Bio

Originally trained in theatre, Jane Bentley spent six years touring the world with the International Purves Puppets. This involved being mostly invisible in such prestigious destinations as Syria, Taiwan, and Auchtermuchty village hall.

She began her journey into enabling the expressions of others after spending three years living, and working with the Iona Community on a very small island. Here she discovered that, for her, it was most fun doing music with (rather than for) people.

In order to deepen this experience she then completed a degree in Comunity Arts (specialising in music) at Strathclyde University in Glasgow: graduating with first class honours and a big caffeine habit.

At the same time she came accross the Community Drum Circle movement in the USA, and so headed off to Hawaii (well... someone's got to...) to train with it's foremost exponent, Arthur Hull. Further training has included work on improvisation with the Grammy award winning cellist David Darling and his Music for People organisation in the USA, and also on music in health settings with the Royal Northern College of Music and Musique et Sante, Paris.

She now works all over the UK and abroad, encouraging all manner of people to engage in music in schools, hospitals, universities, conferences, community events and special needs groups. She has returned to Strathclyde University to teach community music.

Being something of a masochist, Jane continued her studies through researching for a PhD degree in musical participation and interaction, and its role in human wellbeing. She graduates as 'Dr. Bentley' in July...