Sounds Austen is an evolving collective of talented musicians. Our goal is to recreate and perform a variety of dance music primarily from the Regency period. Sounds Austen has been formed in collaboration with an outstanding group of dancers from Dance Kaleidoscope, without whom, we wouldn't have anyone to play for.
We all have different day jobs but most of our free time is spent researching, arranging, composing, and practising, and we also create our own Regency costumes to perform in. We spend most of our time researching, rewriting, and arranging the music; tracking down every version of each piece or song and we have even based our arrangements on original musical scores from as far back as 1690. We also enjoy watching Regency films and documentaries and spotting music and musicians.
Our typical lineup is flute, violin, viola, cello, bassoon, guitar, and piano, but we can perform with as few as three people. We get a real kick out of performing Regency music for our dancing friends and we have literally followed them all over the countryside to bring our combined performances to appreciative audiences.
Contact Jonathan at sounds.austen{at}gmail.com