Kathryn Tickell is a composer and performer whose work is deeply connected to the landscape and people of Northumbria.

All the variations of landscape, weather, flora and fauna were part of her childhood and her family and the community’s everyday working lives. A strong sense of this environment is found within the tunes and songs of the area, performed and interpreted by Kathryn, family and friends.

Kathryn took up the Northumbrian smallpipes at the age of nine and by the age of thirteen had won all the traditional open smallpipes competitions. At the age of sixteen, Kathryn released her first album On Kielderside. Two years later, in 1986, she turned professional, immediately entering a busy touring schedule throughout Britain and abroad, as well as recording her second album Borderlands, which was the first recording to include her own compositions.

In 1987 she recorded a sixty-minute TV documentary, The Long Tradition, for Channel 4 which chronicled her musical development and background. This was broadcast in December 1987, and released on video in 1989.

Since then Kathryn has recorded eleven more albums, toured extensively throughout the world both solo and with The Kathryn Tickell Band, composed music for two productions by Newcastle’s Live Theatre, presented a series of programmes for Radio 2, presented a series of TV programmes on music composition for Channel 4 Schools, and recorded with the Penguin Café Orchestra, The Chieftains, Beth Nielsen-Chapman, Jimmy Nail, Linda Thompson, Alan Parsons, Andy Sheppard and many others.