Olivia Moore

The Owl Ensemble is a seven-piece com­pris­ing a string quar­tet with a jazz trio, blend­ing layers of rhythmic pat­terns and soar­ing melod­ies, described as invent­ive and sub­vert­ing clas­sical traditions.

The Owl Ensemble was ori­gin­ally formed when Olivia and the drum­mer Myke Wilson found new inspir­a­tion in each others approach. This led to their col­lab­or­a­tion and a mutual interest in writ­ing for the string quar­tet. They formed the Owl Ensemble in 2008 and they held their premier at Manchester Jazz Fest­ival that year when it was hailed as “invent­ive” by Jazz­Wise magazine. In 2009, they per­formed in sev­eral venues includ­ing the Spin Off in Leeds and Zefferelli’s in Ambleside. This year they are booked for a show at the Con­tact Theatre, Manchester, Marsden Jazz Fest­ival and the string quar­tet play in Paul Heaton’s ‘The 8th’ at Manchester Inter­na­tional Festival.

The lin­eage of the string quar­tet goes back almost 300 years. The format is the corner­stone of clas­sical cham­ber music and with good reason. The Owl Ensemble now suc­ceeds in con­tinu­ing its devel­op­ment through bril­liant adapt­a­tion and absorp­tion of influ­ences from Indian, Fla­menco, clas­sical and much more, topped by start­ling impro­visa­tions. But it never loses the qual­it­ies that made this musical format stand the test of time. — Mike Hall – Sax­o­phon­ist and Jazz Tutor, The Royal North­ern Col­lege of Music

Olivia Moore – Violin
Clare Smith — Violin
Kath­er­ine Barnecutt – Viola
Semay Wu – Cello
David Muñoz – Piano
Sylvan Richard­son – Bass
Myke Wilson – Drums

Clare Smith is fre­quently in demand to play in back­ing groups to tour­ing artists and recently sup­por­ted Joan Baez on her tour of the UK.

Kath­er­ine Barnecutt enjoys a lively career in music. She’s played the viola in ensembles and orches­tras through­out the UK. Kath­er­ine cur­rently lives in Dublin and is a member of The RTE con­cert orchestra.

Semay Wu, is the cel­list and one half of duo May­m­ing: Semay’s music spans from clas­sical to club – she has recor­ded and per­formed with artists includ­ing Jean Tous­saint; bands includ­ing Toolshed, Ninja­Tunes and Home­life, and theatre com­pan­ies includ­ing Fork­beard Fantasy.

David Muñoz is a great ensemble player and has brought his singing tone and fiery play­ing to many diverse pro­jects and col­lab­or­a­tions UK wide from Salsa to con­tem­por­ary dance, short films, art install­a­tions and sup­port for inter­na­tional artists with vari­ous bands includ­ing Tito Puente, Eli­ades Ochoa and Omar Puente.

Sylvan Richard­son has a deep groun­ded music­al­ity. He’s played with Simply Red, Joe Lovano, Tommy Smith, Gary Boyle and Andy Shep­pard. He is also an exper­i­enced MD and pro­du­cer in his own right in the pop industry, having worked with Ian Brown and Cleopatra.

Myke Wilson is a legendary, ener­getic and excit­ing drum­mer who plays a mix­ture of groove based Jazz and hip-hop. He has toured and recor­ded with Mike Walker, The Dust Junkies, Lamb, 808 State, Texas and Swing Out Sister.