FOUNDING DIRECTOR, AND GATHER CIC

FOUNDER & ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, SOUND EMERGENCE & ECSTATIC DANCE

André is an interdisciplinary artist, musician, sound therapist, DJ and community facilitator with more than 15 years’ experience in performance and participatory arts. From 2015 to 2020, he worked as a performing arts tutor with Crisis, using theatre, poetry and storytelling with people experiencing homelessness, and has collaborated with organisations including Cardboard Citizens, Green Shoes Arts, NHS mental health services and schools. He founded Folkestone Puppet Festival in 2018 and later directed Lifting Stories, a major National Lottery Heritage Fund-supported commission exploring the history of Folkestone’s Leas Lift through puppetry, music and oral history, reaching more than 1,600 children, adults and care-home residents. His earlier projects include Just An Other Crossing, an immersive sound and VR work about English Channel migration presented at Folkestone Triennial and the Gulbenkian Arts Centre, and sound design for The Body as Data. As Local Foreigner, he creates performances and DJ sets combining global, electronic and experimental music, including a specially commissioned migration-themed set for Folkestone Documentary Festival. André qualified with the British Academy of Sound Therapy in 2020 and subsequently founded Sound Emergence, bringing together his experience of music, performance, community practice and immersive art, which is now expanding through And Gather CIC.

FOUNDING DIRECTOR, AND GATHER CIC

FOUNDER & ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, SOUND EMERGENCE & ECSTATIC DANCE

Sasha is an artist, UKCP-accredited psychotherapist, sound practitioner and facilitator whose work centres on connection, movement and emotional wellbeing. Before retraining as a therapist, she worked extensively in corporate project management, leadership and organisational development, coaching individuals and teams through periods of change. She later moved into user-experience design, developing a deeper interest in how people think, behave and relate to the world around them. Sasha trained in Contemporary Psychotherapy at the BeeLeaf Institute and is also a fully trained Pesso Boyden Psychomotor Psychotherapy practitioner, a body-based approach originally developed by dancers. Her additional training includes Applied Clinical Hypnosis, therapeutic group facilitation and couple counselling and psychotherapy at Tavistock Relationships. Alongside her private practice in Folkestone, London and online, Sasha established Ecstatic Dance Folkestone, creating welcoming, alcohol-free spaces in which people can connect with themselves and others through music and free movement. She subsequently co-founded Sound Emergence with André Braga-Verissimo, bringing her experience of psychotherapy, embodiment and group practice into immersive live sound experiences designed to support reflection, connection and collective wellbeing. This work is now expanding through And Gather CIC.

DIRECTOR, AND GATHER CIC

FOUNDER & ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, FOLKEFEST

Didier is an arts producer, project manager, curator and artist with more than 20 years’ experience of producing live music, festivals and multidisciplinary cultural projects. He is the Founding Co-Director and producer of London Contemporary Voices, which has collaborated with more than 150 artists and performed at venues including the Royal Albert Hall, Barbican and the O2 Arena. Didier founded and artistically directed the first FolkeFest in 2022 and is now leading its relaunch under And Gather. He produced Sound Emergence’s Arts Council England-funded Church + Coast and This Place Meant projects, helping to develop their partnerships across music, heritage, landscape and community. He was previously Cultural Heritage Officer for the National Lottery Heritage Fund-supported Fifth Continent Landscape Partnership Scheme on Romney Marsh and continues to work with the Romney Marsh Historic Churches Trust. His earlier work includes General Manager of Southwell Music Festival, Events & Concerts Producer at St James’s Piccadilly, Co-Directing Folkestone Pride’s town-wide arts festival and co-curating Our Heritage queer film heritage project with University of Brighton and Queer Heritage South. Didier also has a background in university research management and previously worked for the Arts and Humanities Research Council. A lifelong follower of folk music, he is a songwriter, arranger and visual artist, with a particular interest in the ecology, heritage and folklore of wetland and coastal landscapes.

