Northumbrian pipe player Kathryn Tickell to play at The Apex

Kathryn Tickell is the foremost exponent of the Northumbrian pipes, a composer, performer and successful recording artist whose work is deeply rooted in the landscape and people of Northumbria and is set to appear at The Apex, in Bury St Edmunds, next month.

She first took up the Northumbrian smallpipes at the age of nine, learning in the traditional way from shepherd musicians in outlying hill farms near her home.

All the elements of landscape, weather and stories of the people that lived and worked there were part of her childhood.

Kathryn’s personal evocation of this is heard through the traditional tunes and songs that she brings to audiences all over the world.

Kathryn also works collaboratively across many genres, making her work contemporary and exciting.

She has released 15 of her own albums to date and has also recorded and performed with Sting, The Chieftains, The Penguin Café Orchestra, Evelyn Glennie and many others.

“Inspiration for The Darkening” (the Northumbrian name for twilight) comes from the wild, dramatic, weather-bitten countryside along Hadrian’s Wall, which seems so quintessentially Northumbrian – and yet, 1,900 years ago that same landscape was inhabited by people from the furthest reaches of the Roman Empire, worshipping different gods and following different customs.

Kathryn Tickell and The Darkening (pictured above) embrace that global perspective, bringing some of the oldest Northumbrian tunes and songs to life, intermingling them with new material and binding it all together with contemporary resonance and attitude.

They are at The Apex, on Monday, October 16, at 7.30pm. See www.theapex.co.uk or ring 01284 758000 for more information or to book tickets.