Much-loved folk singer-songwriter Karine Polwart is one of Scotland’s national treasures and the winner of seven BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Originally from Banknock in Stirlingshire, she began performing two decades ago, drawing on the deep traditions of folk and roots music to comment on issues affecting life in the 21st century.

Polwart’s last two Festival appearances were sell-out successes. For her International Festival appearance this year, she performs an intimate, pared-back set of traditional and new original songs in collaboration with jazz pianist and composer Dave Milligan, embracing her early career roots as a traditional singer in the cellar bars and pub sessions of Edinburgh, ahead of a duo album release in late 2021.

Dave Milligan’s creative versatility across genres characterises his solo and ensemble work with projects as diverse as jazz-folk big band The Unusual Suspects, fiddle supergroup String Sisters and his latest album Momento, with Italian maestros Danillo Gallo and U.T. Gandhi. Both Polwart and Milligan live in the village of Pathhead, Midlothian – proof that Scotland’s musical communities thrive well beyond its towns and cities.