Isla Ratcliff

Isla Ratcliff is a Scottish fiddle player, singer and composer from Edinburgh. Her debut album The Castalia [https://islaratcliff.bandcamp.com/album/the-castalia] features traditional and self-composed tunes inspired by the 4 months that she spent in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia in 2019, including a trip to New Brunswick to meet her distant relatives. Described as ‘quite the best debut album that has come this way in a long time’ (The Living Tradition [https://www.livingtradition.co.uk/webrevs/islar01cd.htm]), Isla’s album expresses her love for the tradition, its ethos of community, and the power of music to bring people together.

Isla was a Semi-Finalist in the BBC Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2022 competition. She has performed at Celtic Connections, Cambridge Folk Festival, Sidmouth FolkWeek, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the BBC Proms. She graduated with an MMus Scottish Music degree from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2020, and with a BA Music degree from Oxford University in 2017. Aged 13, she played a trad duet with Nicola Benedetti in Edinburgh’s Usher Hall.

‘A fine debut album … showcasing her bright, articulate playing’ – The Scotsman [https://islaratcliff.files.wordpress.com/2022/04/isla-ratcliff-the-castalia-the-scotsman-review.jpeg], FOUR STARS.

Tickets are Pay What You Decide.