MONDAY LINE-UP – Celtic Connections On Campus

Celtic Connections on Campus, live every day this week on Celtic Music Radio, starts today (Monday).

Back for its eighth year, it is hosted by Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) in association with Celtic Music Radio and TRADtv.

There are five free lunchtime concerts and the curtain goes up on the first today in the Re-union bar and grill in the GCU Students’ Association building.

Today’s line-up is:

Kathleen MacDonald and Iona Reid

Iona and Kathleen met during their studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow. They began to explore their shared love of waulking songs and found joy in arranging these melodies for fiddle and piano. They love to compose melodies and a large part of their repertoire as a duo is derived from their own compositions. Iona and Kathleen have attended the Celtic connections festival for many years and grew up listening to many of their favourite musicians here. They are fortunate to have performed together at the festival last year (2022) with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and look forward to bringing some new music to share this year.

Vàgr

Named for the Old Norse word meaning ‘sea’ or ‘wave’, is Claudia Edwards (fiddle) and Joanna Stark (cello).

Their dynamic, emerging duo explores the interplay between classical and folk music—producing a sound both fresh and familiar, riveting and poised. Joanna is an eclectic cross-genre cello and fiddle player from Newport-on-Tay in Fife, who recently completed her MMus in Cello Performance at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Claudia Edwards is a Florida-born fiddler living in Glasgow, who graduated with an MMus in Traditional Music from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in June 2022. Uniting their interests in early Scottish traditional music and original compositions with contemporary accompaniment, the duo love to create multi-layered experiences through music, integrating elements of history and culture, and highlighting folk music from different mediums.

They enjoy performing in a range of venues and to diverse audiences: recent performances have included The Old Hairdresser’s Bar in Glasgow, the 2023 Curious Travellers Conference hosted by Glasgow University, and the 2023-24 Coffee Cadenzas concert series in Barony Arts Centre, West Kilbride.

TO THE WILD

To the Wild – aka ‘Peach’ – is a feisty Edinburgh based songstress writing unconventional love songs that fill clouds with mountain tops and hot air balloons with stars. She can be heard belting out bi-polar folk lamenting the human condition, mammalian relationships and late-night pillow talk. To The Wild has worked with many collaborators in various bands and projects since 2001. She is also a member of the multidiscipline collective Decagram. Her captivating stage presence and unique voice draw the listener in to a quiet space where dreams are whispered, and stories are told. To The Wild is currently writing her debut release.

Maya’s Radio Orchestra

Samantha Maya is a Glasgow based alt-folk singer-songwriter, harpist, and violinist who creates textures with dense harmonies, classical instrumentation and pithy lyrics.

She performs live using a loop pedal to create magical sound worlds. Recipient of the prestigious Paolo Nutini Scholarship 2022 for songwriting through the University of the West of Scotland where she is studying a masters in Songwriting. Her tracks explore disappointment and lost love, the feelings of belonging (or the lack there of), and draw on her childhood experiences of being mixed race within a chocolate-box cotswold village.

Maya is an award winning harpist, violinist, and singer-songwriter from Glasgow. With a first class honours degree from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, her work draws on both classical music along with traditional Scottish culture and contemporary innovation.

She is currently studying an MA in songwriting at UWS. Maya’s last single was featured in SNACK mag, and her projects have been featured on BBC Radio 3, BBC Scotland (Travelling Folk and Classics Unwrapped), BBC Radio Ulster (album of the week).

She’s recently performed as part of sofar sounds, Dirty Laundry, supported Clare Sands on her tour date at the Hug and Pint, headlined at Broadcast, and I has upcoming gigs with AMPLIFI at the Queen’s Hall and Lay Low.

https://mayasradioorchestra.bandcamp.com

• Celtic Connections On Campus – live – 12.30 to 2 pm.