Jennifer Cutting happily blends careers as a bandleader, composer, instrumentalist, ethnomusicologist, and record producer. Blending the formal training of her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in music with a passion for both traditional and electronic musics, she is one of few women bandleaders working in her genre. With her previous band The New St. George, her recent CD Ocean: Songs for the Night Sea Journey, and her new live band the Ocean Orchestra, Cutting has pushed the boundaries of “Celtic,” “Folk” and “Folk-Rock,” creating arrangements with sweeping orchestral sounds, shimmering ethereal electronics, authentic traditional instruments and a hard-hitting rhythm section.

Cutting is a composer and bandleader by family tradition and a musician and ethnomusicologist by training. Cutting’s two grandfathers, one from England and the other from Ireland , were the inspiration for her natural synthesis of British and Irish musical traditions. Her English grandfather, Ernest Cutting, was a conductor and talent scout for NBC in the 1930s, directing orchestras for Kate Smith, Eddie Cantor, Jack Benny, Jimmy Durante, Fred Astaire, Rudy Vallee, and others. Following in his footsteps, she earned her Bachelor’s degree in orchestral and choral conducting. Her passion for folk music was developed through her association with British folk revival leader A.L. Lloyd. In the early 1980s she became Lloyd's last and youngest protégée, soaking up the same blend of scholarship and joy in performance that he had also imparted to members of Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span.

After returning to the U.S. , Cutting spent more than ten years as director, composer, arranger and performer with The New St. George, one of the most significant British folk-rock groups on this side of the Atlantic . Following the retirement of that band, Cutting spent years composing, arranging, playing and producing the outstanding and award-winning CD OCEAN: Songs for the Night Sea Journey, collaborating with international superstars such as Maddy Prior and Peter Knight (Steeleye Span), Dave Mattacks (Fairport Convention) Tony Cuffe (Ossian) and Troy Donockley (Iona [UK]). Now Cutting is back leading a band, interpreting selections from OCEAN as well as newly composed and arranged material, with her group the OCEAN Orchestra.

Cutting is a multiple award winner in all areas of her musical career. The New St. George earned her fifteen WAMMIE awards from the Washington Area Music Association. She won the 2003 WAMMIE for best contemporary folk instrumentalist. Most dramatically, she swept the 2004 WAMMIE awards, winning “Musician of the Year,” “Songwriter of the Year,” and “Best New Artist,” as well as “Album of the Year” and “Best Contemporary Folk Recording” for OCEAN. She has won two Maryland Governor’s Citations for composition, and prestigious national-level songwriting awards, such as First Prize in songwriting at the Merle Watson Festival, and American Songwriter Magazine’s Song of the Year.

Cutting is head of SunSign, her own international production company, and has her own studio in Takoma Park, Maryland, just outside Washington DC.

LISA MOSCATIELLO (Vocals, guitar, whistle) grew up in Arlington, VA. She became involved in the Irish music scene in Washington, DC during the 1980s, and became lead singer for the traditional Irish trio Ceoltóirí (with Sue Richards and Karen Ashbrook). Lisa studied voice at Yale, and toured with the a capella group Redhot and Blue. She was lead singer of Jennifer Cutting’s British folk-rock band The New St. George, and has since been a member of Whirligig. Also a solo artist, she has three solo and duo CDs to date.




ZAN McLEOD (guitars, bouzouki, mandolin) is one of the best known guitar and bouzouki players in Irish music. In the 1980s he co-founded the Irish-American group Touchstone with Bothy Band alumnus Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill; the group recorded two award-winning albums for Green Linnet Records. His solo album Highland Soul earned great critical acclaim. Zan appears on many award-winning albums, and on several film soundtracks, including The Brothers McMullen, Ride with the Devil, and Far North.




RICO PETRUCCELLI (electric bass) is a D.C. native and a veteran musician, having performed with Mary Chapin Carpenter, Chuck Berry and Charlie Byrd, among others. Also an engineer, arranger, composer and producer, he engineered several classic area recordings, including Shearwater by Pete Kennedy, and composed many commercial jingles heard daily in the region. Rico played in Jennifer Cutting’s British folk-rock group The New St. George, and with Cutting co-produced their award-winning album High Tea.