Maeve Gilchrist, the Scottish harpist and composer based in Kingston, who’s originally from Edinburgh and has been called the epitome of a new generation of adventurous harpers by the Irish Times. She was only 14 when she played at the first historic opening of the Scottish parliament in 1999, and she’s been in demand ever since whether writing for symphony orchestra or creating electronics in the studio or gigging with her own Irish band. She’s the first to teach Celtic harp at the Berklee College of Music in Boston – and she runs a Celtic harp retreat right here in the Hudson valley. You can go!
I love her music – although it’s hard to talk about Maeve as being the composer of the music she makes. It’s almost as if she, her harp and her music are all one thing, they are so completely entwined.
Born in Edinburgh in 1985, she grew up surrounded by music. There were professional harpists already int eh family, both her parents were folk musicians, and her father also a music critic which meant that she was exposed to an incredibly wide array of styles. Folk music of course, because they also held sessions in their home, but also classical and rock and world music and jazz. She began tinkling on the piano when she was little but it was when she was given her harp that something clicked. Study followed at the city of Edinburgh Music School, and at the age of 17, a full scholarship to study at Berklee, travelling to the States on her own. They didn’t even have a celtic harp program then and she attended as a voice major who played some harp and some piano, and it was even later than that when she began to compose, essentially self-taught, on a tour to New Zealand.
Her 2020 album, The Harpweaver, is inspired by the poem "The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver" by Edna St. Vincent Millay – the story of a mother’s love, and the harp that ends up providing, in a time of great hardship.
“I love this idea that it is the instruments that provide for the musicians,” she says. And, "The harp comes with lots of stereotypes, and I want to turn those on their heads"
Maeve Gilchrist (1985 –)
MUSIC: The Harpweaver (2020)
Maeve Gilchrist, harp
Aizuri String Quartet
Presented by Anna Clyne
Written and produced by Charlotte Wilson for WMHT
