Raised in Oban, Bronwen Davies is a Welsh/Scottish multi-instrumentalist, teacher and composer based in Glasgow. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of the Highlands and Islands, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours in Applied Music. Bronwen is a member of the up-and-coming traditional band ‘Rhuvaal’ who released their debut EP in 2020. She has toured all over the country and further a field to Europe playing at music festivals and events. As well as Rhuvaal, Bronwen musical upbringing had a heavy influence from the Argyll music scene and the Argyll Ceilidh trail where she went from being a participant in 2018/19 to being the ceilidh trail co-ordinator in 2023.

She isnow building her solo and collaborative career through her brand ‘Bronwen Davies music’. Bronwen is also a member of the Islay pipe band where she has been lead tenor drummer for multiple years. She has spent the past 3 years composing bass and tenor scores for the grade 2 band. Bronwen has also spent her years teaching fiddle and tenor drum at Fèis Latharna easter school and Saturday classes and school pipe bands such as Sgoil Lionacleit pipe band. In 2023/24 Bronwen expanded her teaching through being the bass and tenor trainee tutor for the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland.

Calum is a recent graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where he studied a Bachelor’s in Music specialising in classical trumpet. Originally from Ayrshire, he is now building a diverse career as a UK-based freelance trumpet player and a passionate teacher of brass, dedicated to working with young people. Calum's recent achievements include participating in various recording sessions and successfully auditioning to become a trumpet mentee on the 2023/24 Orchestral Mentorship Scheme at the Royal Opera House in London and also performing as a trumpet soloist on Easter Sunday for BBC Scotland.

In addition to his performing and teaching career, Calum is thrilled to be part of the emerging composers scheme, where he can explore his interests in composition. In his spare time, Calum enjoys spending time with friends and going to gigs from some of his favourite traditional scottish bands. He comments “As I embark on this project with the amazing team at NYPBS, I look forward to creating something innovative and captivating in collaboration with the young talented musicians!”

Rhionna Inwood is a skilled Scottish pianist, accompanist, educator, and composer. Recently graduating from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in classical piano and second study vocal, she continues her education at RCS part time to refine her accompaniment skills. Rhionna is establishing a successful freelance career, performing with local choirs, live music concerts, and creating community music programs such as ‘Support the AMS: Ugandan Initiative’ in collaboration with Isabella Gonzalez Diaz.

With a strong foundation in classical music, Rhionna is passionate about chamber music and accompanying vocalists in various musical styles. She attended the Oxenfoord Summer School in 2023 and will return in 2024 to perform for specialists like Malcolm Martineau and accompany live concerts, including a song cycle concert.

Rhionna has significant experience in community music settings. As a Benedetti Ambassador, she enjoys workshop assisting and tutoring, while maintaining an active social media presence to support her career. Recent highlights include accompanying choral and solo works for the Kickstart Opera Series Coffee Cadenza Concerts at the Burrell Collection, the RCS International Women's Day Concert 2024, and weekly performances with local choirs in Kilsyth and the Partickhill Community Centre Choir.

Inspired by film music, classical piano, and Scottish folk music, Rhionna composes and arranges music for school-age groups and piano solos. As an emerging composer with the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland, she aims to establish herself in the commissioning field and contribute to the traditional music scene.

Joe Stollery is a composer originally from central Aberdeenshire. He graduated from the University of Aberdeen with BMus (Hons) (2015), MMus in Composition (2016) and PhD in Composition (2024). He has written for a wide variety of ensembles, mostly instrumental, but also including art songs and a handful of chamber operas. His musical interests and appreciations cover a wide range (including non-classical), and as such his compositional aesthetic stands somewhere between common-practice and the avant-garde. He is also keen on putting dramatic statements into his music and is inclined towards a theatrical element in many of his instrumental works.

