Jim O'Toole (below) - Caller/Fiddle

Jim O'Toole has been fiddling since a very early age. Jim's natural talent for performance began to shine at the age of 4, as a Suzuki violin student. He progressed to the Junior Royal College of Music, then on to a music degree at Edinburgh University and later post-grad in historical performance at The Royal Academy Of Music, London.  He divides his energies between folk-fiddling and period instrument playing and works for various opera companies and orchestras aside from performing with Licence to Ceilidh.  He spent most of a year touring with the European Union Baroque Orchestra in 2001/2002 and has recently recorded a disk of Vivaldi concertos with La Serenissima.  Jim also enjoys calling ceilidh dances, a skill he learnt from his Uncle who has run a ceilidh band in Jim's native Lowestoft for twenty-five years. 

Alexis Bennett - (right) Caller, Fiddle

Alexis Bennett read music and literature at the University of Edinburgh before studying screen composition with Dario Marianelli and Joseph Horovitz at the Royal College of Music and historical performance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. As a composer he works with filmmakers and animators and has performed widely with early music ensembles including The Dufay Collective, Florilegium, Horses Brawl, Rinaldo Consort and Musicians of London Wall. His music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Channel 4, TCM and at major film festivals throughout the world, including Cannes, London and Edinburgh. He is developing a research interest in the intersection of film and early music as a doctoral student at Goldsmiths, University of London. Alexis is also a ceilidh musician and the founder of the Early Music Experiment.