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Ailie has just released her debut CD to much critical acclaim and Harp 2 Ewe can thoroughly recommend it! Available from Ailie on her web pages or from Foot Stompin'.
Ailie
Robertson is a musician in the broadest sense: composer, arranger, teacher,
improviser and harp virtuoso. “Her synthesis of Irish, Scottish and
contemporary harping technique into an individual style represents the
realization of otherwise unimagined possibilities for the Celtic harp” (Niall
Keegan, 2006).
Ailie
grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was immersed in the harp world from an early
age. Through her piano and Clarsach lessons she developed a love for both
classical and traditional music, and in 2005 gained a 1st-class MA in Irish
Music Performance from the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance.
Although
just 23 years old, she already has some of the most impressive credentials in
the Scottish harp world. A finalist in the Young Traditional Musician of the
Year 2008 and a 4-time National Mod Gold Medallist, she was also 1st
prize-winner at the inaugural London Harp Competition, and best overall musician
at the Edinburgh Competition Festival. She has represented Commun na Clarsach
for Scotland at the Pan Celtic Festival in Ireland, and in 2005 she was awarded
a scholarship from the ESU in recognition of her 'virtuosic Clarsach playing',
and was a winner of the St Albans New Roots award. She played in the Scottish
Harp Orchestra, Na Clarsairean for many years, performing with them at two World
Harp Congresses - in Seattle and Prague.
Since
graduating in 2006, Ailie has been going from strength to strength as a
professional musician and has steadily gained recognition as a performer and
composer. She works as a soloist for Yehudi Menuhin’s Live Music Now!
programme, and has given recitals at events all over Scotland, including
performing for HRH the Queen, and being invited to give a private concert to the
Lord High Commissioner and his distinguished guests. She has played alongside
many great Irish and Scottish musicians and has supported BBC award winner
Karine Polwart. Notable festival appearances include Sidmouth, Cornwall, Whitby,
The Edinburgh International Harp Festival, St Albans and many others.
Ailie
is currently pursuing her interest in composition further having been
commissioned to write a piece for the Distil showcase in October 07.
When
she is not in the studio or on the road, Ailie is a much sought after teacher
around the UK and Ireland. She has taught at various festivals, was co-founder
and director of the highly successful Borders Harp Weekend and tutors regularly
for Feisean nan Gaidheal, as well as teaching privately and in several schools.
She
has just released her first album with her band The
Outside Track on the Bedspring Music label, which has been described
as “the most exciting music, let alone folk music…in years”, and hopes to
release her debut solo album in 2008.
Visit Ailie's site
or listen to her on My Space
www.myspace.com/ailierobertson
and do check back to hear what she's been up to!