He was twice a finalist in the Carlaw-Ogston Composition Award (2015 & 2016), has participated as an observer at the Cheltenham Festival (2016), and has been commissioned by the Aberdeenshire Youth Orchestra, the Geneva-based wind band Harmonie Nautique, Orchestra of St John’s, Aberdeenshire Saxophone Orchestra, Cappella Nova, Any Enemy and Hebrides Ensemble, amongst others. He was also commissioned by the sound festival and the Silver Cities Stories project for his opera Mither Kirk (2017) and has collaborated with Scottish Opera to produce Nature’s House (2014), as part of a Leverhulme scholarship. He also composed a set of three children’s operas that were performed in primary schools around Aberdeen in February 2019. He recently collaborated with violist Katherine Wren and composer Pete Stollery on Nordic VIola’s A Wing and a Prayer - Deeside and completed a commission for left-hand alone pianist Nicholas McCarthy.

As well as composing, Joe also plays alto saxophone in the Concert Band and Saxophone Ensemble at Aberdeen University, and is a confident pianist. His personal interests lie in a wide variety of sources, many of which stream into his music. These include the local environment and its history, nature (particularly animals), myths and legends, especially mythical creatures, and the supernatural. He is particularly interested in fantastical concepts and would often speculate on these things in his music, usually by finding and making connections with real-world affairs.

Kenneth is an award winning piper and whistle player from Bearsden, Glasgow. Graduating from The Royal Conservatoire or Scotland’s Traditional Music degree in 2021, he now works as a musician in the Glasgow area, as a teacher and performer. Kenneth originally took lessons at the National Piping Centre aged 6 under a host of elite pipers, most recently from Glenfiddich winner Willie MacCallum & NPC Director Finlay MacDonald, and also spent time in the pipe band scene, winning the World Championship in Grade 2 with The Glasgow Skye Association. He spent 7 years as a member of the NYPBS, leaving as Pipe Major of the Development Band, and returning as a Trainee Tutor in 2022.

During his time at the RCS, he deepens his love for the wider traditional music genre and spent time studying the low whistle under Ross Ainslie, Marc Duff and Hamish Napier. From this, Kenneth began composing more music, and has seen some of his own compositions recorded and broadcasted on TV & Radio for BBC Scotland.

Kenneth now plays with ‘Heron Valley’, with whom he regularly tours North America & Europe, ‘Beatha’ who won the Danny Kyle Award at Celtic Connections 2024, and also makes frequent guest appearances with bands such as Càrnan. He also reached the Semi-Finals of the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year Award in 2022.

Noah Scott is a multi-instrumentalist and composer who plays Scottish traditional music. He is greatly influenced by the music of his home, the Isle of Skye. Before starting traditional music, Noah spent many years learning classical music on the piano and the clarinet in Normandy, France where he was brought up. He also plays the fiddle and the pipes.

Vardi is a producer / DJ & multi-instrumentalist. Drawing on a rich variety of influences & experiences he aims to make work that is innovative & nourishing. Growing up he used to play bagpipes in pipe bands but over time slowly moved away from this world into dance music & DJing. One of his focuses now is how to integrate his roots culture with electronic music.

Breanna Wilson is a Glasgow based fiddle player who grew up amongst the Irish traditional music scene in Glasgow. During her time at the RCS she has developed a love for American Bluegrass and Old-Time music as well as exploring some Scandinavian music whilst continuing to explore her Irish and Scottish roots.

Originally from Braemar, in the heart of the Cairngorms, Ellie has been playing the fiddle since she was 8 years old. Over the years, Ellie has composed various tunes for both fiddle and pipes, with her strongest passion being pipe music. Whilst she doesn’t play the bagpipes (yet!), she enjoys listening to and playing the repertoire and styles of the pipes, and is excited to put this into the Emerging Composers project.

Hailing from Blairbuie on the Coigach peninsula of Wester Ross, Kim is an accomplished accordion and bagpipe player with a background deeply rooted in both the pipe band and traditional music communities. After becoming the first female pipe major of the Ullapool and District Pipe Band at the age of just 15, Kim has continued to successfully compete in the pipe band scene ever since. She feels most at home while pushing the boundaries of trad music and melding her traditional roots with her contemporary style of playing.