Mandy and Linda share a musical partnership under the name Parampara - a Sanscrit word chosen for its appealing rhythmic sound and for its many layered meanings. It alludes to 'tradition' but also roughly translates as 'one foot on the ground, the other moving'.

Mandy is an experienced, versatile musician, singer and dance teacher, while Linda is an exceptionally talented free-lance violinist and teacher with experience in all aspects of music-making. She is equally at home on the classical concert stage or playing in an Irish session, and loves to play music for all forms of dancing and more recently, to compose music for the dance.

Mandy and Linda started out playing live music for Circle Dancing with Tony Wrench. Tony, (who now lives in Wales and plays with a band called Rasalila), is also a versatile and talented musician who has a passion for playing folk music. He also has a great affinity with Native American culture and traditions. After a couple of years playing live music for the dance, this trio, joined by drummer friend Dave Starkie, recorded the CD Full Circle under the name Ta-Vo-Koki (a Native American word meaning 'social dance') Soon after they completed this recording Tony and Dave moved away and at this point Mandy and Linda decided to form their partnership as Parampara.

Mandy and Linda have since made a number of other recordings of Circle Dance music under the Parampara label. On three of these recordings (Sidetracks 1, Sidetracks 2 and Footnotes) they were joined by Bob Minney. Bob is a talented musician, composer, and choreographer. As a musician he is best known for his accordion playing, but also plays many other instruments with great skill. A chance encounter at a dance camp in 1990 introduced them to Bob - there was an instant rapport and for the next ten years Bob joined them regularly, playing for many circle dance events locally and around the country.

However, Parampara's most recent release - Heart of the Wood - is different. For the first time Mandy and Linda have put together a collection of their own original music and dances - a very natural development of the many wonderful hours of music-making and dancing that they have shared together. This work has been very well received and they are currently working on new material for the next CD - an exciting a creative journey for them both.

One other recording that you will find listed is Close Harmony by Musaic. Here Mandy has joined forces with Bob (see above), Nawal Gadalla and Dee Voce. Nawal and Dee live in Chester and are also Circle Dance teachers. This band came together over a period of two years for a week long residential event called 'unplugged' - a first in playing Circle Dance music live over this length of time. This album was the result with a collection of favourite tunes and dances from Musaic's repertoire.