio 2.

A recent reviewer described his bass playing as "highly agile" with "jaunty fingering" and bowing that issued "deep laments".

Peter Cowdrey was born in Oxford in 1963 and won music scholarships to Winchester College and Trinity College Cambridge. He studied composition with Oliver Knussen. After leaving Cambridge he spent three years in the South Pacific, making recordings of Polynesian music and working at a University in Tonga. He then spent several years touring with the world music group Orbestra.

Peter's works have been premiered at Istanbul and Schleswig Holstein Festivals, and in the Royal Albert Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room. He has written music for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and been interviewed on In Tune and The Verb on Radio 3. Recent premieres include a quartet for the Brodskys in Derry during October 2009, and Sorrowful Glen, a new site specific work for Brass for the Loch Shiel Spring Festival, at Glenborrodale Castle in Ardnamurchan during May 2010.

Peter is Musical Director of Suffolk Opera www.suffolkopera.org.uk, and of Opera Unlimited, for whom he conducted the premiere of 'The Lovely Ladies' at Christie’s in May 2010. A comic opera about wine with a libretto by Hamish Robinson and a cast of soloists from the Royal Opera House. In August 2010 he will conduct an Opera Gala at the Cadiz Festival, and in September Dido and Aeneas in Madrid for Peninsular Opera.

In 2009 Peter founded The Conference of Birds which performs music and dance inspired by birdsong over five centuries. www.theconferenceofbirds.com Funded by the British council, they recently travelled to Brazil to study birdsong and work with musicians in the Amazon basin. This led to a week long birdsong holiday for the Alternative Travel Group www.atg-oxford.co.uk, based at Pieve a castello Tuscany, which included birdsong-related walks and concerts.