Willow Stahlut

Willow Stahlut is a musician and composer based in Melbourne, Australia. She has been playing music since her luthier father, Jeff Kemp, made her a guitar for her first birthday. She picked up the violin at the age of five and continued study on this gaining her AmusA with a distinction. Throughout school Willow played in and led a variety of orchestras including the Armidale Youth Orchestra and the Armidale Symphony Orchestra as well as her own string quartet. In 2001, she acted on her passion for gypsy music and improvisation and formed the Gypsy Hot Club, a band she played in and managed for four years. They played at festivals all over Australia including the Woodford Folk Festival, National Folk Festival and Bellingen Global Carnival and highly regarded venues such as the Sydney Opera House (twice!) and the National Gallery of Australia. The Gypsy Hot Club also released three CD's, one with the assistance of an Australia Council Grant. They were profiled on national television and radio and were invited to tour the UK and France, but had to decline the offer, due to HSC commitments!Willow was accepted into music performance degrees in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne for 2004, and chose to undertake study at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne. She formed a new band, Velvet Smoking Jacket and was invited to play in several bands including Nandi, led by multi-instrumentalist, Adrian Sherriff, Mal Webb band, Nigel Wearne and the Gifted Vagrants and Tim Downey. With all these bands she continued to perform on the festival circuit in Australia and venues throughout Melbourne.Willow graduated from VCA at the end of 2006 and moved to London to work with renowned film composer Richard Harvey (who has worked on the score for movies such as 'the Lion King', 'the Da Vinci Code' and the 'Harry Potter' series). She also worked as a freelance musician and played in Fuze, a seven piece all girl band, signed to Warner Bros Music. Willow also worked as a session musician, which took her all over the UK and Europe. She was accepted into the Royal College of Music in London to do her masters, but chose to return to Melbourne for the beginning of 2008 to pursue both old and new projects.Willow is now working with her new group Beaudelaire, who play her original electronic-acoustic music, and is also playing with Editer as well as being busy working on new projects that will be launched very soon! She plans to return to the UK for a tour with Beaudelaire soon.Willow is available for sessions, tours and composition/arranging for any styles of music. The gypsy in her is always ready to travel and do anything that involves making music.Festivals and venues Willow has performed at include:Woodford Folk Festival National Folk Festival Bellingen Global Carnival Rainbow Serpent National Fiddle Festival Folk Rhythm and Life Sydney Opera House National Museum of Australia National Gallery of Victoria the Arts Centre Various venues in the UK