Events
KATE YOUNG: “Challengingly exotic, oddball, multicultural, wayward and […] enthralling” – MOJO
Growing up immersed within a Folk music background in Edinburgh, Kate Young has emerged as one Scotland’s most innovative composers and musicians. She is driven by the exploration of new sounds found in traditional musics around the globe, which feed into her compositional world. As a musician, Kate combines voice with fiddle-playing techniques to conjure intriguing soundscapes as she navigates her way across musical genres.
A recipient of the prestigious Paul Hamlyn Award for Composers 2018, Kate has also toured globally with bands such as Moulettes, (Eliza Carthy MBE) Carthy, Hardy, Farrell & Young, Kathryn Tickell & The Darkening , Hannah James’s JigDoll Ensemble. In 2015-16 she collaborated with ten folk musicians from Scotland and England, all women, for Songs of Separation, a record which gained ‘Album of the Year’ at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award in 2017. Her own band (previously known as Kate in the Kettle) is focussed on her combining of composition for string quintet and song.
Over the last five years she has developed her interests in British plant lore and folktales, learning directly from books and then weaving information into her songs and compositions as a means to perpetuate and empower traditions at high risk of being lost. She completed a significant commission for Celtic Connections’s New Voices and wrote a suite of pieces around the theme of the natural world. Her response – a complete repertoire of songs inspired by British medicinal plants, set to string quintet, with harp, double bass and percussion – was met with wide acclaim.
More recently, Kate has endeavoured to continue extending her creative and compositional research by studying a Masters’ degree in Scenography in Utrecht, Netherlands.
“A wayward soundscape, whose eldritch tonalities, eerie harmonies and restive rhythmic layers skilfully skirted the familiar and orthodox” The Scotsman
Support from Alicia Edelweiss: Alicia Edelweiss is an Austro-British singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and performer based in Vienna.
In May 2025, Alicia Edelweiss will release her new album FURIE on the Hamburg-based label Glitterhouse Records, marking a significant step in her international career. Her previous album, When I’m enlightened, everything will be better (2019), released by Medienmanufaktur Wien, established her as “one of the most exciting and interesting musicians on the Austrian music scene” (ORF).
Alicia’s musical journey began as a wandering street musician, traveling across Europe for two years. A largely self-taught artist, she initially performed with her guitar before incorporating the accordion, ukulele, and piano into her repertoire. In addition to her solo career, she was for several years the accordionist in Voodoo Jürgens’ band.
Her discography includes the studio debut When I’m enlightened, everything will be better (2019), the EP I should have been overproduced (2013), and the home-recorded lo-fi album Mother, how could you – A sick tragic comedy in 10 acts (2016). For FURIE, the production process expanded to include electronic elements, soundscapes, and field recordings, creating a richly textured sound. Despite its experimental nature, the album retains the accessibility of pop music, balancing depth and openness.
The success of her previous album led to an extensive touring schedule. Alicia Edelweiss is renowned for her captivating live performances, which blend music and performance. As Radio FM4’s Christian Pausch describes: “Alicia Edelweiss’ songs make us laugh, give us goosebumps, move us with their tenderness, and shatter the silence when the story calls for it. She continues to prove that she thrives on diversity.”
In 2022, she was awarded the Hubert von Goisern Cultural Prize for extraordinary talent and perseverance.
Alicia is also active as an actress and performer. Since 2022, she has contributed to theatre and film, including roles in the play Die Fürchterlichen Fünf and Evi Romen’s film Happyland (set to premiere in 2025), both of which she also contributed music for. Currently, she is collaborating on the music theatre project Hamlet – Pop Opera, set to debut in summer 2025 in Villach, Austria. Since 2024, she has been studying performance art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.
Alicia Edelweiss’ music is characterized by authenticity, honesty, and intimacy, complemented by a poetic embrace of the unconventional, artistic, and absurd. A self-described experimenter and perfectionist, she works meticulously and collaborates with carefully selected artists to craft arrangements that can extend up to 10 minutes on her albums. Her work resists any genre classification, existing at the intersection of many styles but rooted in pop at its core. Alicia describes it as “experimental hysterical dreamy violent artsy indie chamber folk pop,” while others have called it “chamber pop” or “experimental folk“.
Her music and albums are a synthesis of poetry, playfulness, wildness, humor, depth, and individuality. Together, they form what can only be described as a Gesamtkunstwerk – a total work of art.
Doors open 7pm, Music starts 8.30pm. The venue is mixed seated and standing. Tables are limited, and available on a first come first served basis, so if you’d like a seat, we recommend arriving early!