CULTURAL PRODUCER & ARTS CURATOR

AND GATHER CIC

Dover-based Louise Webb is an artist, researcher, curator and creative producer who advises And Gather on placemaking, community engagement and work with young people. She is Artswork’s Placemaking Creative Producer for Kent, developing youth-led cultural projects and partnerships across Dover, and has also worked extensively with Dover Arts Development. Louise supported the development and delivery of This Place Meant as Project Manager and Co-Producer and was part of the original FolkeFest 2022 team, co-curating its visual arts programme with Ethan Sheppard. She holds an MA with Distinction in Applied Anthropology and Community Arts from Goldsmiths, University of London, and was previously an associate at Open School East. Her multidisciplinary artistic and research practice explores communication and miscommunication, listening and alternative learning spaces, contemporary folklore, social anthropology and the relationships created through shared technologies. She is particularly interested in how public and creative spaces can support collective learning, joy, resistance and hope, and in the networks and working practices that enable local cultural activity to thrive.

PRODUCER & CO-CURATOR (FILM & DANCE)

FOLKEFEST TEAM

Most recently, Charlie produced Orban Wallace’s acclaimed feature documentary Our Land, which explores the history of land ownership and the campaign for greater public access to the English countryside. Bringing together questions of class, power, conservation, community and traditional culture, the film reflects Charlie’s strong personal and creative interest in folk arts, heritage and landscape. He is also a member of Bower Street Morris. His other recent work includes The Folkestone Elephant, a BFI-supported augmented-reality project rooted in local archaeology, landscape, superstition and folklore. In addition to co-curation and event producing, Charlie is a documentary film producer, commissioner, programmer and consultant who advises And Gather on film, storytelling, communications and the development of its moving-image programme. He is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Folkestone Documentary Festival and runs I am Charlie, working with filmmakers internationally on creative development, production and financing. He was previously Head of Video at The Guardian for eight years, where he established its award-winning documentary strand and commissioned and executive-produced hundreds of films. These included Colette, winner of the 2021 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short; Oscar-nominated Black Sheep; and BAFTA-winning The Black Cop. Charlie was formerly Deputy Director of Sheffield Doc/Fest, where he led its influential MeetMarket programme connecting documentary projects with international funders and partners.

PRODUCER & CO-CURATOR (MUSIC & THEATRE)

FOLKEFEST TEAM

Greg is a folk composer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and sound artist who advises And Gather on folk music, folklore, local history and participatory work with older people. His practice explores the relationship between sound, space and social history, drawing on an extensive knowledge of British folk song and folklore to create contemporary music and soundscapes rooted in people, land, memory and place. Greg is the founder, principal songwriter and arranger of the Faversham-based folk-rock band Green Diesel, which has toured widely and released five albums, combining original compositions with inventive interpretations of traditional material. He performs on guitar, bouzouki, dulcimer, mandolin, keyboards and percussion. He is also Musical Director of Parrot Theatre Company, which specialises in accessible, folk-inspired theatre combining storytelling, puppetry, live music, folklore and the uncanny. Greg creates original music and immersive soundscapes for its productions, including the touring folk tale Death and the Carpenter and Unquiet Objects, an adaptation of M. R. James’s ghost stories. His wider theatre credits include scores for productions at Whitstable Playhouse, the Marlowe Theatre and the Gulbenkian, and music featured in Channel 4’s Southcliffe. His recent sound-art collaborations have used field recordings, historical research and site-responsive composition to explore waterways, industrial heritage and the stories held within particular landscapes and communities.

