Elizabeth-Jane Baldry

The Pride of the Clan, The Swallow and the Titmouse

Elizabeth-Jane Baldry is a West-country harpist and composer who performs internationally. She specialises in playing live to cinema screenings of early film, and has won multiple awards for her silent film accompaniments. Her uniquely rich tone on the harp has graced film and television soundtracks screened in over 30 countries. Her compositions have been used by ITV, the BBC, and Irish, Japanese, Danish, and Canadian film, radio and television. In her spare time Elizabeth-Jane cares for her magical ten-acre woodland in the Dartmoor National Park. “She is a great artist and consummate performer. She can draw more tone colours out of the instrument than any other harpist living in the world today.” - David Watkins, Professor of Harp, Guildhall School of Music.

Frank Bockius

The Chase after Millions, Laurel & Hardy Double Bill, The Cave of the Spider Woman, Forgotten Faces

Frank Bockius is a versatile percussionist who has dedicated a major part of his musical work to accompanying silent film during the last 25 years. He regularly plays at many major festivals, cities and venues around the globe and records scores for silent film. www.frankbockius.de

Neil Brand

Neil Brand: Key Notes, Skinner’s Dress Suit, I Want to be a Train Driver

Neil is one of the UK’s most established silent film accompanists, composers, writers and broadcasters. His achievements are too extensive to list, but recent work includes Echoes of the North, with the Brighouse and Rastrick band, and the Hound of the Baskervilles with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Günter Buchwald

The Chase after Millions, The Cave of the Spider Woman

Günter A. Buchwald is one of the pioneers of the renaissance of silent film music and one of the most experienced practitioners. He accompanies silent films for over 46 years with a repertoire of 3600 titles. His wide experience in music from Baroque to Jazz allows him a huge stylistic variety in musical improvisation. Since 1984 he plays regularly at film festivals in Berlin (Berlinale, Int. Film festival), Bonn, Bristol Slapstick Silent (musical director), Pordenone (“Giornate del Cinema Muto”), Zürich, München, San Francisco Silent Film festival. He plays piano, violin and viola, sometimes simultaneously. In 1985 he founded the Silent Movie Music Company of which Frank Bockius is its member since 1991. Specialised on Silent Film, he conducts symphonic orchestras. Since 1998 he is associate conductor of the Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra which premiered his scores for Murnau’s FAUST, NOSFERATU, BLACK FOREST MOUNTAIN SYMPHONY (2013), the newly restored silent classic CASANOVA (2019) (France 1929) and Charles Chaplin THE IMMIGRANT (2024) Amongst others, Guenter is laureate of the Cultural Award for the City of Freiburg (2012) and for the Ad-Hoc Award for the Beethoven Fest Bonn.

Jane Gardner

Before the Face of the Sea, The Pleasure Garden

Jane Gardner has delighted many a silent film audience with her sympathetic and eclectic accompaniments, both on solo piano and with other musicians. Her first film was to Victor Sjöström's He Who Gets Slapped (1924) in 2005. Since then, she has performed at many venues and festivals all over the UK, and she contributed to the 4-disk Blu ray/DVD box set 'Cinema's First Nasty Women’. Jane has been a regular at Hippfest since 2012. www.janegardner.uk

Stephen Horne 

The Pride of the Clan, The Swallow and the Titmouse, Forgotten Faces

Stephen first started accompanying silent films at BFI Southbank over 30 years ago. He has recorded music for several DVD and online releases, and regularly plays at major international festivals. Although principally a pianist, he often incorporates flute, accordion and keyboards into his performances, sometimes simultaneously. Stephen has been an award winner for the last 8 years in the Silent London Poll. www.stephenhorne.co.uk

Mike Nolan

The Constant Nymph, The Shamrock Handicap

Mike works across Scotland as a versatile composer and performer, and is a regular at HippFest. He has accompanied silent film screenings for over 30 years including several commercial releases and live performances for the NLS Moving Image Archive. Mike is also a pipe organist and Nordoff-Robbins trained music therapist.

Tommy Perman

What the Water Remembers - The Dark Mirror

Tommy Perman is an artist, designer and musician who loves to blur the boundaries between these disciplines through collaboration. His visual design work has been seen across numerous high profile books, websites, record sleeves, and even projected onto the Sydney Opera House. Tommy has been collaborating with musician Andrew Wasylyk since 2018. In 2024 they released their first collaborative album ‘Ash Grey and the Gull Glides On’ via London-based label Clay Pipe Music.

