Photo credit: Georgia Claire
Thursday, 25 September; 8pm
Please note that Nave tickets are now SOLD OUT. Tickets are still available in the North Nave Aisle and North Transept.
The Festival is delighted to welcome the long-awaited return of Kathryn Tickell & The Darkening. Kathryn is a renowned performer, broadcaster and the foremost exponent of the Northumbrian smallpipes. She says of The Darkening: “There’s a line in a poem that says traditional music is ‘like ribbons through history’… with The Darkening I feel that we are reaching a hand back in time and also reaching the other hand forward into the future – connecting them through music.”
As a traditional folk musician Kathryn Tickell does not set her programme in advance, preferring instead to have the flexibility to change the repertoire and order depending on the context of the performance, the acoustics of the venue, the response of the audience and how she feels on the day. Whatever she decides to play at this concert, we can be sure of an unforgettable evening.
Named after the old Northumbrian word for twilight, The Darkening is made up of three North-East England-based members: Kathryn Tickell (Northumbrian smallpipes, fiddle, vocals), Amy Thatcher (accordion, synth, clogs, vocals), and Joe Truswell (drums, percussion). New to the band from across the way in Cumbria is Heather Cartwright (guitar, vocals), with Stef Conner (vocals, clarsach) from Cambridge completing the line up. Together these dazzling musicians create musical magic – dynamic and unique “Ancient Northumbrian Futurism”!
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.
Praise for the latest album Cloud Horizons:
“…wildly thrilling” The Guardian
“…unexpectedly cosmic” MOJO
“…vital and assured, folk stomp” Americana-UK
“…this is a blinder! …just fantastic” Mark Radcliffe, BBC Radio 6 Music
Live reviews:
“…tremendously energising, polished and thought-provoking” Americana-UK.
“Dynamic and breathless jigs and spins… this is the energy we want!” The List (Celtic Connections 2024).
“Kathryn Tickell and The Darkening hold Cropredy in the palm of their hand…” At The Barrier.
“… a euphoric experience… edgy, dark dance-based adventures, thoughtful mystical evocations, precise virtuoso instrumental wizardry and magical, haunting soundscapes” Fatea.
£15 North Nave Aisle and North Transept / £5 children & students / all unreserved
Sponsored by: Hexham Violin Shop, Ltd., Nick Rossiter and Robert & Christine Hull
The Darkening in a dark barn. Photo credit: Neil Denham
About Kathryn Tickell:
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 began playing the Northumbrian pipes at the age of nine, a task she once once described as ‘trying to tame an octopus’. Like the Irish uilleann pipes, the Northumbrian pipes are bellows blown but, uniquely, the chanter – the pipe that plays the melody – is closed at the end. This means a note is only sounded as a finger is raised, giving the instrument is characteristically perky staccato sound. From her first album, released at the age of 16, Kathryn has carried the voices of her family and her Northumbrian traditions in her pipe and fiddle playing.
Long-admired by musicians and collaborators such as Jacob Collier, Sting and The Penguin Café Orchestra, Kathryn works across many genres, creating material that is contemporary and exciting. Her music makes a profound connection with audiences. She was the first folk artist to appear at the BBC Proms, as a commissioned composer, curator and performer.
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’. Kathryn is celebrating her 40 year professional career with her latest album Return to Kielderside receiving rapturous reviews.
★★★★★ Songlines and Top of the World award (Feb 2025)
“… an artistic, physical, psychic repositioning of the musician against the landscape that first inspired her.” KLOF Mag.
“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.
Official website: kathryntickell.com
X: @kathryntickell
Instagram: kathryntickell
Facebook: kathryntickellpiper
Youtube:@TheKathrynTickell
Bandcamp: kathryntickell.bandcamp.com