Headlining Thursday evening on the Lake Stage will be Kathryn Tickell & The Darkening. Named after the old Northumbrian word for twilight, ‘The Darkening’ is made up of four North-East England-based members: Kathryn Tickell (Northumbrian smallpipes, fiddle, vocals), Amy Thatcher (accordion, synth, clogs, vocals), Kieran Szifris (octave mandolin), Joe Truswell (drums, percussion);  with Josie Duncan from the Isle of Lewis (vocals, clarsach). Together these dazzling musicians create musical magic; dynamic and unique “Ancient Northumbrian Futurism”.

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“wildly thrilling”

The Guardian

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“unexpectedly cosmic”

MOJO

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Based in the shadow of Hadrian’s Wall yet reaching out to the wider world, Kathryn Tickell & The Darkening explore the connecting threads of music, landscape and people over a period of almost 2000 years. Songs range from themes of freedom, nature and venturing out into the world after times of darkness, to a Roman inscription with links to Libya and Syria magnetically pulled into the 21st century with glorious vocal harmonies and the wildest of piping.

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“vital and assured, folk stomp”

Americana-UK

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“this is a blinder! …just fantastic”

Mark Radcliffe, BBC Radio 6 Music

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"capturing a sound that effortlessly conjures the past whilst simultaneously referencing the present and future"

Folk Radio UK

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Kathryn’s extraordinary career began with learning tunes from old shepherd friends and family, and evolved to traverse genres from jazz and global music to large-scale orchestral works. Exploring and cultivating her bountiful native heritage of Northumberland have been a constant throughout.

 

She was the first folk artist to appear at the BBC Proms, as a commissioned composer, curator and performer. Her concert performances have been lauded as “beautiful and important work” (writer David Almond); “I can’t remember feeling so exhilarated by such a match of music and landscape” (Richard Morrison, The Times).

 

Amongst her extensive work on her home ground, Kathryn set up a new community interest company Magnetic North-East in 2016, to celebrate and promote the distinctive cultural identity of the North-East of England. She is also founder of The Young Musicians Fund at the Community Foundation, which has raised over £100,000 for young people in the area.

 

Kathryn has been awarded the OBE, and also the Queen’s Medal for Music for her outstanding contribution to British music; the first non-classical recipient of this award. She has twice won the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Musician of the Year. She is also a regular presenter for BBC Radio 3’s ‘Music Planet’.

 

“No one has evoked the landscape and traditions of Northumbria more affectingly than Kathryn Tickell; a champion of the Northumbrian pipes, she is steeped in the songs and mythology of the north-east”

The Observer.

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