Experience

Born 1970 into home full of English folk music. Father professional folk singer Pete Castle.

Studied at Chetham's School of Music 1984-88

BSc Hons Music (First Class), The City University, London 1991

1991 awarded British Academy Postgraduate Research Studentship and began to research fiddle music of and around Hungary and Romania

1992-1996: travelled and researched extensively in the region, focussing on Maramures.

1993 formed performing duo with Ioan Pop, and joined Iza group of Maramures.

1994 formed Anglo-Romanian trio Popeluc: Lucy Castle, Ioan Pop and Pete Castle.

1993-1996: spent much time living, playing and researching in Maramures, writing articles for Grai newspaper, giving interviews and performances for Romanian local and national TV and Radio networks, touring the Romanian festivals circuit, and participating in the communal rural musical life of Maramures. Awarded prizes and recognition for playing and research, such as Medalion Folcloric from the Centrul Creatiei Populare, and the Premiu Special from the Festival of Brad, Hunedoara. Gave series of seminars on Maramures folk music at Baia Mare University.

1994-1997: also regularly toured with Popeluc in the UK, covering festivals, arts centres, folk clubs, community events and schools, various local and national radio shows (including BBC Radio 2's The Young Tradition and Folk on Two and Radio 4's Woman's Hour), to acclaim from the folk press. An article by Eric Winter in Folk Roots 148 (1995) was dedicated to the work of Popeluc.

1997 onwards: based in UK, bringing up and home educating daughter. Visited Maramures regularly at first - less regularly in recent years. Writing (including for "Songlines", a leading World Music magazine), teaching and giving performances and workshops on Maramures fiddle music, as well as making ends meet with a variety of unrelated jobs. In recent years, teaching and workshops have become the professional focus.

General: I have always enjoyed exploring and participating in various styles, approaches and genres of music-making, and as well as a solid dual foundation in what are broadly termed "Classical" and "Folk" musics, I have a wide range of experience, ranging from the steel band I played in for at my junior school, through being an avid singer-songwriter with guitar as a teenager, a composer who has written, among other things, under commission from the world-famous Kronos Quartet, a viola player performing chamber music with principal members of the Philharmonia, violin and viola-player on the very first album of pop’s "The Divine Comedy", a fiddler, backing singer and co-arranger with the Derby-based acoustic band of highly individual style, UPR, and playing electric fiddle with the folk-rock-cajun-influenced band K-Passa, to name but a few examples.

Reviews

"She has learned to play like a native having spent over a year in Maramures with local musicians." Simon Broughton, Folk Roots

"The technical excellence of Lucy’s fiddle-playing and authenticity of style amply justifies her reputation as one of the leading exponents of her generation." Dave Tuxford - Buzz

"For what it’s worth, I think you are an astounding player and performer and one of the few musicians I can think of who can take on the music of another culture and play it with an empathy and conviction which ends up encouraging the culture it came from rather than raiding it for fashionable new sounds... your performances were special and magical... The skill in what you play is staggering, and more than that there’s a sheer joy in the playing that’s totally captivating." Sally Brown, Fulbeck Fiddle Festival

"...the unusual (read exceptional) fiddle style of Lucy Castle, sounding vaguely Arabic, with a slight Ukrainian presence..." Rock'n'Reel

"Lucy’s fiddle technique is incredible..." Stephen Moore, Buzz

"...a young fiddler with immense verve and assurance..." Andy Cheyne, Folk Roots

"One day the folk scene will wake up to this young woman’s talent and place her in the top rank, where she deserves to be." Roy Harris, folk singer

"Lucy Castle is no stranger to the ideas in circulation in the world of ethnomusicology. However, to the amazement of the many scholars with whom she has come into contact in the course of her visits to Maramures, instead of just accepting their precious advice and theories, she apprenticed herself to a local folk musician of national and international renown, the matchless singer and zongora player Ioan Pop. Together they have gained a following in Romania through their performances locally at weddings and parties in Maramures, and nationally at concerts and on radio and TV. More recently the appearance of the first POPELUC cassette, in which they are joined by Lucy’s father Pete Castle, in pirate versions at markets all over Maramures, has increased the wonder with which they are received, both by the enthusiastic locals and the "experts" alike. POPELUC are not the first to try to get to grips with this music. For years various French, Swedish and American performers, amongst others, have tried, but in vain. POPELUC, however, have succeeded, and have won the hearts of the Romanian people, who now listen seriously and attentively with real love doubled by respect. Perhaps there is something in the thought that there may be some kind of in-built compatibility between the musics of Romania and the British Isles. Could it be the influence of the Celts who are present to differing degrees in the genealogies of our peoples?" Speranta Radulescu, ethnomusicologist, Museum of the Romanian Peasant, Bucharest.

"We’d just like to tell you how much we’re all enjoying your lessons. We think that your approach to music and teaching is really great. Our daughter is blossoming since your input." A current client

Discography

My playing is featured on numerous cassette and CD albums including:-

Blue Dor

(Popeluc: Lucy Castle, Pete Castle, Ioan Pop) published and distributed by Steel Carpet Music, 1996, MATS013CD "With its blend of Romanian and English folk elements and its wild energy this makes for very enjoyable listening and dancing, every time you play it. One for my top 10 of 1996" ( PA Spins )

Mearcstapa

(Pete Castle and Lucy Castle) published and distributed by Steel Carpet Music, 1999, MATS022 CD/MC "With the group Popeluc Pete and Lucy explored and interlinked English and Transylvanian music. This album takes the ‘European accent’ one stage further."

Fiddle Music from Maramures

The Radio 3 Guide to World Music (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/world/guideromaniad.shtml) describes Lucy’s own compilation of field recordings from Maramures as "an excellent survey of different fiddle players of the Mara Valley, recorded by Lucy Castle who is playing and studying the music of the region. Real peasant fiddlers, recorded in their own homes - a great way inside this musical microcosm." (This album is no longer available.)