THE DUFAY COLLECTIVE

The Dufay Collective has been performing and recording its unique brand of early music for twenty years. During this time the group has performed at major festivals and toured throughout the world, receiving critical acclaim from Cairo to Carlisle. The group has made a series of successful recordings of a wide ranging repertoire of instrumental and vocal music from the Middle Ages and Renaissance, including the Grammy nominated 'Cancionero'.

They can also be heard on the soundtracks of several feature films including. The Dufays have just recorded their second disc for Harmonia Mundi USA, being 'The Play Of Daniel'. To mark their twentieth anniversary, the group has embarked upon a series of long term projects, including the forthcoming ‘Alchemy’ project with Andalusian ensemble Al Quimia.

Vivien Ellis

Vivien's first experience of performing to an audience was an unaccompanied rendition of ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ to a critically stunned gathering of hens and pigs on her parents' farm. An unabashed Essex girl, she reluctantly swapped her white stilettos and ankle chain for a guitar and piano at the age of 11. As a teenager she fell in love with Gilbert O' Sullivan (surely some mistake - ed) and progressed to the taxing role of Nancy in a school production of Oliver. Although she entertained hopes of becoming Horndon-on-the-Hill's answer to Deborah Harry, Vivien landed a place at the National Youth Theatre. Banned from the performing arts (stage work clashed with O-Levels), she gained an English degree and became a teacher in rural Leicestershire.

After meeting voice coach Frankie Armstrong at a women's festival (this was inevitably followed by a stint at Greenham Common), Vivien realised her true vocation and became her apprentice. She began running voice workshops and also travelled abroad, particularly to Bulgaria, in search of indigenous vocal traditions. She subsequently got her big break courtesy of Stevie Wishart, who was on the look-out for a singer for Sinfonye. In 1995, she jumped ship (imagine Martha quitting the Vandellas for the Supremes) and joined The Dufay Collective, (ever the pragmatist, she never actually left Sinfonye). Other projects include providing vocals for husband Glenn Keiles' TV soundtracks and recording a collection of Dawn Songs from around the world. When she's not singing, Vivien attends toddler Yoga with her small daughter. Just to bring things full circle, she's found herself belting out ‘Twinkle Twinkle’. Every night.

Bill Lyons

The group’s researcher, programmer and general control freak. A youthful interest in all things traditional and a curious affinity with folk song based hymns led quite naturally to a love of early music. This was fostered greatly by a recorder-mad headmaster at primary school and through exposure to the pagan rawness of the ‘Obby ‘Oss processions whilst living in Padstow, Cornwall.

Bill’s first ensemble was the Fitzgerald Consort, which he formed when just 15. The group consisted of Bill [programmer, researcher etc.], his impressively teen-beer-bellied best friend Sean and mildly reluctant younger siblings, Siobhan and Desmond. The consort blazed a trail through the music competitions and church flower festivals of Cornwall until Bill went to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama to ‘study’ recorder and flute. Four years later he emerged bleary-eyed and stumbling into the real world, where he remained for a year until becoming a founder member of the Dufays in early 1987. He’s not sure what’s happened since.

When on day release, Bill finds time to work with leading period music ensembles and as a session player. He has been MD, arranger and composer at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre for nine years and has composed and arranged for film, including most recently Pride and Prejudice and Golden Age. He also teaches Medieval and Renaissance Studies at the Royal College of Music.

Susanna Pell

Susanna Pell (Zan) has played the viola da gamba since she was sixteen, although her love of early music began long before that. After studying music at the University of York she travelled to Switzerland for viol lessons with Jordi Savall. In 1987 she was invited to join The Dufay Collective and took up the medieval fiddle.

Now, in addition to her work with the Dufays, she performs and records with several leading ensembles and is a member of the viol consort Fretwork.

Zan is married to the American lutenist Jacob Heringman and spends free moments taming an overactive garden in Streatham and walking the back streets and green spaces of London and beyond.

Peter Skuce

It was obvious from an early age, to teachers and social workers alike, that Peter Skuce would never be able to hold down a proper job. As a child, he astonished his parents by completing his toilet training before moving on to Higher Education. With a reluctance to get up much before lunch time, it seemed inevitable that he would become a musician. After twenty years as a founder member of The Dufay Collective, people are starting to wonder why they put up with him. Is it his impeccable musicianship, or is it the fact that he is the only one prepared to tackle the VAT Return?

His determination to never split an infinitive and refusal to end a sentence with a preposition (or start one with 'but') can be hard to put up with. But despite his reputation as group pedant, he maintains that a nit-picking attitude is essential in a harpsichordist.

Of late there have been persistent rumours to the effect that Peter is also a member of the controversional, subversive and downright heretical electro-acoustic medieval band Electrosonic Monk, but this is something he strenuously denies.

Peter has two daughters, Médée and Phaedra, whose mother has gone to extraordinary lengths, including breaking the law on a weekly basis, to prevent them from ever seeing him. Some maintain that this has turned Peter into a sad, bitter and twisted old git, but those who know him better insist that this is hardly fair since he has always been that way.