Alex Cronin
Multi-instrumentalist Alex Cronin trained as a lutenist in Australia and Holland. As a lutenist and guitarist he has performed with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Brandenburg Orchestra, Opera Australia and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, among others.
He also enjoys playing the Irish fiddle, working the pubs and clubs with bands such as The Ragged Band, Skewiff, Stringybark, The Furry Animals and Clean Phil and the Bush Rocks. In 1990 he formed Pastance, an ensemble dedicated to medieval, Renaissance and folk music.
When Alex took up the harp he began writing his own music. The original pieces on A Valley Fair were inspired by landscapes and memorable places along the eastern seaboard of Australia, visited while touring with Pastance.
Alex Cronin is featured on the following titles
A Valley Fair
Pastance's then most recent offering is a delightful collection of traditional, original and early music for Celtic harp, recorders and voices.
Composer
Performing as Pastance
Pastance came together in 1993 to perform mediaeval and Renaissance music. Based in Sydney, the ensemble has reached the early-music fraternity and a wide public, from folk festivals and formal concerts to schools, corporate feasts and open-air markets.
Sit Down Beside Me
In its inimitable style, Pastance again brings together music from the folk traditions and the early music world.
Composer
Joy
Joy names the intent behind much of this music: carols of piety, the longing of Landini and Machaut, and Hildegard von Bingen’s soaring beauty. The collection shows how song shaped everyday life in the Middle Ages.
Composer
Alex Cronin also appears on
Lady Sings the Viol
The concept behind Lady Sings the Viol was a CD of “covers”: five singers, alone and together, take songs from 1300 to the present, from Piaf and Schubert to John Paul Jones and Elena Kats-Chernin.