Fay Hield

Hield runs events as well. Along with her partner Jon Boden she runs two folk clubs – Royal Traditions (Dungworth) and helps to run Bright Phoebus (Sheffield). She also established a community music organisation in 2010, and ran the first Soundpost Singing Weekend in 2011.

In 2013 Hield in conjunction with the English Folk Dance and Song Society put together The Full English Band to promote the launch of the society's on-line publication of their archive search engine. The band issued an eponymous album and toured providing a showcase for both the band and the archive.

Orfeo, released May 2012, is Hield's second album, and sees the launch of a new line-up, Fay Hield & The Hurricane Party (Jon Boden, Rob Harbron, Sam Sweeney & Andy Cutting).

Looking Glass, released September 2010, was Hield's debut solo album. The material consists mainly of traditional songs and ballads. She started gigging her new album as the Fay Hield Trio, made up of Rob Harbron (English Acoustic Collective) and Sam Sweeney (Bellowhead). Hield was nominated for the Horizon Award at the 2010 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

As an academic, Hield is a lecturer in ethnomusicology and music management at the University of Sheffield. Hield completed her PhD thesis "English Folk Singing and the Construction of Community" in 2010 at Sheffield. She began lecturing at Sheffield in spring 2012. She is also a consultant for the AHRC-funded 'Music Communities' research project conducted at the University of Manchester. Hield also guest lectures at other educational establishments, including the Leeds College of Music.

Hield and her partner, folk singer Jon Boden, have a daughter, born 2006, and a son, born 2009.