Chris Dewhurst

Chris grew up with folk dance and Scottish dance, and took a great interest in this music from an early age.  He was a church organist for many years, and studied piano at Birmingham Conservatoire as a mature student, obtaining an ARCM teaching diploma in 1994.  However, dance music is his main interest, and it is as an accordionist and bandleader that Chris is best known.

Chris formed his first band 'Four Leaf Clover' when he was 14, initially playing for barn dances, and for the Milverton Folk Dance Group in Leamington Spa.  For several years he played for the Shakespeare Morris Men, which he still regards as an important part of his development as a dance musician.

Chris's first recording in 1982 was an LP of contra dance music for the EFDSS Dances from CDM 4 and since then he has made a further 10 very popular albums in various combinations, including 'Playford Pops', 'Wrights Humours', 'Take Two..', 'New Dimensions', 'Crossing Borders' and most recently 'Brass Tracks'.

For the last 15 years, music has been very much a family affair, playing as 3D with his wife Julie and son Nick.  They have a busy schedule of English and Scottish dances, and are regular performers at the main UK folk dance festivals.  '3D' is the band for this year's Music Day Dance, with Colin Hume calling.

In the 1990's Chris was well-known as a leader of musicians' workshops, running residential weekends at Halsway Manor, Belstead House and other venues.  Work commitments meant that these had to take a back seat for a number of years from 2000, but, having recently retired from working as a trainer with an international business consultancy, he is able once again to devote more time to musical activities including musicians' workshops and dance weekends.  He led the highly successful 2010 Chippenham Folk Orchestra, the very popular 2011 Oxford Music Day, and is delighted to be contributing to the excellent Stafford Music Day in 2012.