Ear to the Ground Scotland

Henry McPherson is a musician and artist working across composition, improvisation, and pedagogical practices. His work has been shown internationally across diverse settings – from concert halls to galleries, bathrooms to dance studios, parks and warehouses to cafes, virtual halls and radio.

His current creative interests lie in the intersections of improvisation performance and ecology, which is reflected in his upcoming opera Ma...

In this episode we caught up with Neil Tòmas Smith and discussed his upcoming album Stop Motion Music. The CD has been several years in the making and features musicians from across genres including Carla Rees on flutes and Delia Stevens on percussion, as well as harpist Esther Swift, cellists Duncan Strachan and Justyna Jablonska and jazz drummer Simon Roth.

Neil is fascinated by the connections between sound, space and movement a...

Gemma McGregor is a freelance composer, performer and curator from Orkney, whose music has been described as polystylistic, whilst crossing the boundaries of musical genres. Gemma has been writing music with a sense of place either by referencing sounds from the environment, history or dialect poetry. Gemma plays Orkney traditional music and has researched its links with Norwegian music. Much of her music contains references to spe...

Gareth Williams is a composer and songwriter making work that ranges from opera, theatre and songwriting to chamber and orchestral music. His compositions seek to find new relationships, participants, collaborators and audiences for new opera, music theatre, and song, to shed light on stories and communities that have been overlooked, and to explore ideas of vulnerability in vocal writing. He has created three award-winning operas ...

In this episode we chat to Fergus Hall about everything from composing with hydrophone recordings, Hamish Henderson's poetry and jellyfish raves!

Fergus is a composer and musician from the west of Scotland whose creative practice is focused around how a musician can act as a creative facilitator. This stems from Fergus’ interests in jazz and traditional music practices which often blur the distinction between composer and performer...

Born in Inverness in 1976, Stuart MacRae has established himself as one of the most distinctive of contemporary composers. Stuart’s music has been performed at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the BBC Proms and the Edinburgh International Festival, by ensembles including the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Ensemble and London Sinfonietta. Often inspired by aspects of natural landscape, Stuarts music draws on various strand...

Rūta Vitkauskaitė is a composer, performer and curator whose work in music crosses conventional boundaries. She studied at the Lithuanian Academy of Music before moving to London to complete her PhD at The Royal Academy of Music. Her music has been described as 'resembling natural forces - seemingly unorganised and chaotic forces sticking together a highly dynamic, vital and unpredictable whole, always generating an active emotion'...

Janet Beat is a composer living in Scotland whose impressive career spans back to the late 1950’s. She is widely considered to be a pioneer of electronic music in Britain and in 2019, Janet was the first person to be awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by Scottish Women Inventing Music, a collection of music creators and industry professionals pushing for gender equality in the music industry. Now at 83, her music has been officia...

In this episode we caught up with Rufus Isabel Elliot who told us about OVER/AT, a trans, non-binary, and gender-diverse music-making world, as well as telling us about upcoming releases of Rufus's own music.

Rufus is a composer and musician from Tower Hamlets, based now near Gairloch. In the last couple of years, Rufus has worked with the likes of Sound Festival Scotland, Red Note Ensemble, Magnetic North, and the Nevis Ensemble, ...

In this episode we chat to composer, collaborator, sound designer and concert producer Matthew Whiteside.

As a composer, Matthew has received international performances by ensembles and performers such as the RTÉ NSO, Red Note Ensemble, the Aurea Quartet, Pauline Kim Harris and Diagenesis Duo at venues such as New York University, Dublin’s National Concert Hall, Glasgow City Halls, Salem Artworks in New York and the Belfast Interna...

In this episode we chat about to Ailie about her recent success at the Scottish Awards for New Music where her piece Skydance won the 'Dorico Award for Solo Work' (sponsored by Steinberg). We also discuss field recordings, motherhood, and a very squeaky gate!

Ailie is a multi-award winning composer, performer and creative curator whose work crosses the boundaries of traditional and contemporary music.

Winner of the ‘Achievement in ...

Darlene Zarabozo is a Cuban-American composer, sound artist, musician and collaborator based in Glasgow. She is currently finishing her bachelor’s in composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland under the tutelage of Linda Buckley and support from Alistair MacDonald in her electroacoustic studies.

Recently, she is one of six composers to be shortlisted by New Music Scotland and Scottish Music Centre for ISCM 2021 for her text...

Today, we are joined with Alastair White, a Scottish composer and writer currently studying a PhD at Goldsmiths in London. Alastair has been shortlisted for a Scottish Award for New Music twice and has created work for the opera festivals Tete-a-tete and Opera in the City, The Scottish School of Contemporary Dance and The Scottish Poetry Library along with many others.

In this episode we discuss Alastair's recent release with Métie...

With Tectonics 2021 just around the corner, we spoke to co-curator Ilan Volkov along with composer Tania León and performance and sound artist Olivia Furey who are both involved in the festival this year.

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s annual festival of new and experimental music returns on the 8th and 9th of May with a line-up featuring many of the artists scheduled for 2020. Tectonics Glasgow once again sees international...

In this episode, we had the pleasure of chatting to composer and violinist Lisa Robertson. 

Lisa is from the West Highlands of Scotland and is particularly interested in combining sounds from nature and folk music, and examining relationships between people and the land, often highlighting environmental concerns.

Recently, she was featured in BBC Music Magazine's 'Rising Stars' column. Her music has been performed by the Czech Phil...

In this episode, we had the chance to chat to composers Stuart MacRae and Emily Doolittle and Violist Katherine Wren about their current project Art-Making in the Anthropocene.

'Art-Making in the Anthropocene is a series of 8 free online talks/discussions and an online concert, which bring together Scottish and international artists, activists, and academics from across disciplines to explore what art-making can be in this time of ...

In this episode, we speak to composer Martin Suckling about his recent album This Departing Landscape released with NMC recordings in February 2021. 

The album features four large scale works for orchestra including: The White Road (After Edmund de Waal), Release, Piano Concerto and This Departing Landscape.

Born in Glasgow, Martin Suckling has been championed by many leading orchestras and ensembles including the London Symphony O...

This episode features Scottish composer Jay Capperauld discussing his BBC Proms debut in 2020. "Circadian Refrains (172 Days Until Dawn)" was premiered with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alpesh Chauhan. The full concert can be viewed on BBC iPlayer.

Jay also chats about his influences musical and otherwise ranging from books and films to broken plates and jumpy CD players!

Jay has written for various ensembles in...

This episode features composer Ben Lunn discussing his early musical life through to his research into Horațiu Rădulescu, Spectralism and compositions featuring Accessible Music Technology.

Ben is a Mackem composer who is currently based in Glasgow. Winner of two Scottish New Music Awards for his work with Hebrides Ensemble and Drake Music Scotland, Ben is associate artist for Drake Music and Drake Music Scotland, and Trainee Artis...