Bella Hardy

During this time she attended a Folkworks Youth Summer School in Durham, which in turn led to the formation of ’The Pack’, a teenage band who played at ceilidhs, all-night sessions and festivals. In 2002, The Pack released the album 12 Little Devils, and in 2003,they played the main stage of the Cambridge Folk Festival.

At 18, Bella moved to York to study English Literature. Around this time, she joined Ola, whose original vocalist had left, and spent 3 years singing with the North Yorkshire trio. In 2004 Bella entered the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Awards as a solo artist. She got through the semis as an unaccompanied singer and went into the finals as a fiddle singer.

A period of relative hibernation followed, during which got a Masters in Music from Newcastle University. However, she had continued to perform, both in ceilidh bands, and singing unaccompanied, and decided the time had come to focus on her singing.

She launched her début solo album ’Night Visiting’ in Autumn 2007 to an overwhelming critical response, garnering herself two nominations at the BBC Folk Awards in the process. She has since established herself as one of the finest live young folk acts around, often accompanied by Chris Sherbourn of ’Last Night’s Fun’ on accordion. In 2008, Bella performed at the first BBC Folk Proms. First, singing unaccompanied ballads, where she was easily the star of the afternoon session, and then returning with her fiddle in the evening to perform a set of songs from Night Visiting.

Her second album, ’In The Shadow of Mountains’, was released in August 2009.