Rachel Hair is a

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...

ist from

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 Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. She plays the

Celtic harp The Celtic harp is a triangular frame harp traditional to the Celtic nations of northwest Europe. It is known as in Irish, in Scottish Gaelic, in Breton and in Welsh. In Ireland and Scotland, it was a wire-strung instrument requiring gr ...

, also known by the

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...

word ''clarsach''.

Early life and education

Of mixed Scots-Irish parentage, Hair was born and brought up in the village of

Ullapool Ullapool (; ) is a village and port located in the civil parish of Lochbroom in the county of Ross and Cromarty, Scottish Highlands. It is located around northwest of Inverness. According to the Scottish Government in 2016, the village had a ...

. At ten years old, she was exposed to the harp through the Scottish organization Fèis Rois, which organizes schools and festivals to teach traditional music and Gaelic. She studied music at the

University of Strathclyde The University of Strathclyde () is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal charter in 1964 as the first techn ...

, where she gained a first class honors degree.

Career

In 2007, Hair released her debut harp album, "Hubcaps and Potholes", and has since performed at many festivals including

Celtic Connections The Celtic Connections festival started in 1994 in Glasgow, Scotland, and has since been held every January. Featuring over 300 concerts, ceilidhs, talks, free events, late night sessions and workshops, the festival focuses on the roots of trad ...

, the Edinburgh International Harp Festival, and the

Edinburgh Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

. She has traveled throughout Europe, the United States, and New Zealand performing and teaching. According to music reviewer David Pratt, Hair "is recognised as the world’s leading expert in Manx Harp music." She travels monthly to the

Isle of Man The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Govern ...

, where she teaches for several days. She also teaches lessons in people's homes and teaches regularly in The Netherlands. Hair also helps coordinate the annual Edinburgh International Harp Festival. In 2020, the festival's 39th year, the festival was forced to cancel its in-person activities because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, leading Hair to coordinate the Virtual Edinburgh International Harp Festival. Over five days, 18 different harpists performed and led workshops online. Also in 2020, Hair began offering free harp lessons via

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

through her "Harp at Home" series, in which she teaches Scottish songs and sells the corresponding sheet music. And she was nominated for "Music tutor of the year" in the annual

Scots Trad Music Awards The Scots Trad Music Awards or Na Trads were founded in 2003 by Simon Thoumire to celebrate Scotland's traditional music in all its forms and create a high profile opportunity to bring the music and music industry into the spotlight of media an ...

. In March 2021, Hair and

Manx Gaelic Manx ( or , or ), also known as Manx Gaelic, is a Goidelic language, Gaelic language of the insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, itself a branch of the Indo-European language family. Manx is the heritage language of the Manx ...

singer

Ruth Keggin Ruth Keggin is a Manx Gaelic singer-songwriter. She holds degrees from the University of York and the University of Cambridge. Career In 2011, as a member of ''Nish As Rish'', Keggin won in the Best Newcomers category at the 2011 Festival Interc ...

launched a joint

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance, to fund projects "withou ...

campaign to produce a debut duo album. They reached their target goal of £5,000 within 12 hours of launching the campaign and achieved a stretch goal of £10,000 after 48 hours. Some matching funds were provided by

Creative Scotland Creative Scotland ( ; ) is the development body for the arts and creative industries in Scotland. Based in Edinburgh, it is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government The Scottish Government (, ) is the execut ...

. Additionally, Hair has published several books of music that she has arranged for the harp.

Discography

* ''Hubcaps and Potholes'' - 2007 * ''The Lucky Smile'' - 2009 * ''No More Wings'' (as the Rachel Hair Trio) - 2012 * ''Tri'' (as the Rachel Hair Trio) - 2015 * ''Sparks'' (as Rachel Hair & Ron Jappy) - 2019

References

External links

Rachel Hair Official Website
* Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Scottish folk harpists Scottish women harpists {{scotland-musician-stub