WRichard Hugh Blackmore is an English guitarist and songwriter. He was one of the founding members of Deep Purple in 1968, playing jam-style hard rock music that mixed guitar riffs and organ sounds. Blackmore is prolific in creating guitar riffs and is often noted for his classically influenced solos.
WMykola Petrovych Budnyk Ukrainian: Мико́ла Петро́вич Будник was a luthier and traditional performer in the Kobzar tradition. He was active in authentic construction and recreation of historic folk instruments, and involved in the movement for authentic performаnce practice on Ukrainian folk instruments. Budnyk was also known as a painter and poet. He was born in 1954 in Skolobiv, near Khoroshiv, Zhytomyr region, and died January 16, 2001, in Irpin', Kyiv region.
WRégine Alexandra Chassagne is a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist, and is a founding member of the band Arcade Fire. She is married to co-founder Win Butler.
WRémy Couvez is a French composer and viellist, a musician who plays the hurdy-gurdy.
WNigel Eaton is an English hurdy-gurdy player. He originally played the piano and cello but switched to the hurdy-gurdy in 1981 when his father, Christopher Eaton, began making them. He was a member of Whirling Pope Joan with Julie Murphy, also Blowzabella, and Ancient Beatbox, The Duellists and Firestarters of Leiden. He has released two solo albums, The Music of the Hurdy-Gurdy (1987) and Pandemonium (2002), and has been featured on recordings by other artists including Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, Scott Walker, Shelleyan Orphan, Heidi Berry, Gary Kemp, Carl Davis, Blue Aeroplanes, Martin Simpson, The Palladian Ensemble, Moya Brennan, Robert Plant, Maddy Prior, June Tabor, Silly Sisters, Hamish Moore,, Afro Celt Sound System's "Release", and many works by Loreena McKennitt. Eaton had a Hurdy Gurdy concerto written for him by Howard Skempton, which he performed with Evelyn Glennie, and has performed with The Scottish Chamber Orchestra and The Bournemouth Sinfonietta. Eaton's film work as a session musician has included Robin Hood, The Shipping News, Kingdom of Heaven, Aliens, Mansfield Park, and Tulip Fever.
WAndrew Kennedy Irvine is an Irish folk musician, singer-songwriter, and a founding member of Sweeney's Men, Planxty, Patrick Street, Mozaik, LAPD and Usher's Island. He also featured in duos, with Dónal Lunny, Paul Brady, Mick Hanly, Dick Gaughan, Rens van der Zalm, and Luke Plumb. Irvine plays the mandolin, mandola, bouzouki, harmonica, and hurdy-gurdy.
WA Kobzar was an itinerant Ukrainian bard who sang to his own accompaniment played on a multistringed bandura or kobza.
WТаras Коmpanichenkо is a recording artist, an influential kobzar, bandurist, lutenist, lira player, composer and singer-songwriter. He is an active member of the Kobzarskyi Tsekh as well as of the Early Music ensembles "Chorea Kozacka" and "Sarmatica". He was an active participant in the Orange Revolution that took place in Ukraine from November 2004 to January 2005 as well as Euromaidan 2013–2014. He is laureate of the Vasyl Stus Prize.
WThe lirnyk were itinerant Ukrainian musicians who performed religious, historical and epic songs to the accompaniment of a lira, the Ukrainian version of the hurdy-gurdy.
WAnna Maria Murphy is a Swiss musician and audio engineer. She was a longtime member of the folk metal band Eluveitie from 2006 until 2016, in which she performed the lead clean vocals and played the hurdy-gurdy and flute. Since her departure from Eluveitie, she has been the lead singer of the progressive metal / progressive folk rock band Cellar Darling.
WCandice Night is an American vocalist/lyricist, multi-instrumentalist for the traditional folk rock project Blackmore's Night since its origins in 1997, and wife of British guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. Her first solo album, Reflections, was released in 2011.
WJim O'Rourke is an American musician and record producer. He was long associated with the Chicago experimental and improv scene. Around 2000, he relocated to New York City before moving to Japan, where he currently resides. O’Rourke is best known for his numerous solo and collaborative projects, many of which are entirely instrumental, and for his tenure as a member of Sonic Youth from 1999 to 2005. He has released albums across varied genres, including singer-songwriter music, post-rock, ambient, noise music, and tape experiments.
WDominique Regef is a French improvisor, composer, and musician specializing in stringed instruments: the cello, the rebec, the vièle à archet, and the Rajasthan dilruba. Dominique Regef is recognized as an exceptional soloist on the hurdy-gurdy; he is known for surprising and moving audiences with his sound on the instrument. His concerts, be it a solo recital or a small group performance, shock listeners from all over the world with their originality and their strength. He has performed in several well-known music festivals, including the International Baroque Music Festival, the Jazz à Luz festival and the Grenoble Jazz Festival. He is cited as one of the best examples of modern hurdy-gurdy playing.