Today’s guest is Fiona Lander – composer, singer, multi-instrumentalist, jazz fan and teacher. Based in the North Tyne valley, Fiona is one half of the duo Landermason, performing traditional and contemporary folk in jazz, blues, classical and other styles. She also works with choirs – notably, the Northumberland-based Dark Sky Voices – and composes music for schools to perform and for commissions. She is a freelance music teacher and, in the little time left for leisure, she co-organises the annual Bellingham All Acoustic Festival better known as BAAFest.
In this episode, Fiona recounts how her early talent for music and performance led to her current diverse career and her passion for composing. The episode includes three songs.
Amazing Grace is sung by Dark Sky Voices and is available on YouTube.
Make Our Future Bright was commissioned for performance at the Festival of Hope; it is not available online.
Born To Sing is from the 2021 album Landermason with Dark Sky Voices. It is available from Landermason’s Bandcamp page at https://landermason.bandcamp.com.
Information about Fiona’s work is available at https://www.fionalander.com/.
