Medusa Quartet

SFS is very excited to welcome these dynamic musicians to our stage!
Wielding a sound that would turn classical music scholars to stone, these four folk musicians are reimagining the string quartet. By inviting back voices previously regarded as too ugly for “polite society,” Medusa tempts us to redefine what is beautiful.
With their Canadian Folk Music Award (CFMA) Nominated debut album, Medusa’s dynamic arrangement style cross-pollinates the sounds of Middle Eastern, Scandinavian, Celtic, Appalachian, and Eastern European music, as well as original tunes, to create something previously unheard. With this debut release, the band connects audiences across dividing lines of culture and identity to reveal the common threads beneath.

Medusa is Georgia Hathaway, Lea Kirstein, Marta Solek, and Saskia Tomkins. For these four seasoned string players, whose collective experience as side players in successful bands spans decades, Medusa is a refuge for natural creation. With their immediate and electrifying connection is transmuted through a common string language, a love of enigmatic and obscure folk fiddles, and their personal stories of navigating society’s liminal spaces. 

One of the most misunderstood figures in ancient mythology, Medusa was wrongfully punished and cast out for being the victim of a violent act, but is remembered solely for her frightful ugliness and lithifying gaze. Through their personal narratives of alienation due to racism, sexism, immigration, queerness, and disability, Medusa the band aims to retell this story by bringing back what has been cast out. Marta Solek and Saskia Tomkins resurrect the Suka, the P?ock fidel, and the Nyckelharpa  –  forgotten folk fiddles with disreputable connotations that were rejected for centuries in their home countries of Poland and Sweden.
Instead of a snake-haired Gorgon, they see Medusa as a symbol of vision, power, and inclusivity, and a source of inspiration for anyone who has been denied their true self.

Saskia Tomkins (she/her) – Nyckelharpa & fiddle
Capable of making you stomp your feet and cry in the same set, Saskia is responsible for Celt-ifying the hit musical “Come From Away.” She is passionate about passing along folk traditions and injecting them with new life, and is currently composing a fiddle tune for an 80-piece symphony.
Marta Solek (she/her)  – Suka, Plock fiddle, Lyra, Cello Multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire, Marta is the first person to hold a Master’s Degree in the Suka, which in English means “B*tch”. After traveling to Pakistan to learn fiddle techniques that were forgotten in her home country Poland, she effortlessly blends many folk traditions with her own virtuosic solos. She dreams of having an All-Suka Music School!
Lea Kirstein (they/she) Cello, viola, fiddle
A powerhouse groover and innovative educator, Lea is the founder of “World on a String” – a Toronto fiddle community that values inclusivity and celebrates different learning styles. She is a master musical arranger, and is currently creating a Fiddle Workbook for students of all brains and abilities.
Georgia Hathaway (they/them) Fiddle
Taking audiences to outer space with their improvisations, Georgia is a master-learner and emoter of music. After traveling to Zanzibar to learn Middle Eastern modes, Georgia continues  to study different traditions and find connections between them. Bringing their background in theatre to the band, they dream of re-telling the Medusa myth to people around the world.