Medusa is 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 debut album, nominated for a 2024 Canadian Folk Music Award for Instrumental Group of the Year, 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.

Medusa is : Georgia Hathaway, Lea Kirstein, Marta Sołek, and Saskia Tomkins (originally from the UK and now based in Canada). 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 Płock fiddle, and the Nyckelharpa – near-forgotten traditional folk fiddles with disreputable connotations that were rejected for centuries in their home countries of Poland and Sweden.  “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!”