Georgia Beatty & David McKindley Ward in Concert and Conversation

Georgia Beatty is a musician and folk artist bewitched by cycle, lineage and the alchemical process of healing. She performs on cello, fiddle, hardanger fiddle and voice, offering her own songs as well as the traditional music of Norway, often intertwined with visionary artwork and storytelling. Her sound creates an expansive world; one with luminous harmonies and mercurial rhythms that are both intimate and far-reaching.

Her most recent project, The Book of Stars, brings together music, story and the analogue projector technology known as a ‘magic lantern’ to tell the tale of the ancient Light Queen who uses ancestral songs to heal the world of oppressive powers. Georgia released her first record, Apprentice to Transformation, in 2022; an album of original and traditional fiddle tunes exploring the practice of seeing death as a moment in transformation, rather than the end.

As a fiddler, Georgia performs repertoire for Norwegian regional folk dance with a focus on Telemark (hardanger fiddle) and Gudbransdalen (fiddle) and is currently a student with master hardanger fiddler Loretta Kelley. The two recently completed a year-long intensive together, supported by the Maryland State Art Council’s Folklife Apprenticeship Grant. Georgia has so far taken two research trips to southern Norway, funded in part by the National Folk Organization. She plays regularly for the Mid-Atlantic Norwegian Dancers.

Georgia lives and works in her hometown of Baltimore, Maryland.