Lumina are available for concerts, banquets, weddings, corporate and fundraising events.
Lumina combine three very different but complementary talents in Bronwen Harrison, Anne Harrow and Leli Hockin.
Bronwen and Leli found a common bond in folk and period music while involved in historical re-enactment. Some years later, Leli met Anne and they also found a natural camaraderie through music. Coming together in the Summer of 2008, they formed Lumina.
Sharing a pleasure in music making, they explore over 500 years of music and song using many authentic instruments. Together they produce a delightfully heady mixture of musical light and shade, weaving close harmonies and instrumentation with delicious arrangements and a warm, light-hearted approach to performance.
In addition to Music and Song performance, they can also include Dance and Song for audience participation if required, or the performance of a traditional Medieval Mummers Play, combining comedy and masks for some light-hearted entertainment.
Lumina are :
Bronwen Harrison
I was born in North East London. My first and enduring love has always been music. I feel lucky to have been brought up at a time of great change in music and from the early stirrings of Rock and Pop in the 1960’s, I witnessed the emergence of the great song and music makers of that era. I was powerfully influenced by their work and artistes such as Joni Mitchell, Ian Anderson, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and the like, played a hugely influential part in my early efforts at writing.
Throughout my life, music has been a continuing passion and I have been keen to embrace the many genres it offers. There is very little music I do not enjoy, depending on mood and the circumstances of the moment;. Classical, Rock, Jazz, Folk, American Country and most Period styles as well as African, Indian and other World Music.
Although not academically trained in music (I leave all that stuff to Anne!), I have been blessed with a natural ear, particularly for harmony. I am happiest when with others who share the bliss of creating music and song. I’ve always enjoyed performing and have worked professionally in this field since the early 90’s when I recorded my first album, Moonstruck with Internationally acclaimed musician, Nigel Shaw. For a number of years I toured and recorded with successful contemporary folk band, Seelie Court. In addition, I continued to write, record and produce my own material and by the late 1990’s I was regularly creating music and songs for theatre. At the turn of the Millennium I met gifted guitarist Peter Stothart and we formed Guesswork. Writing and recording together, we have produced two albums so far, Enter Alone and Cabin Fever. In 2007, we were signed to Crash Records. A contrast to Lumina, the music is dark, theatrical and contemporary – a fusion of pop/rock and world music influences.
As a professional actor I have worked with numerous Children’s Theatre touring companies playing a variety of ‘goodie’ and ‘baddie’ characters; played in pantos (which I love) and Street Theatre comedy shows, writing and directing original music scores and songs for most productions. In contrast I have taken on serious roles in adult political, contemporary mask and physical theatre productions and acted in a number of film shorts. I like being busy and am a partner in an educational company, Sun Jester. Working with adults and children of all ages, I use drama to teach social history and run workshops in acting and part-singing which aim to develop talent and promote confidence in others.
When not performing, writing or recording I like to knit (yes, knit!), read, socialise with friends and go to the theatre.
Anne Harrow
I’m from Stanmore in Middlesex but my family moved to Leicester when I was very small. As a child there, I was inspired by my Year Six teacher, Martin Kirk, to play the recorder. He provided us with multi-part versions of nursery rhymes, and I can still remember the thrill of playing harmony for the first time and realising how this marvellous sound was made: two or more instruments playing different notes at the same time.
This idea has remained the abiding love of my life, and I have rarely since been found doing anything else. I played violin and viola as a teenager, but stringed instruments have never felt as immediate to me as instruments played using the breath. My maternal grandfather had been a jazz band musician playing saxophone, and so I began to play this too, later becoming a third generation sax player when my mother took it up aged sixty. My son Raphael is now a sax player as well. There was music on the other side of my family too: some of my paternal grandmother’s nine sisters were in the music hall, and one of them was sister-in-law to Bud Flannagan – how I would have loved that bygone London musical life!
The move to Leicester, it turned out, was only a ‘practice’ for what was about to happen: we emigrated to New Zealand when I was twelve. There I learned to sing from Sister Mary Leo the nun who had taught Dame Kiri te Kanawa, and we all dreamed of following in Kiri’s footsteps. I sang in the New Zealand National Youth Choir and a number of opera companies, taking small roles or being in the chorus. I also did a number of stage shows, usually taking a small character part.
The thirst to have my own, individual part was always strong in me, and as a young adult I took up the French horn so that I could be in orchestras and enjoy the challenge of playing really complex music. I then went to university to do a degree in horn, and while there began song writing. After this I gladly emigrated back to England to do a master’s degree in Horn at the Royal College of Music.
Unfortunately breast cancer interrupted my studies, but has left me in remission for nearly a decade after several early recurrences, and has certainly fuelled my zest for life.
A few years ago I developed an interest in Medieval Reenactment and this naturally led me to explore early musical instruments. I have since learned to play shawm, crumhorn, and cornett, and am always looking for new instruments to master – the English bagpipes are coming up!
Singing with Broni and Leli recreates for me that magical time when I first consciously heard harmony, and allows me to fully enjoy the pleasures of entertaining, as my forebears did. Our different talents dovetail together so beautifully – I cannot harmonise or memorise music half as well as Broni can, nor can I play the harp or guitar like Leli or recreate her beautiful airy soprano voice. In return, I know my music reading, research and knowledge of classical music seem like some sort of arcane mystery to them. The perfect complement!
Leli Hockin
I was born in Chesham, Buckinghamshire, to parents committed to amateur dramatics. At an early age I was encouraged onto the stage to perform in pantomime and a variety of theatre productions. I learned to play the recorder at school but was ‘rumbled’ after a year, in the discovery that I couldn’t read music and was in fact, just copying my peers!! Unhindered by this shocking discovery, my parents introduced me to the guitar, followed by the classical harp. At the age of thirteen I was to be found practicing from 6am every morning before school, and again for an hour each evening. However, such dedication arose from a fear of my harp teacher, rather than a desire to improve my ability. Future harp playing was abruptly disrupted when, at the age of eighteen, I developed tennis elbow and waved goodbye to a professional future in classical music.
Although I did get rid of the concert harp (a sad decision) it was replaced with a somewhat smaller, Celtic version, which I still play today. An interest in medieval re-enactment gave me the opportunity to play some more unusual instruments, including a bowed psaltry and over the years, I have accumulated a small collection of historical instruments. I love to sing (fondly referred to by my dear daughters as caterwauling), and have grasped every opportunity to do so. This has included folk, medieval, choral and even a stint in a rock band. I adore the use of close harmony and particularly relish this when we, as Lumina, get it just right.
Singing with Broni and Anne is a dream come true and has a totally natural feel about it. Seeing our first CD in the flesh was the most amazing experience and I know we will go from strength to strength. I look forward to the musical delights that await us.
In addition to music, I am a dressmaker and was keen to respond to the challenge of producing the Tudor style costume Lumina wear. I also enjoy reading, having a glass of wine and teaching advanced driving techniques (though not all at the same time!).