Caroline Salmon

Before the Face of the Sea

Caroline is a Soprano recently moved to Portobello.   She has performed in many operas, in UK and France, for example as Donna Anna, Mimi, Queen of the Night, in a touring group, the Three and a Half Sopranos, opera galas with Figaro Productions, and many recitals.  She also sings Hildegard accompanying herself on viol.  She plays violin in Meadows Chamber Orchestra, sings soprano in the newly formed choir Luminatus  and is lay clerk at Robin Chapel.   She has always had a keen interest in promoting and performing contemporary music and  has worked with several composers on new works, broadcast on Radio 3. She works for Nycos, and is Music Director at Edinburgh Greek Orthodox Church where she is learning ancient Greek and Byzantine neumes. And loves going down to the Porty Tap on Sundays to play folk fiddle. 

Paul G. Smyth

Flora Kerrigan - Rediscovering a Film Pioneer, The Near Shore: A Scottish and Irish Cine-Concert

Described by The New York City Jazz Record as “a revelation”, Irish pianist Paul G. Smyth has released critically acclaimed duo albums with Peter Brötzmann, Evan Parker, Chris Corsano, John Wiese and John Russell on his label Weekertoft; performed with Charles Gayle, Derek Bailey, Keiji Haino, Wadada Leo Smith and Okkyung Lee, and toured with large-scale instrumental psych-rockers The Jimmy Cake and synth trio Boys of Summer, creating a body of work that led The Free Jazz Collective to call him “one of the great contemporary pianists”.

John Sweeney

Since 1990 John has played for silent film at festivals and venues including the British Silent Film Festival, and the Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone, Italy. He has composed scores for Lois Weber’s Dumb Girl of Portici (Milestone DVD) and The Great Victorian Picture Show at the London Film Festival (2018), and has recorded DVDs for the BFI, Cineteca Bologna and Edition Filmmuseum. John is one of the founders of the Kennington Bioscope which screens neglected silent films at the Cinema Museum in London.

Andrew Wasylyk

What the Water Remembers - The Dark Mirror

Scottish composer/multi-instrumentalist whose style explores genres ranging from singer/songwriter fare to pastoral soft jazz.

Tuomas Norvio

With Reindeer and Sled in Inka Länta’s Winterland

Tuomas Norvio is a sound designer and electronic artist with a background in electronic music. He now works across various artforms and genres. Norvio is interested in rhythmic and arrhythmic masses of sound, and using acoustic and sampled sounds, as well as immersive sound, as material. 

Hildá Länsman

With Reindeer and Sled in Inka Länta’s Winterland

Hildá Länsman is a Sámi singer, yoiker, and musician from Ohcejohka on the Finnish side of Sápmi, now based in Guovdageaidnu.  Immersed in the ancient traditions of reindeer husbandry, artistic handicraft (duodji), and yoik (luohti) from a young age, Hildá seamlessly blends her rich cultural heritage with contemporary music and visual arts. Her studies at the Sibelius Academy’s Global Music Programme have broadened her horizons, enabling her to collaborate with artists from diverse backgrounds and engage with a wide range of musical traditions.

Lávre Johan Eira

With Reindeer and Sled in Inka Länta’s Winterland

Lávre Johan Eira is a young indigenous artist and musician from the Sámi village of Guovdageaidnu in the Norwegian side of Sápmi. His musical expression is strongly grounded in the Sámi vocal tradition of joik, yet always exploring new impulses in the world of Sámi music. Joik and song are at the center of his live performances; sometimes solo with a guitar and effects setup - and other times together with a varied ensemble of inspiring musicians. Lávre’s distinctive, exploratory yet grounded sound is inspired by an internal unrest and the strange mosaic of life, explored through a mystical lyrical world drawing from themes that are often a bit out of sight in the Sámi culture at large.

Svante Henryson

With Reindeer and Sled in Inka Länta’s Winterland

Svante Henryson grew up in Umeå, where he began his musical journey as an electric and double bassist, performing in rock and jazz genres. After studying at the Academy of Music in Prague, he became the youngest solo bassist ever to join the Oslo Philharmonic. Seeking a new challenge, he moved to the United States to become the electric bassist for a world-renowned heavy metal band. During extensive world tours, Svante mastered another instrument: the cello. His innovative playing style is groundbreaking in terms of tone, technique, and genre-crossing versatility. With proficiency in three instruments, Svante moves fluidly across the entire musical spectrum. This is evident in his impressive list of collaborations with prominent artists from various genres, such as Yngwie Malmsteen, Elvis Costello, and Anne Sofie von Otter.