Jo Burke is a singer, multi-instrumentalist and composer specialising in traditional music and song. Her music has been described as “dark, tempestuous, piano and strings, with her mellifluous, yet almost world-weary, voice skating over the top”. She was once singled out by Jude Rogers of the Guardian as an ‘experimental delight’ and a highlight of Cambridge Folk Festival, and once she moved Shirley Collins to tears with an unaccompanied song.

She composed the sound track to John Harrigan’s folklore inspired feature film Armageddon Gospels (2018) and has recorded and toured internationally with multiple artists as a fiddle player and vocalist, most notably as a longstanding member of both Mary Hampton Cotillion and the internationally acclaimed Swiss band, Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp with whom she co-wrote ‘Siilent’ released as a 7″ for Bongo Joe records in August 2025.

Jo is committed to building connection, care and environmental stewardship through folk practice. As the founder of the Brighton Folk Choir, she crafts distinctive choral arrangements of British folksongs tied to seasonal customs. This passion for living tradition extends to the annual Hurstpierpoint Orchard Wassail, a community event she curates and leads each January. The event has grown into a major local fixture, recently drawing over 700 attendees and engaging 170 adults and children in free vocal workshops.

Her creative work also spans across folk theatre and multi-disciplinary collaborations. She serves as the musical director, arranger, and actor for the Hognutter Mummers, co-writing their scripts alongside Jo Goddard. Together, they adapt traditional local scripts into contemporary folk theatre that explores the history of land enclosure and the right to roam. Additionally, her collaborative project with herbalist Sara Jane Glendinning, Culpeper’s Medicine Garden, has earned five-star reviews at Sussex festivals for its evocative exploration of wild plants through folklore, medicine, and traditional song.

Currently, Jo is putting the finishing touches on her debut solo album, The Wife of Usher’s Well—a haunting collection of traditional songs reimagined in her own unique voice.