Composing for Kathryn & The Side

Each summer in the remote village of Alwinton, Northumberland, an acclaimed concert series is presented, alongside a national composers’ competition. For 2016 the organisers and Artistic Director John Casken wanted to offer the chance to compose new pieces for the beguiling instrumental line up of The Side. The competition is now open. Three scores will be selected for a workshop in Alwinton Church on Saturday 7 May 2016 and one work will be selected for performance in the evening concert to be given by Kathryn Tickell and The Side. For more details see the Alwinton Summer Concerts website. 

An Evening with Tim Rice and Friends

On Thursday 8th October at the Sage Gateshead Kathryn joins a host of stars at a fundraising concert to support the work of Maggie’s. Tickets are available at the Sage Gateshead ticket office: 0191 443 4661 or online.

Beautiful Festival Locations

Kathryn and the Side are looking forward to playing at some very special festivals over the coming month. Tiny, exquisite Guiting Music Festival (30 July) is sold out. The ever-impressive Wickham Festival (8 August) is followed by a concert in the inspiring surroundings of Dartington Arts (9 August), where Kathryn will stay on to teach at the Summer School. Denmark beckons next and the Side play at the legendary Tønder Festival over two days (27 – 28 August). A very early flight (matchsticks to be applied to eyelids) and a drive to a very beautiful rural spot: Purbeck Valley Folk Festival (29 August). A loooong drive the next day up to Solfest (30 August) where the weary travellers will be fully restored at this magical location. Hope to see you. And if you wear one of the iconic Side t-shirts you will be easily spotted! See the Shop to get The Look!

BBC Radio 3 – World on 3

Tune in this Friday, 3 July, to BBC Radio 3’s World on 3, live at 23:00, in which Kathryn chooses the Album of the Month. She was also recently interviewed for a US radio programme “A Question of Balance”, the podcast is available here. Kathryn then jets off to Dublin for playing and filming with an Irish music legend. All will be revealed!

Kathryn’s Award in the Queen’s Birthday Honours

Kathryn has been awarded the OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list. The OBE recognises her extraordinary career which began when she picked up a set of pipes as a small girl (after being told not to mess with them!). Tunes learnt from family and friends formed her repertoire and evolved to traverse genres from jazz and world music to large-scale orchestral works. Less public, but close to home, Kathryn founded The Young Musicians’ Fund which has raised over £100,000 for young people in the North East. The fund has built an endowment which will make grants to young musicians in the North East in perpetuity! See Kathryn’s “Just Giving” page. Amid touring, composing, teaching, being a mum AND feeding hens, an OBE is a rather lovely thing to happen!

Lullaby Project

If you were lucky enough to see Kathryn & The Side play at a packed Howard Assembly Room in Leeds back in February, this is what the quartet got up to earlier in the day. A video of their beautiful instrumental version of the lullaby Felton Lonnen can been seen here. This is part of an ongoing project by Opera North.

A Tribute to Jon Lord: Durham Concerto, 19 May, Hagen

Kathryn is honoured to be invited to play with the Hagen Philharmonic Orchestra for this German premiere of Jon Lord’s beautiful Durham Concerto, conducted by Paul Mann. The acclaimed concerto illustrates an imaginary day in the atmospheric city of Durham. Kathryn’s interviewed on Radio Hagen earlier in the day.

Voices Now 8 – 10 May

Kathryn is Artist Curator, along with the wonderful folk singer Sam Lee, for this festival involving fifteen (fifteen!) choirs from around the UK for three days of singing at the legendary Roundhouse, London. Kathryn talks about the festival in this short clip. Kathryn and Sam have been working with the choirs, skipping along the highways and byways of folk music, to inspire some truly rousing performances given by hundreds of voices. See this video clip for a hint of the concerts in store. Kathryn chats about Northumbrian stories and music in a free workshop, “Kathryn Tickell’s Tales”, and joins the choirs for some performances. Full programme details here.

Kathryn and Sam played live on BBC Radio3’s In Tune which included a sneak preview of a new piece by Kathryn, “Where Dwells My Heart”, sung by the Holst Singers. If you missed it you can listen to the programme on iPlayer.

BBC Four – When the Last Ship Sails

This Friday 17 April at 23:00 a recorded live performance of songs from Sting’s album “The Last Ship” (filmed at the Public Theatre, New York) is being shown again on BBC Four. Kathryn worked on The Last Ship for some time with Sting and she can be seen here in fine form, along with a few other musical luminaries from the north east of England! It’s only available to view again for a short time after this second broadcast, so do have a look and listen. This goes out before The Last Ship performances at Sage Gateshead on the 24th and 25th April, which benefit the Sage Gateshead’s 10th Birthday appeal. 

fRoots Magazine Cover Stars

Kathryn & The Side feature on the cover of the latest fRoots magazine. Interview and some beautiful photos inside, taken at last year’s Sidmouth Festival.