Congratulations to Karine Polwart who has been nominated in Trad Music in the Media sponsored by Glasgow Caledonian University in the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards 2024. Vote for Karine Polwart now!. It’s going to be another great night at the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards on Saturday 30th November in Inverness Leisure. Why not join us for a brilliant night of music and awards. Buy a ticket here.
We asked Mark of Karine Polwart the following questions.
Tell us about yourself
KARINE POLWART is a multi-award-winning Scottish songwriter, folk singer, and storyteller. Her songs evoke a richness of place, hidden histories, scientific curiosity and folklore. Trees and rocks speak. Birds flit in and out of vision. And the stars know everything. She conjures the beauty and magic, the sorrow and complexity of the world out of the corner of her eye, with lyricism and tenderness
Karine’s many collaborative projects include – Still As Your Sleeping, a duo with pianist Dave Milligan; a longstanding trio with brother Steven Polwart and multi-instrumentalist Inge Thomson; her Scottish Songbook re-imaginings of classic Scottish pop; Spell Songs, a multi-artist response to environmental loss; and Wind Resistance, her peatbog-inspired theatre show for The Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh.
Her commissions over the past two years include new work for both the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and 2023 saw her host and write Seek the Light, a poetic three-part BBC Radio 4 series combining science, music and folklore.
Why are you involved in Scottish music?
Scottish Music feels like home. It offers me community, purpose and gifts me most of my best and dearest pals. It also connects me to the place I live and to the lines of people who’ve gone before me, and tells the most beautiful and enduring stories.
Any particular career highlights?
It’s 25 years since I quit a salaried job with Scottish Women’s Aid to take my chances as a folk musician. It’s a marvel to me that I’m still getting away with it! This past month, me and my Scottish Songbook band filled The Usher Hall in Edinburgh. People wept and laughed and sang and the whole show was a gigantic collective cuddle. That’s as heartfelt and joyous as it gets over these past two decades. But the thing that’s had the widest ripples is my theatre show Wind Resistance, which wove Scots song, medicine, football and local history into its telling. The personal feedback from that has been tender, beautiful and inspiring. And it’s transformed how I make work now and what I think I can do. I view myself as a writer, storyteller and theatre maker now, as well as a folk musician
What are your plans for the future?
I find the future a scary idea. Some days planning seems like utter vanity, a distraction from the urgency of the many human and ecological catastrophes unfolding. But I don’t really know what else to do or be. So I’m making that mess and alarm the core of all the new work I’m making. Through story and song, perhaps I can offer space to feel something, recognise something, connect with others and maybe, just maybe, turn this stuff around. down. Just don’t ask me exactly how just yet …
Karine Polwart Social Media
Website: https://www.karinepolwart.com
Facebook: @karinepolwart
Twitter: @
Instagram: @karinepolwart
YouTube: @karinepolwart
TikTok: @
The 2024 MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards are on the 30th November 2024 in Inverness Leisure Centre! You will be able to watch it live in person (buy a ticket here). Watch it live in the UK at 9pm (GMT) on BBC ALBA and and around the world here. Bands performing on Saturday 30th November include Julie Fowlis, Skipinnish, Laura Wilkie and Ian Carr, Highland Young Musicians and Arc Fiddlers, An Dannsa Dub, BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician Award winner 2024 Calum McIlroy and more!
If you would like to support Hands Up for Trad in their work with Scottish trad music and musicians why not become a friend of Hands Up for Trad. In addition to our high profile events like the Scots Trad Music Awards, we also deliver a less well known, education programme for young people from 8yrs right through to young adults at the start of their careers. Read more here.
