A Thursday Tune - Rise Up

Patricia Büchler (born 9 March 1997), known professionally as Patty Gurdy, is a German hurdy-gurdy musician, singer, songwriter and YouTuber.

Büchler was born on 9 March 1997. She lived in Düsseldorf while she studied there and graduated in 2019. She has some Irish ancestry. She earned a bachelor's degree in communication design. After playing the piano and other instruments for many years, she took up the hurdy-gurdy in 2014 and describes her genre as "dark folk-pop". She was a member of German bands Harpyie, under the stage name Io, in 2016 and Storm Seeker during 2016–2018. Her 2019 festival performances included Smaabyfestivalen in Flekkefjord, Norway and Tredegar House folk festival in Newport, Wales.

The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by means of a hand-cranked rosined wheel which rubs against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin (or nyckelharpa) bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a violin. Melodies are played on a keyboard that presses tangents—small wedges, typically made of wood or metal—against one or more of the strings to change their pitch. Like most other acoustic stringed instruments, it has a sound board and hollow cavity to make the vibration of the strings audible.