I’m an 18-year old musician from Edinburgh and I write, play and think about music just about all the time.

 

I love all styles of music, from Baroque to Jazz-fusion. At present, I am fascinated by counterpoint and how harmony functions in pop music.  

I have just finished school and am starting a music degree at St. Hilda's College, Oxford.  Here’s a little of my background.

 

I play piano, organ and double bass and I have benefited from many opportunities to compose, perform and sing as a music and organ scholar at George Watson’s College, Edinburgh.  I play the organ regularly at Willowbrae Parish Church, and double bass and keyboards for the Edinburgh Youth Orchestra.

 

I have composed music for many different school ensembles, including Caritas Strings, who performed Prelude and Fugue for Caritas Strings on their tour of the Czech Republic in April 2019 and Homage to Bach performed in March 2022.  Seraphic Grace, a setting of a poem by Sophie McNeil for children’s choirs and small ensemble, was performed at the Usher Hall in March 2023. I have also composed music for school drama productions.

 

For the 40th Anniversary of The Eric Liddell Centre in Edinburgh, I worked with Alexander McCall Smith to set four of his poems on Eric Liddell for piano, spoken voice and girls’ choir, for which I was mentored by Kenneth Dempster (unfortunately Covid-19 cancelled the performance). In 2021, I was selected for the RSNO Notes from Scotland programme where I worked with professional composers and musicians to create a three-movement Septet, performed by members of the orchestra at the RSNO Centre, Glasgow in February 2022.  In October 2022 I was commissioned to write an anthem for SATB choir and organ for the HMC/IAPS Enlightened Education conference in Edinburgh, for which I was mentored by Sir James MacMillan.  

 

I also love performing on piano - classical, jazz and my own compositions.  I played keys in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland in 2021 and 2022, including a recording session at BBC Pacific Quay in Glasgow in October 2021 with Andrew Bain and Paul Booth. In March 2023, I performed the first movement of Grieg’s Piano Concerto at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, accompanied by the GWC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Steven Griffin.