Amy Laurenson & Miguel Girão

Scotland

Rooted in the traditional music of Shetland, pianist Amy Laurenson explores the music of her homeland alongside traditional and folk music from Scotland, Ireland and Scandinavia. With no fear of jumping fences and merging lines, she has developed a style which ebbs and flows between traditional, classical, and jazz influences. This diversity has resulted in a vision which challenges the role of the piano as a solo instrument in traditional music. Amy was named BBC Radio Scotland’s Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2023 at Celtic Connections and has since toured throughout the UK with her band, appearing at the likes of Shetland Folk Festival, Edinburgh TradFest, Cambridge Folk Festival, and the MG Alba Scots Trad Awards. Her highly-anticipated debut album, Strands (released February 2024), reflects on her traditional Shetland roots and how this has grown to be intertwined with threads of contemporary influence and ideas. Amy will be joined by guitarist Miguel Girão. Originally from the Portuguese Midlands and now based in Glasgow, Scotland, Miguel shapes and shifts from accompanist to soloist hinting traits of classical, contemporary, and traditional aesthetics. Described as “a genuinely unique voice in contemporary Scottish Trad” by Martin Green (Lau), Miguel’s musical releases include The Northern Isles Suite (2024), The Courtly Seam (2022), and Prologue (2021). He is also a founding member of boundary pushing bands such as Tern and Capstan Quartet.

Festival Performances

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