Fiona MacKenzie
Singer. The Highland Council has appointed Fiona Mackenzie as the first recipient of the Mary Macpherson Gaelic Song Fellowship--which is the first of its kind dedicated to the research and development of Gaelic Song. The Fellowship commemorates Mary Macpherson, or as she was better known, Màiri Mhòr nan Òran, who came from Skye and is renowned for her prolific song writing and singing in the 1800s. The aim of the Fellowship is to develop and promote the interest and participation in Gaelic singing across the Highlands and also to stimulate and encourage the writing of new Gaelic Songs.

Fiona MacKenzie & Mairi Mhor Gaelic Song Fellowship contact

Gabe McVarish
Fiddler. Origionally hailing from California's Sacramento Valley, Gabe now resides in the Moidart region of the Scottish Highlands with his wife Tina and their two children. Gabe studied traditional music at the RSAMD in Glasgow. Having worked in the past with such artists as Leo McCann; Drever MacKenzie Band; Black Rose Ceilidh Band; Phamie Gow; and Hoogie, Gabe now plays with both Daimh and Cliar and 6ft Ginger.

Karen Steven

In 1986 I toured Cape Breton Island for three weeks with local high school fiddle group The Caithness Junior Fiddlers. This was also my first exposure to and attempt at Cape Breton style step dance. The following summer I began attending the Alasdair Fraser annual fiddle school on Skye and received scholarships in 1988, 1990 and 1994 to attend the Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddle School in California directed by Alasdair Fraser. It was during these courses I became absorbed in the styles of Buddy MacMaster, Mairead Ni Maonaigh and Jerry Holland as well as Alasdair.

My biggest love is the old highland and pipe repertoires and the driving energy in the bowing of the Cape Breton style. From the age of three I began learning highland dancing and this undoubtedly instilled in me a good sense of timing. After undertaking my dancing teachers exam my focus switched to step dancing and in recent years I have been involved in teaching and performing both fiddle and step dance around Scotland, Scandinavia, Ireland, the USA and Canada. 1996 saw the release of “Dance on the Fiddle,” a recording of dance music aimed primarily at step dancers.

The key events I have been fortunate enough to be involved in are The National Fiddle Festival; Edinburgh, Celtic Connections; Glasgow, Northlands Festival; Scotland and Sweden, Feisean; The Highlands and Western Isles, Mid Winter Dance Festival; Norway, New Hampshire Highland Games; USA, Eisteddfodd International Music Festival; Wales, Glasgow Fiddle Workshop.

A scholarship in 1997 from The Cross Trust enabled me to spend a month in Cape Breton researching Cape Breton fiddle music.

More recently my interests have included music composition. In May 2,000 I was asked to represent Caithness and was commissioned by the Highland Festival to compose some music to be performed at their millenium concert in Eden Court Theatre, Inverness. In November 2,002 I collaborated again with the musicians who joined me for the commission and we recorded those three sets of tunes. This CD entitled “Dances in the Wilds.” is now available. For more information please go to www.karensteven.com

My day job continues to involve teaching music at the North Highland College in Alness. We currently have around thirty students on a range of courses focussing primarily on fiddle, pipes and accordion. For more information please go to www.nhc-scotland.co.uk

Liz MacLean was brought up in South Uist and started Highland Dancing at the age of five. At school playtime with no pipes to hand, dancing was practised to songs – an early introduction to puirt-a-beul. Since then other interests have come along – guitar, chanter, drama – mainly related to traditional music.

Liz takes great interest in learning the songs from her native South Uist and in the different styles of singing them.

Mary-Ann Kennedy
daughter of singer Kenna Campbell, trained as a classical musician in Glasgow and Manchester, but remains true to the traditional music that has surrounded her all her life. One of a select number of singers to have won both Gold Medals at the National Mod, she is also twice winner of the International Celtic Harp competition in Lorient, Brittany. Mary Ann was given a Saltire Award for Lasair Dhe, the finale of the 1999 Highland Festival, involving Cliar and Gaelic choirs from all over the Highlands and Islands. She is also well-known as a radio broadcaster in Gaelic and English. See maryannkennedy.co.uk and cliar.com

"Mary Ann's interpretation of Gaelic waulking songs and puirt a beul combined with her dexterity on the clàrsach and her undoubted personality and stage presence make her an outstanding prospect"

Ronan Martin
Fiddler. Ronan Martin is from the Isle of Skye and is much in demand as a traditional fiddle player both at home and abroad. He was steeped in traditional music from an early age and played in a duo with Anam's Brian Ó hEadhra.

