Kathryn Tickell

Kathryn Tickell

Kathryn Tickell is an English folk musician from Walsall, United Kingdom, born in 1967. She plays the Northumbrian smallpipes and fiddle, and her work is closely associated with Northumbrian and traditional music.

Career

Tickell takes up the smallpipes at the age of nine, influenced by her family, especially her father Mike, who is active in the local traditional music scene, and by older Northumbrian players including Willie Taylor, Will Atkinson, Joe Hutton, Richard Moscrop and Tom Hunter. By the age of thirteen, she wins all the traditional open smallpipes competitions and is also establishing herself as a fiddle player.

Her family comes from the North Tyne Valley area of Northumberland. Her first album, On Kielder Side, appears in 1984, and in the same year she is named official piper for the Lord Mayor of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. She turns professional in 1986 and goes on to tour widely, including regular tours in Europe.

Tickell records with performers including The Chieftains, Boys of the Lough and Sting. She has recorded eleven albums and later works include Borderlands, Common Ground, Signs, The Gathering, Debatable Lands, Music for a New Crossing, Back to the Hills, Air Dancing, The Sky Didn't Fall, Strange But True, Instrumental, What We Do and Northumbrian Voices.

Bands and projects

In 1990, Tickell forms The Kathryn Tickell Band. The band includes Peter Tickell on fiddle, Julian Sutton on melodeon, Ian Stephenson on acoustic guitar and acoustic bass guitar, and Tickell on Northumbrian pipes and fiddle.

In 2002, she becomes director of Folkestra North, a project for developing young musicians aged between 14 and 19. In 2013, she forms The Side with accordionist and clog dancer Amy Thatcher, harpist Ruth Wall and cellist Louisa Tuck.

Collaborations

Among her recorded collaborators are Tom Gilfellon on On Kielder Side, Alistair Anderson on Borderlands, Troy Donockley on Debatable Lands, Patrick Molard on The Gathering and Martyn Bennett on Borderlands. Debatable Lands also includes “Our Kate”, a composition dedicated to Catherine Cookson. In 2001, she creates a piece with jazz saxophonist Andy Sheppard, which is premiered at the opening of the Gateshead Millennium Bridge.

Discography

Her recorded output includes On Kielder Side (1984), Borderlands (1987), Common Ground (1988), The Kathryn Tickell Band (1991), Signs (1993), The Gathering (1997), The Northumberland Collection (1998), Debatable Lands (1999), Ensemble Mystical (2000), Music for a New Crossing (2001), Back to the Hills (2002), Air Dancing (2004), The Sky Didn't Fall (2006), Strange But True (2006), Instrumental (2007), What We Do (2008), The Best of Kathryn Tickell (2009) and Northumbrian Voices (2012).