HARPIST Catrin Finch and kora player Seckou Keita have been nominated for three awards in the BBC Radio2 Folk Awards 2019 it was announced on Mark Radcliffe’s Folk Show last night (Wednesday, July 31).

The nominations are for Best Album for their second album ‘SOAR’, Best Band/Duo for their collaborative project, and Seckou has received a nomination for Musician of The Year.

The nominations are the latest in a string of accolades for the duo, whose album SOAR has already won the fRoots Critics Poll Album of the year 2018, and ‘Best Fusion’ in the Songlines Music Awards 2019.

Their previous album ‘Clychau Dibon’ received two BBC Radio 2 Folk Award nominations for Best Original Track and Best Duo back in 2013.

Both Seckou Keita and Catrin Finch are managed by Theatr Mwldan, Cardigan, which produces many of their individual projects, and also runs the record label bendigedig which the duo release on, in partnership with ARC Music International Ltd.

“We’re immensely proud of them both and everything they have achieved this year, both individually and collectively,” said Tamsin Davies of Theatr Mwldan.

“They’re an incredibly hard-working pair, and apart from their obvious musical talents they are both a lot of fun and an absolute pleasure to work with.”

The duo’s acclaimed collaborative album ‘SOAR’ has undertaken some 64 live concerts in the UK, Macedonia, Czech Republic, Serbia, France and Morocco since its release in April 2018.

“I’m delighted – and actually a little bit surprised - to be nominated, I’ve been overwhelmed at how the folk community in the UK has supported me. It’s a really strong, vibrant and thriving scene and I’ve been lucky to work with some incredible artists this past year,” said Seckou.

“Seckou is an incredibly hard-working artist, and is much in demand,” said Dilwyn Davies of Theatr Mwldan.

“This last year has seen him involved in several high-profile projects; his project The AKA Trio with Antonio Forcione and Adriano Adewale released their debut album ‘JOY’ in May 2019 and will tour the UK in November 2019.

“Seckou has been part of the incredibly successful Lost Words Spellsongs project with author Robert Macfarlane and artist Jackie Morris, working alongside artists including Karine Polwart, Julie Fowlis, Kris Drever and Rachel Newton.

“He continues to tour with Cuban jazz pianist Omar Sosa, and he’s also toured extensively with Sharon Shannon for the past year, as well as giving his own performances of his solo album 22 Strings.”

For January 2020, Catrin will be resurrecting a major project with Columbian harp-based band Cimarron, a project which originally toured back in 2007-09 and was a pre-cursor to her project with Seckou.

She said: “It’s a huge honour to be nominated and we’d like to say a big thank you to BBC Radio 2 and 7Digital and to everyone who has been involved in the voting process.”