In recent years Ronan has performed with a variety of traditional groups including Fred Morrison's 'Ceolas', 'The Scottish Step Dance Company', and Skye-based band 'Cluanas'. He is an experienced player for Scottish step dancing and is well known as a tutor having taught at many fèisean and music courses throughout Scotland.

Alasdair Fraser
Fiddler. Alasdair is recognised throughout the world as one of the finest fiddle players Scotland has ever produced; his name is synonymous with the vibrant cultural renaissance which is transforming the Scottish musicla scene. www.alasdairfraser.com

Andy Thornburn
Piano, keyboards.  Andy Thorburn is one of Scotland's busiest and most versatile musicians, and is best known as the piano player with Blazin' Fiddles.  His new solo CD of own compositions, piano, was released to great critical acclaim in January 2005.  Recent work includes writing music for theatre, typesetting music books, and advising the government on music curriculum development in schools.

http://www.andythorburn.com

Anna Murray
Singer, Piper, Actor.

Anna Murray.com

Annemarie MacRury
Singer.

Arthur Cormack
is one of the finest Gaelic singers of his generation. Since winning the Mod Gold Medal in 1992, he has sung world-wide with fellow Skye musician and former Cliar member Blair Douglas and with the highly-acclaimed MacTalla. He runs the Macmeanmna record label on which the Cliar album is released, and is known as the busiest man in Skye, also running the youth tuition festivals organisation, Feisean nan Gaidheal and The Aros Experience, a tourist centre, theatre and restaurant in Portree.

"He is a superb, warm and always-at-ease singer, who even took the time to teach the international audience the chorus of the beautiful simple old traditional version of what's known in English as the Eriskay Love Lilt"
See also: Cliar

William “Billy” Jackson
Multi instrumentalist based in Angus. A great harp and clarsach player. He has been at the forefront of Scottish music for over 25 years. In 1976 he was a founding member of the top Scottish band Ossian. Official website of William Jackson

David Boag
Fiddler.
Feisean nan Gaidheal

Donal Brown
Piper, flautist and dancer. “I learned to play the pipes aged 8. I was also doing highland dancing at that time when I lived in Cawdor. Willie Macdonald (Loch Flemington, Inverness-shire) taught me. When the family moved to near Huntly I got lessons from Dr Jack Taylor in Aboyne and also benefited from extra help from Richard Anderson in Lossiemouth. I have always considered pipes as my first instrument (I also play small pipes and flute). I did competitions when I was younger with varied success but I was never seriously into competition or pipe bands particularly. I was inspired by folk bands rather than competitive piping. The only piping I really listened to much was Gordon Duncan. Folk bands that inspired me were the Bothy Band, Battlefield Band, and more recently Lunasa. I am also inspired by all the young like-minded musicians that I meet at gigs/sessions etc.

The Sabhal Mor Ostaig summer school also had a great influence on me. I first went on the step dancing course there when I was about 10. Harvey Beaton (step dancing) and Buddy MacMaster (fiddle) were over from Canada for the first time to teach and I gained a great deal from their teachings and talent. I went there several times to do step dancing and made lots of friends. My brother also went on the fiddle course there and he often plays for me.

I studied at the RSAMD in Glasgow on the BA Scottish Music course. Allan Macdonald taught me piping. and I sometimes play in a band called the Scottish Step Dance Company.”

Dougie Pincock
Piper, multi-instrumentalist.
Director for Sgoil Chiùil na Gàidhealtachd, the National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music.

Eilidh MacKenzie

Eilidh is one third of the group Mackenzie, and as well as recording her solo album, she was a member of the group Mac-talla who performed and recorded Gaelic song and instrumental music. She is also a much respected Gaelic songwriter outwith Mackenzie and has been commissioned to write words and/or melodies by a number of organisations.

