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Thomas Bending

I'm a combinatorial mathematician at Middlesex University in north London, England. I'm married to Rachel, a Methodist minister, and we live in Parson's Green in central London.

I play, dance and call mostly English folk music and dances. My main instrument's the recorder, but I also play 5-string banjo and piano, and sing. My arsenal of recorders is into double figures, which seems rather a lot for someone with only one mouth, but mostly I play a Moeck 529 ebony descant, a 20th century German version of an 18th century Belgian instrument by Jean-Hyacinth-Joseph Rottenburgh.

I play with several bands, including Momentum and English Medley, and also various temporary clumps of musicians for one-off events. I play and dance with the Hoddesdon Crownsmen rapper sword team, and moonlight as a backup musician for East Saxon Sword. I play with, and sometimes lead, the Cecil Sharp House Monday Musicians. I dance, play and call at Ealing Country Dance Club. If you'd like to book one of these groups, or just know more about any of them, then please contact me.

I've performed on several music recordings, composed two tunes that seemed worth keeping, co-written a textbook, and developed the Torus tune-indexing system. I'm interested in puzzles, and I've written some Palm handheld software.

You can meet me on Facebook.