Bookings and Management:
Wooden Ship Productions
Sean Boyd
sean@woodenshipproductions.com
Or contact us directly at medusa.quartet@gmail.com
Hi Res Photos / Stage Plot / Tech Rider / Bios / MP3s / WAVs
Press Quotes
"I was captivated by this album from the opening notes..."
-Roots Music Canada
"Unique... I can't remember the last time I came across a group quite like this."
-Alan Davis, Small World Music
"Medusa brings the richness of musical culture, spoken through strings, to modern audiences..."
-Katya Nosko, Great Escape Bookstore
"OMG, my other dream band!"
-Chris McKhool, Sultans of String
"Mesmerizing... delightful."
-Susan Snelling, 4elements Living Arts
"Medusa shred strings virtuosically, fusing the past & present, inviting all listeners to smile, dance, and be mesmerized. They are an amazing group of musicians, and a must-see live show!"
-Sam Boer, Exclaim!
Recent Highlights
Nominated for a 2024 Canadian Folk Music Award - Instrumental Group of the Year
Featured on "Gordy the Moose’s favourite new discoveries of 2023" (Roots Music Canada)
"Owczarek" and "Waltz at the Wheel" featured on CBC's "About Time" with Tom Allen
Bio
Medusa would slay at a Hobbit family wedding. Wielding a sound that would turn classical music scholars to stone, these four folk musicians are reimagining the Western string quartet. By inviting back voices previously regarded as too ugly for “polite society,” Medusa tempts us to redefine what is beautiful.
With their Canadian Folk Music Award (CFMA) Nominated debut album, Medusa’s dynamic arrangement style cross-pollinates the sounds of Middle Eastern, Scandinavian, Celtic, Appalachian, and Eastern European music, as well as original tunes, to create something previously unheard. With this debut release, the band connects audiences across dividing lines of culture and identity to reveal the common threads beneath.
With their debut EP, Medusa’s dynamic arrangement style cross-pollinates the sounds of Middle Eastern, Scandinavian, Celtic, Appalachian, and Eastern European music, as well as original tunes, to create something previously unheard. With this release, the band aims to connect audiences across dividing lines of culture and identity to reveal the common threads beneath.
Medusa is Georgia Hathaway, Lea Kirstein, Marta Sołek, and Saskia Tomkins. For these four seasoned string players, whose collective experience as side players in successful bands spans decades, Medusa is a refuge for natural creation. Their immediate and electrifying connection is transmuted through a common string language, a love of enigmatic and obscure folk fiddles, and their personal stories of navigating society’s liminal spaces.
One of the most misunderstood figures in ancient mythology, Medusa was wrongfully punished and cast out for being the victim of a violent act, but is remembered solely for her frightful ugliness and lithifying gaze. Through their personal narratives of alienation due to racism, sexism, immigration, queerness, and disability, Medusa the band aims to retell this story by bringing back what has been cast out. Marta Solek and Saskia Tomkins resurrect the Suka, the Płosk fidel, and the Nyckelharpa - forgotten folk fiddles with disreputable connotations that were rejected for centuries in their home countries of Poland and Sweden.
Instead of a snake-haired Gorgon, they see Medusa as a symbol of vision, power, and inclusivity, and a source of inspiration for anyone who has been denied their true self.
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