Robert Zielinski and Kate Burke

Kate Burke and Rob Zielinski's first ever W.A tour will kick off in the Irish Club, Subiaco. Come along and enjoy a wide variety of lively jigs, reels, slow airs, highlands, original compositions and of course the wonderful voice and violin playing of Kate.

Kate is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, composer and music producer with two decades’ experience on the international folk music circuit. Kate has long collaborated with Ruth Hazleton and with the band Trouble in the Kitchen, and has recently joined forces with Luke Plumb to record arrangements of traditional songs inspired by the 1970’s folk revival.

Kate has recorded with many artists including Judy Small and David Ross McDonald (The Waifs), has twice toured Ireland with renowned Irish folk singer Andy Irvine, and has appeared as a vocal soloist at the Sydney Opera House for a season of Bush Babies’ Proms. Kate wrote and performed music for the soundtrack of documentary Being Change by filmmaker Toni Houston, which has been broadcast as an episode of ABC’s Compass series.

Two of Kate’s albums have been named as Folk Album of the Year by the National Film and Sound Archive, and her two latest releases with Trouble in the Kitchen and Luke Plumb & The Circuit were nominated for the 2018 Age Music Victoria Award for Best Folk/Roots Album.

Robert grew up in Perth Western Australia where he was taught to play by ear by his mentors, Mick Doherty and Sean Doherty (no relation). Mick came from a long line of travelling fiddle players, storytellers and tinsmiths from Donegal. His uncle, the renowned Johnny Doherty featured on Ireland’s RTE documentary The Fiddler On The Road.

At age seventeen Robert moved to Ireland and spent fourteen years on the west coast, learning and immersing himself in the traditional music of the older players. He met and played with musicians including P.J. and Martin Hayes and spent ten years with one of his most loved mentors Andy Davey, father of Junior Davey and master of the Sligo style.

Robert taught for three years at the Galway School of Traditional Irish Music and in the year 2000 he won Ireland’s Michael Coleman Traditional Fiddle Player of the Year Award. He has toured in both the USA and Europe and played at Fairbridge Festival, The National Folk Festival, Turning Wave Festival, and the Fly By Night Musicians Club. He has been a guest soloist with The Perth Symphony Orchestra, and The New Palm Court Orchestra. He has just returned from a ten day tour with The New Palm Court Orchestra, during which he was invited to play his original compositions arranged for solo violin and chamber ensemble in the Melbourne Recital Centre.

In 2013, Robert and Mick Doherty recorded their debut album Out West released by the National Library of Australia to preserve the musical legacy of Mick’s family. Rob, a highly regarded luthier, continues to teach fiddle and in April 2018 released his debut album The Day Dawn.