Please get in touch if you have any questions. In the meantime, here’s a snapshot of Mairi’s biography:
From her base in Edinburgh Mairi Campbell has worked all over the world and won many awards for her songs and profound musicianship.
‘Scots Singer of the Year’ ( Scots Trad Music Awards)
Tutor of the Year – 2012 ( Scots Trad Music Awards)
Female Musician of the Year ( liveireland);
Burnsong winner
Neil Gow Composition Award overall winner
Freeland Barbour writes: “Mairi is without a doubt one of Scotland’s most all- encompassing musicians. She works and performs in many fields of music and the list is breathtaking”.
Mairi’s most recent work is getting some powerfully positive responses:
“I am writing to thank you for the most wonderful evening I can ever remember which was yesterday in Cullipool Hall”. Hugh Gray
“Mairi, is a remarkable musician – an artist whose work transfigures consciousness” Alisdair MacIntosh – Auther of ‘Soil and Soul’
“Mairi’s voice should be listed” MW, Scotland
“I’m immediately attracted to your voice, which not only soundsdistinctive, but conveys plenty of heartfelt emotion. The lyric is really quite descriptive, which helps draw the listener into the story you’re telling”. JD, New Music
“This is such a beautiful song. I’m entranced from the first note to the last. Your voice is to die for. I have a feeling you could sing names and numbers from the phone book and it would sound compelling”
Revival and The Red Earth
Performed to acclaim around Scotland, their double-bill Revival! and The Red Earth tells the tale of some of Campbell’s forebears through song and story. Revival! revolves around the life of her grandfather, a herd boy from Argyll, who gave up his passion for music and dancing to join the Faith Mission in Scotland and went on to play a key role in the Lewis Revivals – a mysterious ‘moving of the sprit’ among the people in the early 1950s. By contrast, The Red Earth is about her great grandfather John Anderson, a Scottish missionary in China in the 1890s and her maternal grandmother, Marjorie, who made a long and tragic journey to Scotland from China in the 1940s.
Mairi works with David Francis who is the lyricist in their songwriting partnership. They both penned the songs for Mairi’s debut album in 2011 and have been creative partners since 1992. With two musicals (YMT), five albums, private commissions, Mairi and Dave are considered two of Scotlands’ finest songwriters with a strong catalogue of material.
Mairi is also a popular and skilled teacher and facilitator. Through her popular classes and camps she nurtures and supports the essential grassroots of traditional music, song and dance in Scotland.
In 2007 Mairi founded her own music camps called the Lismore Music Retreats, based on the Island of Lismore on the West coast of Scotland. She works with adults, accessing and nurturing their artistry through traditional music, free improvisation, movement and song.
To find out more about Mairi’s courses go to:www.lismoremusicretreats.com
To book Mairi email hello@mairicampbell.co.uk or get in touch via facebook.
”I felt a peaceful for the rest of the week after hearing Mairi perform.” ’Kandinsky in Govan’ conference, 2011
‘Mairi’s voice should be listed’ – MW, Scotland
Campbell’s voice can stop the clock, and there is a pervading sense of renewal and even transcendence in this material – Jim Gilchrist, The Scotsman
What folk say about the Lismore Music Retreats:
The work we did was interesting and varied.Everyone learned a lot about technique. Not just from our individual instruction but also from listening to the teaching points of all the others. We all identified with the strengths and weaknesses within the group.
We loved the ceilidh with your family and neighbours.It allowed us all to put our skills into practice and contribute to a very happy evening.
One of the things I really enjoy about your teaching is the amount of attention you give to individuals, and specific areas that will help their playing. To me, it’s one of the most useful ways of learning. And I’m always impressed by the way you give clear feedback in a way that’s so positive and encouraging
“Mairi is an exceptionally gifted woman, she sings from her soul and touches mine with the deepest tenderness” – LB, Authentic Artist Collective.
