Jennifer Cutting is a composer, producer, ethnomusicologist, and creative director of SunSign, an international production company specializing in U.K. / U.S. collaborations. After coming to national attention as bandleader of British folk-rock group The New St. George, she transformed her production model from band-based live performance into a studio and recording-based career that revolves around writing and producing. She has been successful in positioning her productions in the three different markets of Celtic, New Age, and Folk by judiciously blending Irish and British traditional instrumentation, electronic soundscapes, and a combination of original songs and carefully researched archival folk material. Her album Ocean was signed for national distribution through Allegro, and was a featured recording on 350 Borders listening stations across the country. Jennifer and Ocean swept the 2004 Washington Area Music Awards, including Musician, Album and Songwriter of the Year.

Jennifer Cutting Brief

Jennifer Cutting is a composer, producer, ethnomusicologist, and creative director of SunSign, her own international production company specializing in U.K. / U.S. collaborations. After coming to national attention for her work as bandleader of British folk-rock group The New St. George, she transformed her production model from a band-based live performance career into a studio and recording-based career that revolves around her writing and producing. Jennifer has been successful in positioning her productions in the three different markets of Celtic, New Age, and Folk by judiciously blending Irish and British traditional instrumentation, electronic soundscapes, and a combination of original songs and carefully researched archival folk material. Her 2004 album OCEAN: Songs for the Night Sea Journey swept the top categories of the Washington Area Music Association’s WAMMIE awards, including Album of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, Best New Artist of the Year, Musician of the Year and Contemporary Folk Recording of the year. OCEAN was also in the New Age Reporter airplay charts Top 20 for three months running, was signed for national distribution through Allegro, and was selected as a featured recording for Borders listening stations in 350 stores across the country. In February, 2006, OCEAN was selected for distribution by Witchwood Media, the company headed by prog-rock icon Dave Cousins of the Strawbs. It subsequently garnered a four-star review in the prestigious UK magazine Mojo.

For bookings or further information, please contact Jennifer Cutting at:
34 Hickory Avenue
Takoma Park, MD 20912
(301) 270-9475
jcut@comcast.net

Jennifer Cutting

Jennifer Cutting happily blends careers as a bandleader, composer, instrumentalist, ethnomusicologist, and record producer. Blending the formal training of her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in music with a passion for both traditional and electronic musics, she is one of few women bandleaders working in her genre. With her previous band The New St. George, her recent CD Ocean: Songs for the Night Sea Journey, and her new live band the Ocean Orchestra, Cutting has pushed the boundaries of “Celtic,” “Folk” and “Folk-Rock,” creating arrangements with sweeping orchestral sounds, shimmering ethereal electronics, authentic traditional instruments and a hard-hitting rhythm section. She has been successful in positioning her productions in the three different markets of Celtic, New Age, and Folk.

Cutting is a composer and bandleader by family tradition and a musician and ethnomusicologist by training. Cutting’s two grandfathers, one from England and the other from Ireland , were the inspiration for her natural synthesis of British and Irish musical traditions. Her English grandfather, Ernest Cutting, was a conductor and talent scout for NBC in the 1930s, directing orchestras for Kate Smith, Eddie Cantor, Jack Benny, Jimmy Durante, Fred Astaire, Rudy Vallee, and others. Following in his footsteps, she earned her Bachelor’s degree in orchestral and choral conducting. Her passion for folk music was developed through her association with British folk revival leader A.L. Lloyd. In the early 1980s she became Lloyd's last and youngest protégée, soaking up the same blend of scholarship and joy in performance that he had also imparted to members of Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span.

After returning to the U.S. , Cutting spent more than ten years as director, composer, arranger and performer with The New St. George, one of the most significant British folk-rock groups on this side of the Atlantic . Following the retirement of that band, Cutting spent years composing, arranging, playing and producing the outstanding and award-winning CD OCEAN: Songs for the Night Sea Journey, collaborating with international superstars such as Maddy Prior and Peter Knight (Steeleye Span), Dave Mattacks (Fairport Convention) Tony Cuffe (Ossian) and Troy Donockley (Iona [UK]). Now Cutting is back leading a band, interpreting selections from OCEAN as well as newly composed and arranged material, with her group the OCEAN Orchestra.

Cutting is a multiple award winner in all areas of her musical career. She has won two Maryland Governor’s Citations for composition, and prestigious national-level songwriting awards, such as First Prize in songwriting at the Merle Watson Festival, and American Songwriter Magazine’s Song of the Year. The New St. George earned her fifteen WAMMIE awards from the Washington Area Music Association. She won the 2003 WAMMIE for best contemporary folk instrumentalist. Most dramatically, she swept the 2004 WAMMIE awards, winning “Musician of the Year,” “Songwriter of the Year,” and “Best New Artist,” as well as “Album of the Year” and “Best Contemporary Folk Recording” for OCEAN.

OCEAN was also in the New Age Reporter airplay charts Top 20 for three months running, was signed for national distribution through Allegro, and was selected as a featured recording for Borders listening stations in 350 stores across the country. In February, 2006, OCEAN was selected for distribution by Witchwood Media, the company headed by prog-rock icon Dave Cousins of the Strawbs. It subsequently garnered a four-star review in the prestigious UK magazine Mojo.

Cutting is head of SunSign, her own international production company, and has her own studio in Takoma Park, Maryland, just outside Washington DC.

For bookings or further information, please contact Jennifer Cutting at:

34 Hickory Avenue
Takoma Park, MD 20912
(301) 270-9475
jcut@comcast.net