Hello, come on in – meet Jo Cresswell…
Dance was her first love. She recalls it felt as natural
as breathing.
Introduced to bushdances at the local woolshed it was
a short step to learning the instrument that leads the
dancers. With a concertina in her hands . . . or as often
in her bike pannier . . . she travelled the world gathering
to her the dance tunes of England, Ireland, the US and
Scotland.
She revisited her first instrument, the piano, and is now an accomplished melody
player, accompanist and composer as well as a teacher of Celtic music and traditional
and improvised dance.
She has performed as a member of various dance and concert
bands including The Hudson Bay Company (USA) and The
Perfect Cure, Kilkenny and Halliracket in
Australia. Her concert repertoire on piano and concertina
has come to the fore in duos with guitarist Dave O’Neill
(Eric Bogle Band & The Bushwackers);
American flautist Kris Willits; instrumentalist Ben Stephenson
(Trouble in the Kitchen) & fiddler Sarah Davies
(Spoot O Skerry).
As an arts administrator she has managed numerous festivals,
events, conferences, workshops and residential retreats.
Jo was for 6 years the Assistant Director of the Australian
National Folk Festival, and is a founding committee member
of Folk Alliance Australia, Australia’s peak folk
organisation.
Jo plays with her trio Halliracket and teaches Celtic music, step
dance, piano, concertina and musicianship, as well a s promoting visiting Celtic
performers. Her business, the Celtic Arts Agency, fosters these and other activities.
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