In conversation with Karine Polwart

Join us for a captivating conversation with acclaimed singer-songwriter Karine Polwart, exploring ‘Windblown’ (Hudson Records, 2026), her hauntingly beautiful tribute to a 200-year-old Sabal palm at Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Garden. This multimedia publication combines story and music by Karine Polwart, Pippa Murphy and Dave Milligan, giving voice to the palm’s extraordinary journey from Bermuda to Scotland and its final days, while reflecting on colonial legacy, ecological care, grief and resilience. With pianist Dave Milligan, Karine will include a couple of songs from the album as part of the conversation.

Karine Polwart is a Scottish musician, writer and theatre maker whose work evokes a richness of place, hidden histories, scientific enquiry and folklore. As a writer, she was Dr Gavin Wallace Fellow 2025-26 via the Fruitmarket in Edinburgh, and as a composer a Paul Hamlyn Fellow 2023-25, in collaboration with Pippa Murphy. Recent work includes her critically acclaimed and award winning ‘Windblown’ (Hudson Records, 2026), a parting glass to an old palm tree at Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Garden; ‘Spell Songs’ (Folk by the Oak, 2026), a multi-artist musical and artistic response to environmental loss; and ‘Wind Resistance’ (Faber & Faber, 2017) via The Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh.

Dave Milligan is a genre-defying musician and one of Scotland’s most versatile pianists, flowing effortlessly between jazz, folk and traditional music. Outside of his work with Karine Polwart, Dave has worked with artists such as Mark Knopfler, Larry Carlton, Trilok Gurtu, Art Farmer, Carol Kidd and Camille O’Sullivan. His enduring projects include: Dave Milligan Trio; pianist and arranger for nine albums with award–winning jazz trumpeter Colin Steele, and a duo with Corrina Hewat with whom he also co-founded The Unusual Suspects – a 22-piece folk-supergroup that ‘rewrote the book on how folk music should look and sound’ (The Scotsman).

Dr Roxani Krystalli is a Senior Lecturer at the University of St Andrews. She has nearly two decades’ experience working in international humanitarian action and peacebuilding with organisations such as the Feinstein International Center, Oxfam GB, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and various UN agencies, shedding light on the experiences of violence-affected communities. Her recent work explores how people live with multiple forms of loss, such as those resulting from illness, grief, and ecological devastation. Her book, ‘Good Victims: The Political as a Feminist Question’ (Oxford UP, 2024), won the Lee Ann Fujii prize (APSA) for innovation in the interpretive study of political violence.