A musical duo, one of whom works at St Andrew’s Healthcare, has won both an international prize and county-wide award for their songs. 

Tu-kay & Ryan, Northampton’s equivalent of The Carpenters, scooped the Best Folk Artist trophy at the Radio Wigwam Awards in London in January of this year, which was decided by a panel at Radio Wigwam itself.

They were also named Acoustic/Folk Artist of the Year at the recent Northamptonshire Music Awards of which there were 2,500 nominations across 14 different categories and the winners were voted for by the public.

One half of the musical duo is Rebecca Buckley, who is by day, an English and Expressive Arts Teacher at the St Andrew’s Healthcare Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) College.

The musical artists have been performing together since 2018, playing at gigs in pubs, clubs, house concerts and festivals both in the UK and internationally.

Rebecca said: “Next to my work at CAMHS, music is my passion and I’m grateful as I’ve actually managed to combine the two recently. I’ve written a couple of songs before, which were dedicated to the young people I work with because they inspire me every day. Their tenacity, their spirit and their motivation is just incredible. The young people have to put up with me singing on the ward all the time and is amazing to tell them all that we won these awards."

To date Tu-kay & Ryan have released four EPs, 'Echo', 'Pages' (2019), 'Passage Of Time' (2021), and The Little Things (2022), all of which have received glowing reviews from folk clubs and local press. They have since received global radio play for singles released in 2021 and 2022.

Check out their music on their YouTube page.