Kate St. John

An orchestral arrangement of Boris Grenshikov’s September 2023 release Minsk Pinsk and Severodvinsk

In 2019, producer Mattie Foulds asked me to do some string quartet arrangements for the lovely singer and songwriter Maz O’Connor. Here are two from that album Chosen Daughter

The producer Calum MacColl asked me to do 5 string arrangements on Jake Morely's album The Manuel (2015). I had a great time working on the songs. Jake is a very original writer and guitarist and the songs had an array of interesting harmonies and rhythms to play with. Here are a couple of the tracks

Since 2008, I have had the great pleasure of working as an arranger and player on several projects with Goldtop studios under the creative guidance of producer Neil Brockbank and his crack team of musicians, Geraint Watkins, Matt Radford and especially dear Bobby Irwin, one of the UK's greatest drummers who sadly died in 2015. Here are a couple of tracks I arranged (strings and woodwinds) for the one and only Geraint Watkins. They are followed by a fiddle, accordion, clarinet arrangement for Eleni Mandell and an as yet unreleased version of a beautiful song by Angie Pollock with string quartet.

Between 2009 and 2016 there were a series of concerts in the UK, Italy and Australia called Way To Blue: The Songs of Nick Drake. They were curated by Joe Boyd, I was the Musical Director and we had a stellar band featuring Danny Thompson, Neill MacColl, Zoe Rahman, Leo Abrahams, Martyn Barker and a 7 piece string section. Here are some of the arrangements I did for it: The opening of the show, an instrumental version of Joey, and two songs :  I Was Made To Love Magic, sung by Krystle Warren and Things Behind The Sun sung by the Australian duo Luluc. In 2013 an album collated from the shows came out.Here is a link to buy the whole album: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Way-Blue-Songs-Nick-Drake/dp/B00B10FWCE

In 2015 Hal Willner put on his Nino Rota tribute Amarcord show at the Barbican featuring Carla Bley with her original arrangement of 81/2 from the album and a host of new arrangements of Nino Rota themes for Fellini films and others including The Godfather. My two arrangements were of I Vitelloni featuring me on cor anglais and oboe, John Etheridge on guitar and Steven Bernstein on trumpet and 3 movements of Prova D'Orchestra: Valzerino, Orchestra in Atessa and Gallop for the full ensemble. Here are the live recordings.

Here is an arrangement for woodwind and strings on a song called The Fall from Carl Barat's eponymous album 2011 sung by Neil Hannon.  

Neill MacColl produced a haunting album by the singer Jack Omer in 2013. Here is a sinuous song called The Odalisque which I arranged for cor anglais and alto flute, played by the brilliant Sarah Allen.

This is a song by Sarah Jane Morris Only To Be With You arranged for strings and oboe