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Staff Profile

Nancy Kerr Elliott

Lecturer in Folk and Traditional Music

Background

Multiple BBC award-winning folk musician Nancy Kerr has been described as “One of the UK’s foremost composers of modern folk and social commentary songs” (Royal Shakespeare Company) and “Folk’s Poet-Laureate” (Folk Radio UK). Her compositions draw upon vernacular world music archetypes and radical poetry traditions, while being firmly situated in a narrative, musical and technological present.

Research

Selected papers:

  • Locating Authenticity: Traditional English Fiddle Tune Structure and Style in Therapy, Community and Performance (English Fiddle Symposium, Newcastle University/Sage Gateshead 2015)
  • Fragile Water: Expressions of Gender Identity and Sexuality in Contemporary and Traditional Song(Crossing Boundaries: Diverse Voices in Traditional Culture Conference, Scottish Storytelling Centre 2016) 

Research Partnerships:

  • Transmitting Musical Heritage (University of Sheffield 2013)
  • Mastering Creativity (Leeds Conservatoire Staff/Alumnus HE Research Project 2019)

Since 2012 Nancy has contributed to 7 major UK funded commissions for newly-composed work.

These involve archive work and other literature and oral history research, and combine solo and collaborative compositional and performance elements. 

 

Each project has led to a body of published work, usually in the form of commercial recordings and accompanying literature. 

 

  • 2012 The Olympic Games Radio Ballads Going for Gold – Commissioned BBC Radio 2
  • 2013 The Full English – Commissioned EFDSS; Winner: Best Album and Best Group BBC Folk Awards 2014 
  • 2014 The Elizabethan Session – Commissioned Hatfield House
  • 2015/16 Sweet Liberties – Commissioned Houses of Parliament
  • 2017/18 Shake the Chains – Commissioned Folk by the Oak
  • 2019 Garrick’s Jubilee – Commissioned Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
  • 2020 BTS 50th Anniversary – Commissioned British Tunnelling Society (in production)

 

Funding bodies include PRS Foundation, Arts Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Teaching

Nancy is a folk educator with over 25 years’ teaching experience in both formal and community education settings.


She has led workshops and choirs and taught 1:1 at festivals, residential courses, schools and universities in the UK, Australia, Canada, Europe and Asia. Her music psychotherapy background informs her practice as a facilitator of client-led music-making throughout the lifespan. 


Nancy has lectured at Leeds Conservatoire and The University of Sheffield, including running Music Masterclasses at the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences which examine the reception of personal narratives via song-writing with final year medical students.


She has been guest tutor for the National Youth Folk Ensemble (NYFE) and workshop leader/adjudicator for the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award, and continues to work as Stagecraft Mentor for English Folk Expo and Brighter Sounds UK as part of their emerging artists support schemes.

Publications