The "an audience with" format is traditionally the preserve of veteran entertainers nearing their showbiz dotage. Few artists would have the confidence to mount such an audacious evening while still in their teens.

Laura Marling was just 16 when she penned last year's hugely acclaimed, Mercury-nominated debut album, Alas I Cannot Swim. Now firmly established, and with the majority of her second release safely in the can, she curated this showcase for folk-tinged artists she feels deserve similar success.

It was a curious evening, more reminiscent of a sixth-form end-of-term show than a 1960s Greenwich Village talent night. Despite her enthusiasm, Marling was a gawky and awkward MC, prone to gauche rambling as she introduced acts such as Tim Buckley-like troubadour Ethan Johns and Brighton power-folk trio Peggy Sue.

But such tongue-tied tweeness vanished as soon as Marling stepped up to perform. New songs such as Is a Hope and Made By Maid were sparse yet powerful, while the spectral Blackberry Stone radiated a gorgeous melancholy. Hearing Marling strum the halting I Speak Because I Can, a tale of desertion rendered in a banshee wail, it was hard not to salivate at the thought of how stunning her new album is likely to be.

She reverted to teenage ingenue mode to introduce Canadian violinist Andrew Bird and London folk-noir troupe Mumford & Sons ("these guys are, like, just amazing geniuses") – but there was no doubting who was the night's star. As she debuted the raw, PJ Harvey-like track Hope in the Air and encored with Crawl Out of the Sea, you couldn't help thinking that, laudable as her generosity towards her peers is, an evening with Marling alone would have been a more enticing prospect.