Paul Hutchinson is regarded as one of the top accordionists in the country because of his unique, refreshing, and at times classical approach to playing. His residencies include, the English Folk Dance & Song Society, Halsway Manor and the Centre for English Traditional Arts.

As half of the much-missed Belshazzar’s Feast, Paul Hutchinson had, and occasionally enjoyed, 25 years of touring in the UK, and appeared on television and radio as well as receiving a nomination for Best Duo at the BBC Folk Awards in 2010.

Paul also has a keen interest in 17th  and 18th  century dance music which has resulted in appearances at festivals in UK, Europe and America. In 2019 Faber Music published his book – 60 Country Dance Tunes 1786 – 1800.

His love of fusion music originates from his days in the renowned Celtic jazzers, Hoover the Dog. Pagoda Project was the next exciting chapter in his musical journey providing a vehicle for his own compositions with more than a helping hand from the wonderful jazz clarinettist and improviser, Karen Wimhurst. Recently they have been joined by the multi-instrumentalist and singer, Anna Tam, to form Coracle.

During the various lockdowns of 2020, Paul completed Petrichor, an album of his compositions with musicians from around the world.

Karen Wimhurst is a widely commissioned composer ranging from chamber works to music theatre and large-scale, collaborative productions.

​Eclectic in nature, her own distinctive music manifests diverse traditional and jazz influences alongside a strong grounding in contemporary classical music. Latest works include Synthetica, an online opera in collaboration with MoDiP; Freedoms for mixed choir and cello; a Song for Dorset as one of the featured composer in the lockdown A Song For Us project and Jump, a solo work for clarinets, insect and amphibian sounds, recently premiered at Ento 2022, touring 2023 and 2024 featured at the British Library event Small but Perfectly Formed hosted by Martha Kearney.

As a clarinetist, her duo with accordionist Paul Hutchinson, Pagoda, brings together a unique blend of traditional folk music with improvisation and classical undertones to create a warm and dynamic sound.

They will be playing for workshops and dances as part of the Country Dance programme at the 2024 festival. Paul will also be bringing his Folk Detectives Show, together with Matthew Crampton, their mission is ‘to uphold the lore – the Folklore. ‘ They challenge the ‘so-called experts’ at Cecil Sharp House with a podcast filled with outlandish theories.