Fiona Moore
Fiddler. Sister of Fin Moore.

Ingrid Henderson,
is a multi-instrumentalist born and brought up in Lochaber, and joined Cliar in June 1999 to play piano and clarsach. She won the prestigious BBC Radio 2 Young Traditionalist Award in 1990 at a frighteningly young age and is a graduate in Celtic Studies from Glasgow University. She made several albums with brother Alan (of Blazin' Fiddles) while still a teenager, and as a duo with Skye singer, Anne Martin, she has released an album, "Nighean nan Geug" on Whitewave Music. Ingrid is also a support worker in the Lochaber area for Feisean nan Gaidheal.
See also: cliar.com

James Ross
Piano, keyboards and accordion.
James Ross, from Wick, began playing music at the age of eight, studying under respected musician and composer, the late Addie Harper. He went on to study at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow, from which he graduated with a BA in Scottish Music in July 2000.
He then completed the MA in Traditional Irish Music Performance in June 2001, studying piano under Professor Mícheal Ó Súilleabháin at the Irish World Music Centre, University of Limerick.
James, as part of a group, was a finalist in the 1999 Radio 2 Young Folk Award. He has performed extensively throughout Britain, Ireland and America, and has recently recorded a live broadcast on solo piano for Celtic Connections, BBC Radio Scotland. He teaches classes in the community, ranging from individual tuition to group workshops, and also teaches Traditional piano at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Since, November 2001, he has been part of the late Yehudi Menuhin’s Live Music Now! Scheme, which takes live performances to a wide range of community venues.
Contact details:
pianojames@yahoo.co.uk
Tel: 01955 603075 / 0131 667 2652

Kathleen MacInnes
Singer.

Ken Fraser
Fiddler. Plays among other with Salsa Celtica. Lives in the Isle of Mull, from where he runs MusicScotland.com

Mairi Campbell
Fiddler, singer. Based in Edinburgh she is one half of The Cast together with husband Dave Francis. Plays with a number of bands and orchestras, including Bella MacNabs Dance Band.
Mairi was born in Edinburgh and after studying at the Guildhall School of Music in London her interest in Celtic music brought her back to Scotland. She and Dave formed a duo in 1991, and in this context she performs her own songs alongside traditional material. Mairi has played viola with the innovative Kreisler String Orchestra in London and has spent some time in Cape Breton studying the music and dance of the island.
The Cast

Mairi MacInnes
Singer. Originally from South Uist but now lives on the Isle of Arran. Link to Mairi Macinnes official web site.

Mhairi Hall
Mhairi Ann Hall was born and brought up in Aviemore, Strathspey. She has been playing the piano since the age of five and grew up with the last of the house ceilidhs in Aviemore. She received her undergraduate degree in Gaelic Studies from the University of Aberdeen and continued on to a post-graduate programme at the University of Limerick. There, she received an MA in Irish Traditional Music Performance from the Irish World Music Centre under the guidance of renowned pianist, composer and academic Professor Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin. Mhairi has worked to create a Scottish/Gaelic style of piano playing, which blends traditional, jazz and classical influences. She has performed throughout Scotland, Ireland, England and Germany with bands such as ‘Cluanas’, ‘Dannsa’ and ‘Dòchas’. Mhairi is now based in Uist where she is a part-time lecturer in traditional music at Colaisde Bheinn na Faoghla, Lews Castle College.

Sheila Cameron
Fiddler. Originally from Nova Scotia, now living in the Isle of Skye. Plays with Meantime.

Na tri Seudan

Na tri Seudan (pronounced "shaytan") - The Three Treasures.

Hamish Moore has established a premilitary pipe band playing tunes from the old highland repertoir and in a style using the rhythms of the old Scotch Reels and Steps. The music is compulsive and powerful and is an insight into how piping may have sounded before it became subsumed by competitions and the military.

The line-up include: Iain MacInnes, Gary West, Malcolm Robertson, Bruce Rankine, Fin Moore, Angus MacKenzie, Liam Brown, Donal Brown, and Callum MacCrimmon.