Lauren MacColl - When Leaves Fall

Instrumentalist Of The Year - MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards 2009

(February 2007) Tianavaig * A Gallop To Kinross * Tha Mi Tinn Leis A' Ghaol * The Reel O' Whirlie * Graham's Delight * When Leaves Fall * The Futterat With The Grey Tail * An T-Iarla Diurach * Salkt Fish And Dumplings * Jeannie Tied The Bonnet Tight * The Seventh Wave.

Winner of the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award 2004/5. Lauren's playing is stunning, her love of Gaelic and pipe music shines through, and her slow airs are simply breathtaking. If you get a chance to hear her live - grab it!

“Stunningly controlled and intensely beautiful fiddling......’
(bbc.co.uk)

‘The most beautiful playing of a slow air I have ever heard...’ (Mike Harding, Radio 2)

‘spellbinding.....starkly beautiful....’ (Taplas Magazine)

‘phenomenal fiddle playing’ (Baltimore Fiddle Fair)

Brought up in the Black Isle and now based in Glasgow, Lauren MacColl is the holder of the prestigious BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award 2004/5 and is quickly establishing herself as ‘the leading light in the galaxy of young fiddle players.’

Immersed in the rich culture of the Highlands, Lauren learned fiddle through the Feisean movement of Gaelic arts in Ross-Shire, and it was at the Feis annual summer-schools that she was taught by the some of the Highland’s leading musicians * Iain MacFarlane, Allan Henderson and Alpha Munro. Now studying at the RSAMD, her repertoire reflects her northern background and shows the influence of visiting tutor, Aonghas Grant of Lochaber and her love for Gaelic and Pipe music.

In her relatively short career her playing has taken her to Montana, Italy, France, Bulgaria, Norway, Galway, Co. Mayo and across Britain, and has given her various radio and television opportunities including Radio Scotland’s Travelling Folk, Radio nan Gaidheal, MNE’s ‘Beolach’ on BBC 2 Alba, and as part of Donald Shaw’s Harvest commission on 2004’s BBC Hogmanay Live Show. At the age of 16 she was one of the youngest semi-finalists in the BBC Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year and gigged with all-girl band Dochas in Ireland.
Her win of the Radio 2 award will this year see her play Cambridge Festival and Towersey Festival, Baltimore Fiddle Festival, Fiddle 2005 and Nordsjofestivalen, and record a session for the Mike Harding Show. Lauren combines her studies and performance with a passion for teaching as a resident tutor for Glasgow Fiddle Workshop, RSAMD Youthworks and Feisean nan Gaidheal.