. At the age of 23, fiddler Peter Tickell is one of the U.K’s brightest musical prospects. Growing up on Tyneside and harking from a celebrated musical family, he was strongly influenced by the heritage of his native Northumberland, neighbouring Scotland and his mother’s heartland Ireland. His musical interests are catholic and unorthodox, as he combines this love of traditional music with classical technique and also maintains a strong interest in popular, world, jazz and anything else that grips an insatiable appetite for new music. This zealous approach to open-mindedness has led to him collaborating with a diverse range of musicians from across the globe, including STING, Brazz Bros, Evelyn Glennie, Vincent Segal, The Baghdaddies, Unusual Suspects, Mr Mcfall’s Chamber, Lindisfarne’s Billy Mitchell & Fraser Fifield. As a youth he received numerous accolades on the competition circuit and has already appeared on over 40 albums.
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After spending his formative years playing concertos and classical show pieces, as well as leading the Young Sinfonia orchestra, he turned his back on music college in order to escape the formal and regimented nature of classical music and to develop his playing in a more cathartic and liberating way.
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He turned professional aged 16 by joining The KATHRYN TICKELL BAND with whom he has toured extensively throughout the U.K and Europe and as far afield as Israel, Canada & Hong Kong for the last 7 years, performing to thousands of people in venues ranging from concert halls to the more intimate folk clubs and theatres of Great Britain. By the age of 18 he had already performed at some of the U.K and Europe’s most prestigious venues and festivals including Cambridge Festival, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Manchester Bridgewater Hall, BBC Broadcasting House, St. Chartier Festival & Vossa Jazz Festival.
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In 2005, he first performed with Scottish Turbo-Folk-Jazz-Fusion specialists PEATBOG FAERIES. Since then he has gone on to join the band on a full-time basis. Last year the PBF completed a tour of the U.K. encompassing a festival appearance at Glastonbury and performing alongside Runrig at Scone Palace in front of 20,000 people.
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In 2008 he composed the music for Amber Films ‘Pursuit of Happiness’, a film about the traveling community of County Durham, which appeared on Channel 4 television later that year. In 2009 he was summoned to a recording session in London to play on STING’s most recent album, ‘If On A Winter’s Night’. Peter’s playing features on the single ‘Soul Cake’, and he was invited to take part in a performance of the album in the magnificent nine hundred year old Durham Cathedral. This unique concert was filmed and broadcast across the world, and was also performed to sell-out audiences in New York, Paris & Baden-Baden.
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At the tail end of 2009, he performed to a packed house at the Sage Gateshead alongside STING to mark the 5th anniversary of the buildings inception.
