Tessa Newton and UCan Studios collaborate

Tessa Newton and UCan Studios collaborate on a Community based music celebration project

Tessa comes from a family of violin players from whom she inherited her love of music, particularly English and Irish folk songs.

She began playing the violin at school and by the age of 13 she had played in a number of musicals, including Guys and Dolls and the Bernstein-Sondheim collaboration, West Side Story.

She then joined the Lincolnshire Chamber Orchestra and played in and around Lincoln and Louth in local churches and Lincoln Cathedral. In her twenties she played alongside her aunt for the City of York Guildhall Orchestra. This was an exciting time in her life.

Tessa now lives in Sandbach with her two teenage sons who play the guitar and trumpet. She is currently playing in a band with friends, a String Quartet, that perform at weddings and functions throughout Cheshire and Staffordshire. She believes that playing in a musical group engenders positive feelings that can have powerful and beneficial effect on mood and lift a person out of themselves.

Tessa’s current project is about visiting senior living care homes in the area to share her love of music and enjoyment of it by playing live to backing tracks. Listening to live music is known to help people live more ‘in the moment’ and she is keen to introduce older adults to her style and potentially experience something new.

UCan Play are supporting Tessa’s project by transposing, recording and mixing the backing tracks she requires at UCan Studios. Chris Bowes from UCan Play is doing the engineering and production required and Chris Lyon has been providing guitar parts.

Her choice of songs include the medley of Bonny Ann, Toss the Feathers, a well-known fast-paced Irish reel and Morrison’s jig, commonly thought to be of Scottish origin.

As well as the foot tapping jigs and reels she is also working on two Michael Jackson numbers, Billie Jean and Smooth Criminal, and some popular classical numbers for violin such as Meditation by Massenet, Czardas by Monti and Elgar’s Chanson de Matin.