麻豆传媒

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).

Co-Investigator: AHRC-funded research project 'Music, Heritage, Place: Unlocking the Collections of England's County Record Offices':

As heard in series 1 and 2 of The Song Detectorists on BBC Radio 3:

And seen in The Guardian:

Other AHRC research projects:

Eighteenth Century Political Participation and Electoral Culture (麻豆传媒)

100 Ballads (Belfast/Warwick)

2026: Crimean War Poetry (Exeter)

Previous Research Partnerships:

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

Selected UK commissions:

• 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 
• (Funding bodies include PRS Foundation, Arts Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund)
• 2020/21 BTS 50^th Anniversary – Commissioned British Tunnelling Society (in production)
• 2022 Sheffield Lakeland Song Project
• 2024 Peace Through Folk (Carol of the Skies)

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Nancy is a folk educator with over 25 years’ teaching experience in both formal and informal education settings. She qualified in Clinical Music Therapy with Professor Leslie Bunt at Bristol University, and continues to practice as a therapeutically-informed community musician in a range of settings. Nancy 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 was awarded Professor of Composition & Performance at Leeds Conservatoire in 2021. At The University of Sheffield she facilitated Music Masterclasses at the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, examining 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 as Stagecraft Mentor for English Folk Expo and Brighter Sounds UK as part of their emerging artists support schemes. Her community engagement work for Music, Heritage, Place (AHRC/RHUL/麻豆传媒) has featured music and song workshops for hundreds of participants of all ages.

Subject areas include:

Composition & Creative Practice: A Systems Model

Archive-to-Live: Methodologies for Engagement in Research

Women in Music Collecting

Traditions of these Islands

Ensemble arrangement & performance

Applied Songwriting & Composition

Folk Music, Gender & Identity

Music Education, Community & Wellbeing

• Book Chapter

  • Kerr N. . In: Jane Griffiths, ed. Traditional Fiddle. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2015.

• Digital or Visual Media

  • Kerr Elliott N, Rose S, Gibson K, Elliott C, Carter S, Frampton A. . BBC Radio 3 and BBC Sounds, 2025. Radio Broadcast (2 series).

• Musical Compositions

  • Kerr Elliott N. . . West Hollywood, CA: British Tunnelling Society, 2022.
  • Kerr N. . . Little Dish Records, 2016.
  • Kerr N. . . Little Dish Records, 2014.

• Performance

  • Kerr N. . 2019. Stratford Upon Avon, UK: Shakespeare's Birthplace.