In 2002 Kathryn’s tenth album Back to the Hills was released, featuring solos, duets and trios in traditional style, as well as archive recordings of Kathryn with Northumbrian shepherd and fiddle player Willie Taylor.

Recent years have seen Kathryn concentrating mostly on her teaching, composition and her work with the Kathryn Tickell Band. She is a part-time lecturer on the Folk and Traditional Music degree course at Newcastle University and is the Artistic Director of Folkestra, the North’s acclaimed young folk ensemble.

In September 2004 the Kathryn Tickell Band released their album Air Dancing which was followed by a sell out UK tour. In 2005 Kathryn was awarded Musician of the Year at BBC Radio 2’s Folk Awards. In March 2006 the TV documentary Kathryn Tickell’s Northumbria was broadcast on Channel 5, and was repeated later in the year.

October 2006 saw the world premiere of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Kettletoft Inn. This work was written for and dedicated to Kathryn “in admiration and respect for her work in making her home county come alive with a reawakened awareness of its own musical heritage, and of inexhaustible developments and transformations of its traditions” Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.

2006 also saw the release of two more albums: the sky didn’t fall - with Scottish harper/singer Corrina Hewat, and Strange but True, an album featuring collaborations with other artists throughout Kathryn’s career.

The latest Kathryn Tickell Band album, Instrumental, was released in Spring 2007.