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.
She is also a much sought-after tutor, having taught on Newcastle University’s Folk Music degree course, at Folkworks’ Fiddles on Fire Festival, as part of the English Acoustic Collective Summer School team and is a core tutor for the National Youth Folk Ensemble.
For her latest project, she is joined by Rob Harbron on the concertina Sam Sweeney on fiddle to present Bird Tunes, an exquisite new suite of folk tunes, with birdsong at their core.
Miranda 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.
“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 through 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.”
She is taking her Birds Tunes on Tour with Rob Harbron, so you can catch them playing live on the following dates:
Bird Tunes Tour Dates May 2024
03/05/2024 Ruskin Mill, Nailsworth, Gloucestershire
04/05/2024 Hyde Memorial Hall, Frogham, New Forest
10/05/2024 Sandford Orcas Village Hall, Sherborne, Dorset
11/05/2024 Whitchurch Folk Festival, Hampshire
22/05/2024 Cecil Sharp House, London NW1
24/05/2024 Wingfield Barns, Suffolk
25/05/2024 King’s College, Cambridge
Live gigs will include the birdsong recordings, descriptions and tunes performed by Miranda Rutter (fiddle) and Rob Harbron (concertina)
For further details visit: mirandarutter.com
