Celebrating their 13th year           

Gathering 2004
 Guest Speakers

Yowann Byghan is a former Education Secretary of the Cornish Language Board and a fluent Cornish speaker. He wrote and starred in the first ever television series aired in Cornish, "An Canker Seth," broadcast by Television South West and Sianel Pedwar Cymru in Wales.  For four years Yowann was a presenter of "Kroeder Kroghenn," a weekly Cornish-language news magazine on BBC Radio Cornwall.  As a result of his dedication to the revitalization of the Cornish Language, Yowann was elected a Bard of the Cornish Gorsedh in 1978.Yowann holds and MA in Educational Psychology and taught for thirty years in British and American schools.  He moved to the United States in 1990 where he continues to be involved in education, teaching-or having taught--language arts, drama, media studies, French, German, Latin, Greek, Cornish, modern European history, physics, biology, and general science.  he is a published novelist and writer of Celtic history books, as well as a playwright, song writer and poet.  Yowann lives in West Linn, Oregon and is an active member of the Pacific Northwest Cornish Society.

Susan Witterick is a native of Cornwall but moved to California in 2003.  She is currently finishing her Master of Arts degree in Cornish Studies at the University of Exeter under Professor Phillip Payton, a long-time friend of the California Cornish Cousins.   In 2002, Professor Payton traveled all the way to Jackson, California to describe the new Cornish Studies program at our Gathering.  Susan was among the first to enroll in that program and will share with us the results of her master's dissertation which explores the Cornish identity in America in the 21st century.  All California Cousins are urged to become a part of her study by taking the survey found at her website www.cornishstudies.com .   Susan lives with her family in Santa Monica, California.  She is truly a California Cornish Cousin!

Richard Cook has been playing and teaching Celtic Wind instruments in Southern California for over twenty years. He plays the Cornish Double Pipes as well as Scottish Highland Pipes, Irish Uilleann Pipes, Irish Wooden Flute, Irish Whistle, Bodhran, Spanish Gaita, Bulgarian Gaida, and Scottish Small Pipes. Among his credits are television scores for Star Trek: The Next Generation, Mystic Knights, Murder, She Wrote, The Highlander, Breaker High and Cagney and Lacey.  His motion picture credits include music for Patriot Games, Newsies, An Everlasting Piece, Dragonworld, and My Husbands Secret Life. Additional work includes music for Bell South, Diet Coke and FOX Kids Network commercials, and the IMAX filmscores for Everest and Speed.  He has performed live at Disneyland Light Magic, Walt Disney World's Epcot Center, Knott's Berry Farm, and Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. His has recorded with John Tesh, Celtic Dreams and Vision II.  You can learn more about Richard at his website, www.celticpiper.net.