Katie Howson

Katie Howson is best known as a driving force in a number of significant English ceilidh bands, playing melodeon and harmonica in the Old Hat Dance Band and PolkaWorks. She spent her formative years playing alongside traditional musicians such as Oscar Woods and Reg Reader from Suffolk – in too many pubs to mention! For seventeen years she was Artistic Director of the East Anglian Traditional Music trust, creating, managing and presenting a variety of projects and events. Since retiring from that role eight years ago, she has played a wider variety of music both solo and in occasional partnerships, most regularly with Roger Digby, with whom she shares a love of old recordings of both English and Irish music. Katie is also a respected researcher, writer and speaker and will be giving a presentation about the history of percussive dancing dolls, The Brightest of Entertainers.