Gillian Maitland (born 26 September 1985) is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

marimba The marimba ( ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the mari ...

soloist,

percussionist A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

Early life

Maitland's musical life began when she started drum kit lessons at the age of 12. She quickly progressed, adding piano and saxophone to the mix. When she was 16, she was accepted to the prestigious

St Mary's Music School St Mary's Music School is a music school in Scotland in the West End of Edinburgh, for children aged 9 to 19 and is also the Choir School of St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral. The school, which is non-denominational, provides education for child ...

in Edinburgh as their first ever percussionist where the school build a soundproofed percussion room especially. Here she had her first opportunity to study the marimba, where she advanced very quickly. In her time at

, Maitland attended elite courses including

Juilliard The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became the Juilliard School, named aft ...

Summer Percussion Seminar,

National Youth Orchestra of Scotland The National Youth Orchestras of Scotland (NYOS) is a youth orchestra organization in Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdo ...

and Edinburgh Youth Orchestra, as well as winning many music competitions and awards for her exceptional abilities on the marimba. Throughout Maitland's education, she has racked up some single and long term lessons with some of the world's most renowned percussionists. These include Dame Evelyn Glennie, Ney Rosauro, Kai Stensgaard, Joseph Gramley, Janis Potter, Nick Petrella as well as members of the percussion section of the New York Philharmonic. In 2005, after performing marimba to the G8 Wives at

Glamis Castle Glamis Castle is situated beside the village of Glamis (, ) in Angus, Scotland. It is the home of the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, and is open to the public. Glamis Castle has been the home of the Clan Lyon, Lyon family since the 14th cent ...

and winning the award of Angus Youth Ambassador, Maitland won an exceptional £80,000 grant from the Donald Dewar Arts Awards to study with the world-renowned Ney Rosauro at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

Frost School of music. In September 2007, in her third year of studies, she was involved in a road traffic accident resulting in her left leg becoming permanently paralysed below the knee. Maitland had to return to her native Scotland to learn to walk again, with the use of an ankle foot orthotic brace. Unfortunately, due to the length of her recovery, Maitland was not able to finish her degree.

Career

Following her long recovery process, Maitland gained the funding to purchase a five-octave marimba in 2009, when she also became an official Encore Mallets Endorser. Maitland then went on to perform for Prince Charles at the 20th anniversary of Prince's Scottish Youth Business Trust. Maitland released her debut album 'Plocanan' in 2014. The album features both marimba and vibraphone and includes both works by Debussy and Bach, as well as contemporary. The album also has the premier recording of

Robert Paterson (composer) Robert Paterson (born April 29, 1970) is an American composer of contemporary classical music, as well as a conductor and percussionist. His catalog includes over 100 compositions. He has been called a "modern day master" and is primarily known ...

's 'Merry Go Round' which is a 6-mallet solo published in 1990. In 2015, Maitland took on the roll of Head o
Kingdom Percussion Academy
part of Kingdom Youth Brass Initiative where students are taught solo, ensemble and group percussion on professional equipment not commonly available in Scotland. She is also the Head of Percussion for Kingdom Championship Brass Band, based in Cowdenbeath, Fife. Along with performing, Maitland is also a composer and arranger of percussion music published b
Southern Percussion

Albums

* ''Plocanan'' (2014)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maitland, Gillian 1985 births Living people Scottish composers People educated at St Mary's Music School Musicians from Dundee