PRODUCER & CO-CURATOR (PERFORMING ARTS)

FOLKEFEST TEAM

Helen is a process-led performance artist, vocalist, producer and independent curator whose work explores voice, communication and experiences of the queer(ed) body. Combining live vocal sound with action, gesture and materials, they create performances responding to places of architectural, ecological and social-historical significance. Helen has presented work nationally and internationally. In 2025, they were selected for The London Open Live at Whitechapel Gallery, presenting aggregate, a durational performance exploring the body’s response to pressure, material and space. They also co-curated the gallery’s We Get to Choose Our Families, an exhibition celebrating trans lives, creativity and chosen family. A founding member of the site-responsive performance collective SITE, Helen is also a member of Trans Voices and contributed to the choir’s Lumen Prize nominated UN/BOUND installation at the Barbican. Through Folkestone-based singing projects, they explore folk song, vocal improvisation and the communal experience of singing together. Helen collaborated with Sound Emergence on Church + Coast, using voice, chant, circle singing and found materials to respond to the distinctive history and acoustics of St Mary and St Eanswythe’s Church. They returned for This Place Meant, undertaking a longer creative residency that further explored collective voice, heritage, place and belonging. Within the FolkeFest team, Helen’s involvement helps connect contemporary folk practice with live art, ritual, identity and collective experience.

PRODUCER & CO-CURATOR (VISUAL ART)

FOLKEFEST TEAM

Ethan is an artist, independent curator and exhibitions producer originally from Dover. His practice is rooted in personal history, emotional landscapes and the reconstruction of identity, exploring themes including intimacy, memory, pain, belonging and the fluidity of self. His research-led work examines how identity is reshaped following changes in belief, relationships and place. He is also interest in zines as a form of modern folk culture. Ethan has exhibited across the UK and internationally, including projects with Folkestone Pride and Margate Pride’s 2021 takeover of Turner Contemporary. He was selected as The Woodshed Gallery’s Emerging Artist 2021, supported by the South East Creative, Cultural and Digital Support programme, and has developed a significant online audience for work exploring queer identity and self-expression. Ethan also previously served as Event Coordinator and Co-Director of Folkestone Pride, contributing to the delivery of its community events and town-wide festival activity. For FolkeFest 2022, Ethan co-curated The Gathering of Folk with Louise Webb: a visual arts programme bringing together contemporary Kent artists across four Folkestone venues.

ADVISER - CLASSICAL MUSIC

ARTIST DEVELOPMENT & MUSIC OUTREACH

Belfast-born Sarah Rennix is a singer, arts producer and music education specialist who advises And Gather on classical music, artist development and music outreach. She studied Music at Durham University and is now Music Outreach and Engagement Officer at Queen’s University Belfast, working within Music and the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC). Sarah has previously managed education programmes for leading professional ensembles including The Sixteen and Britten Sinfonia, delivering community music projects in settings ranging from the BBC Proms to maximum-security prisons. She coordinated Genesis Sixteen, The Sixteen’s prestigious young artist programme, and established the Sounds Sublime Festival to provide a platform for emerging vocal ensembles. From 2022 to 2025, Sarah was General Manager of Southwell Music Festival, overseeing its programme of professional classical music, artist development and community activity. She has also worked as a freelance choral fixer and served as a trustee of SANSARA Choir and SouthWestFest, bringing extensive experience across arts administration, classical music, education and community engagement.

FACILITATOR - PARTICIPATORY CRAFT

Yolanda is a Romney Marsh-based artist, craft practitioner and highly experienced facilitator who will contribute to And Gather’s participatory visual arts and crafts activity, including projects involving heritage craft practices. Working across stained and fused glass, mosaics, sculpture, printmaking and silver, she has extensive experience of helping people of different ages and abilities develop practical skills and contribute to ambitious collective artworks. Yolanda co-founded Teach Me with fellow artist John Houston, creating welcoming, well-equipped studios in New Romney where artists and participants can explore traditional and contemporary making through small-group classes, bespoke workshops and community projects. Her major commissions include The Marsh Mosaics, New Romney Obelisk, The Tide Tales Path and The Romney Flock - all participatory arts projects inspired by heritage, landscape and folklore, co-created with local communities and developed with Didier Rochard (And Gather Director). Her services to local arts were recognised with the local Council’s Pride of New Romney award. And Gather hopes to build on Yolanda and Didier’s previous collaborations through new projects connecting participatory making with place, heritage, traditional skills and community storytelling.