Fay Hield

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title: "Fay Hield" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["living-people", "english-folk-singers", "alumni-of-newcastle-university", "alumni-of-the-university-of-sheffield", "musicians-from-sheffield", "place-of-birth-missing-(living-people)", "1978-births", "21st-century-british-singers", "the-full-english-members", "uk-research-and-innovation-future-leaders-fellowship"] topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fay_Hield" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist"]

Field	Value
name	Fay Hield
image	Fay Hield.jpg
caption	Fay Hield at the Warwick Folk Festival, July 2011
instrument	Vocals
genre	Folk
birth_date
occupation	Folk singer; university Professor; ethnomusicologist
years_active	1999–present
associated_acts	Fay Hield Trio
website
::

Fay Hield (born 4 February 1978) is a traditional English folk singer and a Professor of Music at the University of Sheffield.

Career

Looking Glass, released September 2010, was Hield's debut solo album. The material consists mainly of traditional songs and ballads. She started gigging her new album as the Fay Hield Trio, made up of Rob Harbron (English Acoustic Collective) and Sam Sweeney (Bellowhead). Hield was nominated for the Horizon Award at the 2010 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

Hield was part of The Witches of Elswick, with whom she recorded two CDs in their six years together.

As researcher, Hield completed her PhD thesis "English Folk Singing and the Construction of Community" in 2010 at the University of Sheffield, then becoming a lecturer in ethnomusicology and music management in 2012 and Professor of Music in 2023. In 2021 she was awarded a Future Leaders Fellowship by UK Research and Innovation, to carry out a four-year research programme titled "Defining ethnomusicological Action Research through the regeneration of English folk clubs."

Along with her ex-partner Jon Boden, Hield helped to run two folk clubs – Royal Traditions (Dungworth) and Bright Phoebus (Sheffield). She also established a community music organisation in 2010, and ran the first Soundpost Singing Weekend in 2011.

Orfeo, released May 2012, was Hield's second album, with a new line-up, Fay Hield & the Hurricane Party (Jon Boden, Rob Harbron, Sam Sweeney & Andy Cutting).

In 2013 Hield in conjunction with the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS) put together The Full English band to promote the launch of the society's on-line publication of their archive search engine. The band issued an eponymous album and toured providing a showcase for both the band and the archive.

The Full English

Main article: The Full English (folk music archive)

Discography

Looking Glass (2010)
Orfeo (May 2012)
The Full English (2013)
Old Adam (February 2016)
Wrackline (September 2020)

With BACCApella

The Haworth Set (1999)

With The Witches of Elswick

Out of Bed (2003)
Hell's Belles (2005)

Personal life

Hield and her ex-partner, folk singer Jon Boden, have a daughter, born 2006, and a son, born 2009.

References

"Fay Hield".
"Prof Fay Hield".
Denselow, Robin. (2010-09-02). "Fay Hield: Looking Glass". [[The Guardian]].
"Biog".
"Fay Hield: Looking Glass".
Hield, Fay. (2010). "English Folk Singing and the Construction of Community". [[University of Sheffield]].
(2021-09-09). "University of Sheffield researchers recognised as leaders of innovation".
Kay, Peter. (18 November 2010). "Songs that raise the roof". [[Sheffield Telegraph]]}}{{dead-link.

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