Gudrun Walther

Gudrun grew up in a musical family with German, Irish and French folk music, and began playing folk music on the violin at the age of 6. At the age of 17 she decided to embark on a career as a professional folk musician in Germany; two years later she won the German Folk Promotion Prize. In the meantime she tours as a front woman with her bands CARA and Deitsch, as well as in a duo with Jürgen Treyz through Europe, the USA and Australia and has already released 19 albums of her own music. In addition, she can look back on successful engagements as a studio and guest musician in numerous CD recordings and concerts with bands and orchestras (Le Concert Spirituel (F), El Houssaine Kili Band, State Philharmonic of Rhineland-Palatinate and many more). In the last few years Gudrun has noticeably gained a reputation as a songwriter and composer – some of her songs and tunes have already been covered and recorded by folk bands in the USA and Europe. In 2016 she stood in for the well-known Sligo fiddler Oisín MacDiarmada in his band Téada – which is equivalent to an accolade from Ireland.
In December 2020, classical star violinist Daniel Hope invited Gudrun Walther and Jürgen Treyz to an Irish Fiddle Special in his “Hope @ Home” series in Berlin, and the “Living Room Concert” was broadcast live across Europe on ARTE concert.

“Gudrun Walther could certainly hold her own in any Irish musical setting.”
(Dirty Linen Magazine)
“Her energy and stage presence was a joy to watch and she led the band through a set of tunes and songs that were just fantastic. It was a truly magic set. The festival stars of this year”
(Ceol Cholasa, Colonsay Folk Festival)

Kim Edgar

Kim is from Edinburgh, Scotland and her career as a solo artist has earned her the title “Scotland’s very own Tori Amos” (Sunday Herald). Her songs reflect her enthusiasm for horror, myths and fairy tales, feminism and social history – all topics that she dealt with during her studies of English Language and Literature. She lays the foundation of her songs on the piano, on which she enjoyed classical training. Kim’s debut album “Butterflies and Broken Glass” was awarded five out of five stars by “Scotland on Sunday”. Her second album “The Ornate Lie” reached 11th place in the Sunday Herald’s Top Scottish Albums of 2012 and was nominated for Best Album 2012 by “Spiral Earth”. She has been named “Songwriter Of The Week” on BBC Radio Scotland. Kim was also a member of the “Burns Unit”, with whom she performed at Cambridge Folk Festival, and on Later With Jools Holland. Kim has also performed for HRH the Queen at the opening of the Scottish Parliament’s fourth session. Her current album, “Held” was recorded and released during the pandemic in 2020 and has received excellent reviews.

“Kim Edgar is probably one of the best songwriters in Britain today!“
(Spiral Earth)

Simon Pfisterer

Simon stepped in in 2021 when former piper Hendrik Morgenbrodt injured his hand, thus had to learn the full concert repertoire at very short notice – having never played with the band before – and did an amazing job!

Originally from Bavaria in Germany, he started to play various kinds of different bagpipes at the age of 8 and finally found his love for Irish music and especially the uilleann pipes in 2011. Simon recently completed the BA programme in Irish Traditional Music and Dance at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance in Limerick. During his studies, Simon attended classes under the tuition of Blackie O’Connell and various guest tutors. Simon has been performing with his bands, projects and as a solo artist at festivals and concerts all across Europe, in China and the United States.

„The album (Live) is full of Cara’s standout performances,
for me the high point is the slow air (…),
which draws every last ounce of emotion from the pipes.“

(Séan Laffey, Irish Music Magazine)

Jürgen Treyz

Jürgen studied guitar at MGI Munich, but was also intensively involved with traditional and medieval music. In 1993 he founded the Artes Recording Studio in Esslingen, which specializes in folk and acoustic music. As a guitarist, composer and arranger of music for radio plays, TV and theatre, he has so far published more than 90 CDs of his own music and has received several prizes and awards for the audibly folk-influenced productions. In 2006 Jürgen started the German folk music project “Deitsch” together with Gudrun. Their first CD “Königskinder” was highly praised by the critics and celebrated as an important part of the preservation of German folk music culture. The second album “Heimat” was awarded the “Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik”. Jürgen Treyz and Gudrun Walther released the double album “DUO” in 2017, which received top international reviews, and in 2019 the new Deitsch album “Mittsommer-Sessions”, which was named “The Special” by the specialist magazine Folker. Since 2008 Walther & Treyz have also played in the quartet “LITHA” with the Scottish musicians Claire Mann and Aaron Jones, and since 2016 in the project “Fiddles & Feet” with Oisín MacDiarmada (IRL) and Samantha Harvey (USA). In 2018 Jürgen published a guitar textbook with CD in the publishing house of Acoustic Music, for which he prepared German dance pieces from old manuscripts for fingerstyle guitar.

“Cara’s adroitness in arrangements (Treyz in particular) is much in evidence here ”
(Boston Irish Reporter)
“Treyz hits the high mark though, with his complicated compositional arrangement on Odd Rhythms”
(Eileen McCabe, Irish Music Magazine)