A Little Bit About Ali...

Singer/Songwriter

Ali wrote her first song with a friend when she was 15, and since that time has sung solo, with a folk vocal group called, Messenger, a heavy metal band, called, Ascent, a folk-rock band, Eve & The Garden, and the young women's choir, nChant. There is a definite spiritual aspect to Ali's writing, and although her faith and spirituality has shifted and grown since becoming a Christian in her teenage years, the deep world of spirit and soul and the sanctity of all creation continues to infuse and spark her musical expression.

The debut album, Quiet Earth & Shining Stars, with the folk-rock band, Eve & The Garden (eatg), was released in April 1996, and since then she has recorded 3 solo albums, and 2 albums with nChant.

Discography:

• Quiet Earth & Shining Stars, Eve & The Garden, 1996 Free For Good Records
• Tears Of Earth, nChant, 2004, Ritualitas/Tollbooth
• On The Breeze Of The World, nChant 2009, Ritualitas
• Time & Tide, Alison Eve 2010, Ritualitas
• Set Sorrow Aside, Alison Eve Christmas Album 2010, Ritualitas
• Shepherd Saints & Tambourinists, Alison Eve 2011, Ritualitas

(Visit the album page for more details)

Wedding Harp & Song

The wedding business is something that Ali has only recently become involved in, and it happened quite by happy accident:

Her husband, Paul Cudby, started training for the priesthood in Cambridge in 1999, becoming curate at St Andrew's Bedford in 2002, and then moving to his first incumbency in 2006, at St Mary Magdalene's Church, Tanworth-in-Arden, Warwickshire. All through this time, Ali had been teaching herself to play the harp, and had begun to play it on occasion in public either in worship or with eatg. Upon moving into Tanworth, she was busy practising away for a special service to celebrate Paul's official arrival in the parish, whilst Paul was talking to a prospective wedding couple downstairs...

Soon, she found herself playing at a few weddings in the church in Tanworth, and at a drinks reception. It was so much fun that she decided to do this seriously, and started marketing herself as a wedding musician and singer, attending various local wedding fayres. Since 2006, her wedding harp business has steadily grown in defiance of the current economic conditions!

Ali's Harps

Ali has three harps. A small 25 string harp bought second hand from a Cambridge Music Shop, called the 'Brian Boru', which may have originally been from a Hobgoblin kit. Her main harp used for weddings is a Dusty Strings FHB36, a large lever, or folk harp in maple, with a mighty sound. Most recently she has invested in a gloss black carbon fibre 30-string electric harp from Camac, which she uses mainly for worship and plugged-in gigs with eatg.

 

Musical Training

Ali started playing piano, guitar and trumpet from an early age, but began her professional singing studies with Liza Martin, in 1986, studying jazz, opera and contemporary music. She then studied lieder and oratorio with Beryl Foster, a Grieg and Lieder specialist, from 1992-1998, and started teaching in private practise in 1994. She was studying towards a teaching diploma at the same time the major conservatoires were radically revamping their diploma structures, and consequently exams were suspended at just the time she had hoped to sit them: Before moving to Cambridge with her husband Paul in 1999, for his vicar training. From 2000 she broadened her vocal experience by spending a couple of years working with Voice Movement Therapist, Sheri Kershaw, and started teaching again in private practise in 2002. She has recently studied with Sarah Wright-Owens exploring the Estill Technique, and successfully took Trinity College's Associate Recital Diploma. She will be studying in 2012 with the Mezzo-Soprano, Wendy Dawn Thompson from Birmingham Opera and plans to take her Licentiate Recital Diploma autumn 2012.

Alison taught herself to play the guitar when she was 13, and then studied classical guitar at school for a couple of years. She also plays the trumpet, and fools around on the piano trying to accompany students! Whilst living in Cambridge from 1999-2002, she decided to start teaching herself to play the harp, having admired the likes of Clannad and Lorena McKennit, and has since studied at a couple of workshops with Sarah Deere-Jones of the Cornwall Harp Centre.