Mary Ann, daughter of singer Kenna Campbell was born and brought up in Glasgow in a house where Gaelic was the language of the home and in a community where speaking two languages was the norm, even if not everyone spoke the same second language!
She trained as a classical musician alongside Radio Scotland 'Grace Notes' presenter Jamie MacDougall and remembers accompanying him on the clarsach on many a school Burns night while he was still a sweet-voiced angelic boy soprano. Her first love, though, is the traditional music that has surrounded her all her life and after several years in the twilight world of BBC newsrooms, she has returned to freelance broadcasting and performing, choosing to base herself in the Highland capital city of Inverness.
One of a select number of singers to have won both Gold Medals at the National Mod, she is also twice winner of the International Celtic Harp competition in Lorient, Brittany. Mary Ann was given a Saltire Award for Lasair Dhe, the finale of the 1999 Highland Festival, involving Cliar and Gaelic choirs from all over the Highlands and Islands.
She is a member of the band, Cliar, hailed as 'one of the most beautiful sounds in 21st Century Scotland' and is a partner in the Skye-based record label, Macmeanmna (Gaelic for imagination).
"Mary Ann's interpretation of Gaelic waulking songs and puirt a beul combined with her dexterity on the clàrsach and her undoubted personality and stage presence make her an outstanding prospect" |