The Rheingans Sisters

Urban British avant-garde folk from Sheffield (UK)

Rowan and Anna Rheingans are among the most visionary acts on the British folk scene. Having grown up in the Peak District in Derbyshire – their father was a violin maker and their mother organised the local folk festival – the sisters have had a deep-rooted love of folk music since childhood.

Rowan, a violinist and banjo player, studied traditional violin in Sweden and Norway and, alongside The Rheingans Sisters, is active in several renowned folk projects, including Lady Maisery and Coven. She has twice been honoured with the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award: in 2016 for Best Original Song and in 2017 for Best Album. In 2021, she received the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists.

Anna, a musician, composer and textile designer, plays the violin, banjo, tamburin à cordes and flabuta. Over the past 15 years, she has studied the musical traditions of Sweden, Norway and the south of France in depth and performs both solo and with various projects throughout Europe.

Together, The Rheingans Sisters sing in English and French, drawing inspiration from the folk traditions of Britain, France, Scandinavia and America. In 2019, they were nominated for the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Best Duo; their musical theatre piece ‘Dispatches on the Red Dress’ – about their German grandmother’s youth in Nazi Germany – won the Edinburgh Fringe First Award.

Their latest, fifth album, “Start Close In” (2024), was named Folk Album of the Month by The Guardian and voted number 2 in the best folk albums of the year in December 2024.