Fiddle player and composer Miranda Rutter and Rob Harbron on concertina bring ‘Bird Tunes’, an exquisite new suite of folk tunes with birdsong at their core, to Kings Place as part of its birdsong-inspired Folk Weekend.

Miranda Rutter has crafted every tune in the project out of fragments of birdsong which she recorded on her phone during woodland walks near her home.  The suite is both a love-song to the intricacy and beauty of birdsong, and a timely reminder of the struggles with habitat loss and human-made dangers faced by migrating birds today.

In her own words: ‘This is a suite of tunes inspired by birds and their song. I’ve become so entranced by birds, I’ve found myself recording them in the woods, fields and wetlands near my home.  Excitedly bringing home these slivers of sonic magic, I ‘transcribed’ or learnt to play snippets of these birds’ songs on the fiddle, then wove these fragments of melody into folk dance tune forms – my other musical fascination.  In some of these tunes, I’ve purely pieced together birds’ phrases, in others I’ve written ‘answer’ phrases to their ‘questions’ and in others I’ve written the whole tune but been inspired by a bird in some way.

I follow in a long line of musicians from prehistory, who’ve been inspired by birdsong – it being such an enchanting wonder of the world!  For me, listening deeper, discovering intricacies and learning to recognise birds by their song has made me care even more about birds and their habitat.  As so many species are struggling in this rapidly changing, human-dominated world, I hope that my contribution can help spark intrigue, spread awareness and in turn, generate action to turn the tide of fortune for these awe-inspiring creatures.’

This event will last approximately 2 hours, including an interval.

About Miranda Rutter:

Miranda Rutter is a folk musician, fiddle and viola player, composer, performer and teacher. She performs with Methera who focus on making folk music through the voice of the string quartet. She has also performed with the English Acoustic Collective and Morris Offspring in On English Ground and with Chris Wood in his Listening to the River. She was also a member of Jabadaw and Fika.

About Rob Harbron:

Rob Harbron is a uniquely skilled player of the English concertina, described by The Guardian as a ‘concertina wizard’ and renowned for his highly individual and harmonic style of playing. He is a member of Leveret (alongside Sam Sweeney and Andy Cutting), with whom he has toured extensively and released four landmark albums.