Falkirk's trad music fans will want to head to Linlithgow sharpish for some heavenly harp

Karen Marshalsay takes her Three Scottish Harps tour to the renowned venue on Friday, February 16.

One of the few harp players to specialise in the complete set of Scottish harps, Edinburgh-based Karen actually takes four harps on stage with her to astound audiences the length and breadth of the country.

She said: “Folk music audiences will be familiar with the gut-strung, levered clarsach as it’s the harp that has been at the forefront of harp playing on the Scottish traditional music scene over the past 50 year.

“But there’s also the wire-strung harp from the Gaelic tradition and the harp whose sound often takes people by surprise, the bray harp.”

This instrument, although narrower, looks much like the other harps but despite dating back to the Renaissance period, it has what amounts to a built-in amplification system.

“Brays are small pieces of wood that sit against the strings and give this buzzing, almost sitar-like tone,” said Karen. “Bray harps were the harps that were played in

musical gatherings in big houses back in the day and this buzzing tone allowed the harper to be heard above the hubbub.”

When she’s not performing her Three Scottish Harps concerts, Karen works with long-established Scottish folk band The Whistlebinkies and with the founder of popular Irish group Boys of the Lough, Cathal McConnell’s trio.

She has also appeared with piper, singer and Gaelic music authority Allan MacDonald, of the revered West Highland piping family, and as soloist with the

internationally acclaimed Russian String Orchestra, for whom she orchestrated her own compositions.

For her Linlithgow show, Karen will be playing traditional tunes as well as her own compositions – many of which are drawn from her solo album, The Road to

Kennacraig, which received glowing reviews on its release in 2019.

“I’ve played in St Peter’s Church before,” she says. “It’s a few years ago but I remember it being a beautiful building with a lovely intimate atmosphere. So I’m really

looking forward to playing there again and hearing the harps in that lovely acoustic.”

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