Sarah-Jane Summers is a versatile, free-thinking & impassioned performer. Her expressive style blends the lyricism of traditional music with improvisation. She has performed with many top folk, jazz, pop & contemporary music artists, including GRIT Orchestra, Highasakite, Quatuor Bozzini, Susanna Wallumrød, and Julie Fowlis. She has released four completely solo albums, the most recent on the highly respected experimental music label Another Timbre. Her four albums with Juhani Silvola all received Songlines’ Top of the World status, with The Smoky Smirr o Rain nominated for a Norwegian Grammy. In Sølvstrøk (2023), they supersized their repertoire for their duo plus chamber orchestra. As a composer, she has written several large commissions, as well as music for the BBC. Sarah-Jane was taught by the legendary Donald Riddell, who learnt from a relative of hers, Alexander Grant of Battangorm. She recently started a PhD in Artistic Research at the Norwegian Academy of Music.
Shadow Half (comp. Sarah-Jane Summers) from the album Echo Stane, released on Another Timbre 2023.
Artistic Research Autumn Forum 2025
My project is about how to cross-pollinate my three musical practices:
- Scottish traditional fiddle music
- Norwegian traditional music on Hardanger fiddle
- experimental music
I explored the following compositional methods to create 40 minutes of music for Summers/Silvola and Bozzini Quartet, one of the world’s leading new music string quartets:
- fragmentation and development (as inspired by OuLiPo)
- transplantation / translation
This music was performed at NMH, Nordlysfestivalen (Tromsø) and Celtic Connections (Glasgow) in Jan/Feb 2025.
Recently, I recorded at Emanuel Vigelands Mausoleum, exploring the following cross-pollination methods:
- improvisation
- Macaronic / hybrid language
In this presentation, I will play excerpts of the music, give an insight into the compositional methods and arrangement processes, highlight challenges and ethical questions and also touch on concepts of agency, Same & Other and Resonance.
Artistic Research Spring Forum 2025
2nd presentation
The past year, I have explored cross-pollinating my three musical practices (Scottish & Norwegian folk music & experimental music on fiddle & Hardanger fiddle) via the following compositional methods:
- De/Pre/Re-Construction (fragmentation and development)
- transplantation / translation
- dance charts as graphic scores
This resulted in 40 minutes of music, performed with Bozzini Quartet - one of the world’s leading new music string quartets - at NMH, Nordlysfestivalen (Tromsø) and Celtic Connections (Glasgow) in Jan/Feb 2025.
In this presentation, I will play excerpts of the music, give an insight into the compositional methods and arrangement processes, and highlight challenges and ethical questions.