The Free Reed Trio
Karen Tweed - Accordion
Karen Street - Accordion
Andy Tweed - Saxophone & Clarinet
The Group
This trio came together to perform at the 2025 St Magnus Festival in Orkney to critical acclaim. Their programme captivated the audience and brought together folk, jazz and classical music, original compositions and arrangements in a surprisingly rich, distinctive sound that is truly their own. The unusual combination of twin accordions with woodwinds delivers both power and subtlety, weaving lyrical melodies, intricate harmonies, and rhythmic drive.
Karen Tweed
ACCORDION
Karen Tweed is an internationally respected musician and composer currently living in Orkney, where she has found her creative home. Multi-faceted, her graphic art too has been used on many CD covers, posters and music publications while her love of cartoons is now being used for self-help manuals.
Born in London to an Irish mother and English father, she took lessons on the melodica from the age of 7. At age 11, from Joe Coll who was recruiting for his Corby-based accordion marching band. She went on to study with Lawry Eady, Warren Eagle and finally with John Whelan, an Irish-style button accordionist based in Luton, Bedfordshire. She went onto win four All Ireland Accordion Championships and one All Ireland Miscellaneous Instruments Championship (on the melodica) in the Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann competitions before the age of 19.
She studied Graphic Design at Leeds and then took a PGCE in Art to become a secondary school art teacher.
Working with singer-songwriter Roger Wilson, Karen began her professional musical touring career in 1987, left teaching Art and began collaborating with Kathryn Tickell, The Poozies, Chris Wood, Andy Cutting, Ian Carr, Colum Sands, Timo Alakotila and Karen Street (amongst others).
Her own projects include the No.1 Ladies Accordion Orchestra, May Monday – a duo with Finnish composer and pianist Timo Alakotila and Circa Compania, a 21-strong all female musical-singing-dancing project. She now collaborates with top jazz accordionist/composer Karen Street to run the Orkney Accordion Course as part of St Magnus International Festival and they have published their ‘Time To Sing!’ project aimed to help people with dementia and encourage accordionists to play together in spontaneous events around England.
She has appeared on over 70 CDs, 3 accordion publications/manuals and now has 2 music publications of her own.
She has been a musical director for Parrabbola Theatre Company in London, mentored amateur musicians internationally and has been a regular tutor at the folk degree courses at The World Academy of Music and Dance at Limerick University, Newcastle University and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.
Currently, Karen combines her teaching, publications and artwork within the Orcadian community. Her latest collaborations involve performances with painters, marine biologists and a new adventure into Quantum Physics
‘Tweed’s sensibilities straddle classical and traditional modes with the agility of Margot Fonteyn and the fluency of someone bi-lingual since birth. This is a music tethered neither to a time nor a location.’
Siobhán Long, Irish Times
Karen Street
ACCORDION
Karen studied music at Bath University, Welsh College of Music and Drama and Guildhall School of Music. She is now a freelance musician and her wide-ranging skills (she also plays saxophone) means that she has a diverse career encompassing classical, contemporary and jazz.
On the UK jazz scene Karen has created a niche for herself on the accordion. She has been a regular member of Mike Westbrook's projects for many years and has worked with Tim Garland, Phil Robson, Steve Arguelles, Tina May, Nikki Iles and Martin Taylor’s Spirit of Django’ with Guy Barker’s jazz orchestra . A personal highlight was playing in Maria Schneider’s Big Band at Ronnie Scotts.
Karen has worked with Welsh National Opera, Ballet Rambert, Opera North, BBC Philharmonic, the RPO, the LSO, the Matrix Ensemble, Chroma ensemble, Glyndbourne Opera, Royal Opera House and Royal Shakespeare Company. Other credits include Grace Jones, Ute Lemper, Andrea Bocelli and the Strictly Come Dancing touring band.
Karen’s debut CD “Finally a beginning” 2001 (consisting of original compositions) received great reviews and her reputation as a jazz accordionist and composer was firmly established with her second CD, ’Accordion Crimes', featuring Stan Sulzmann, Fred T Baker and Mike Outram. Other Street projects can be found here.
As a saxophone player she was a member of the all girl saxophone quartet 'The Fairer Sax' who appeared on television and radio and at festivals all over the world. This led to a
commission from Boosey and Hawkes to write educational music for the saxophone. Karen also has publications with June Emerson and Saxtet Publications and her pieces often appear on exam syllabuses in the UK.
Andy Tweed
SAXOPHONE & CLARINET
Andy is from Northern Ireland and studied clarinet and saxophone at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in the late 1980s. He joined Saxtet while still at music college and over its eighteen year life it became one the UK’s leading saxophone groups performing all over the world with their unique repertoire of their own compositions and arrangements.
Andy continues to perform in both jazz and classical settings across the UK and teaches at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, European Youth Summer Music and the Cape Cornwall Saxophone Course.
He is a regular member of the Piccadilly Dance Orchestra, Carismático Tango, the Pinewood Saxophone Quartet with Kyle Horch and Delta Saxophone Quartet and is seen regularly on West End shows.
He is a Yamaha Artist.
