Luke Plumb

Branching away from his classical piano and violin training in 1997, Luke Plumb began teaching himself the mandolin and swiftly became one of Australia’s most sought after session musicians. His albums Isfahan and Senan’s Haggart were comprised of bold music from right across Europe and demonstrated his keen awareness of both tradition and the possibilities for experimentation within it.

This quality was recognised by acid croft pioneers Shooglenifty after a chance meeting during a tour of Australia and in 2002 Luke Plumb was recruited to join the band in Scotland. For eleven years Luke’s compositions drove the band’s music into new territory which can be heard across three studio albums where his music dominates the repertoire.

During this time he also recorded and toured three albums with his own band the Funky String Band, spearheaded a Scottish Arts funded project examining the music collected by the Scottish National poet Robert Burns, released his innovative and critically acclaimed solo album A Splendid Notion, and travelled to southern Greece to record a suite of his own compositions, Ten Titles, for the pan European, Eumelia Ensemble.

In 2011, he returned home to Australia and began honing his skills as a record producer. His productions include the National Film and Sound Archive award winning Housewarming for the Mae Trio and the Timber and Steel album of the year Declaration for Kate Burke and Ruth Hazleton.

Other albums of note include the much lauded posthumous album Hearth for Michael Kennedy and most recently Precious Heroes, his duo album with traditional Irish folk legend Andy Irvine.

His skills as a teacher and scholar have also not gone unnoticed. He has been flown to New Mexico annually to teach Bouzouki and Mandolin at Zoukfest, to Victoria, Australia to teach fiddle and mandolin at Music Under the Southern Cross, to New Zealand to teach at Ceol Aneas and has led numerous workshops and tutor weekends around Scotland and Australia.

Back in Australia, he has also broadened his musical experience with a national tour of the theatre show Cafe Rebetika, and performances with the Australian Ballet's recent production of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, their Bella Figura featuring the Vivaldi double mandolin Concerto, and performances of Verdi's Otello.

Released in early 2018 was his first major piece of work since returning to Australia, Turn & ReTurn with his new band The Circuit. In typical fashion from Plumb, it is a bold and new musical statement. He described the music as traditional form melodies arranged in the context of groove based songs with a rhythm section that is grounded in the drive of Cretan music and the fluidity of Terry Riley organ improvisations. Turn & ReTurn was produced by Luke Plumb and his long-time collaborator and engineering maestro, the legendary Calum Malcolm.

In 2019 Luke and Kate Burke released their self titled duo album.

He continues to teach, tour and produce and is currently working on a project to involve school orchestras with his friend Khaled Arman in arranging and performing Persian ensemble music.