Fleecey Folk: Bird Tunes with Miranda Rutter, Ron Harbron, Sam Sweeney - Sun 31 May 2026, 8pm, £19

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Fiddle player and composer Miranda Rutter is joined by Rob Harbron on concertina and 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."

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