Medieval Futures: Kate Arnold and Katherine Christie Evans interpret Music and Poetry from the Medieval West and Near East.

A free concert and Q&A sponsored by NTU History and Heritage through the CSRC research group, with optional donation to the DEC Turkey-Syria Earthquake appeal (suggested donation £5 via JustGiving).

Classically trained on violin and vocals, Kate Arnold now bases her music around the hammered dulcimer using live-looping and real-time electronic effects. Recently she has performed with Lindy-Fay Hella of Wardruna (‘Vikings’), Jim Bob (Carter USM), ‘metal’ cellist Jo Quail and musical instrument inventor Thomas Truax. She has also worked with BBC Folk Award winner Lisa Knapp, ‘ancient Greek’ ensemble Daemonia Nymphe and Senegalese kora player Doudou Cissoko.

Kate released her two-part ‘electro-medievalist’ recording project, Rota Fortunae, in 2020 and 2021. She is now working on a new album drawing partly on material encountered during her current PhD research at NTU on Old French songs and Arabic poems. Kate is sponsored in her research by the AHRC Midlands 4 Cities DTP.

Katherine Christie Evans is a soprano, instrumentalist, producer and songwriter hailing from Romford in Essex.

A mixture of self-taught and home-schooled, she comes from a family of classical pianists and singers. Katherine performs on a range of historical and contemporary instruments, including 6- and 8-string electric guitars, drum kit, psaltery, gittern (medieval guitar), and bass guitar.

Katherine is studying a Masters in Music Technology at Birmingham Conservatoire.

She is currently working on creating modern interpretations of Medieval and Renaissance songs, incorporating heavy rock, ambient and electronic elements. Her forthcoming EP, ‘Bryd’, will consist of improvisations inspired by the oldest love-song in the English language, Bryd one Brere.