Brìghde Chaimbeul (; born 1998) is a Scottish

bagpipe Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, ...

player, who plays the traditional Great Highland bagpipe and the revived

Scottish smallpipes The Scottish smallpipe is a bellows-blown bagpipe re-developed by Colin Ross and many others, adapted from an earlier design of the instrument. There are surviving bellows-blown examples of similar historical instruments as well as the mouth-bl ...

Life

Chaimbeul was born in 1998 and brought up in

Sleat Sleat is a peninsula and civil parish on the island of Skye in the Highland council area of Scotland, known as "the garden of Skye". It is the home of the clan ''MacDonald of Sleat''. The name comes from the Scottish Gaelic , which in turn comes ...

on the Isle of Skye, and is a native

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

speaker. She learned the fiddle and piano before taking up the pipes at the age of seven, having been inspired to learn the pipes after hearing

Rona Lightfoot Rona Lightfoot (; born 17 April 1936) is a Scottish bagpiper and singer. Life Lightfoot was born on 17 April 1936 on South Uist to a family rich in pipers, and her first music lessons came from her parents, before she was taught by her uncle Angu ...

at the age of four. She received tuition from Niall Stewart, and competed successfully in solo competitions on the Great Highland bagpipe from a young age. Along with her four siblings, she attended St Mary's Music School in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

, where she received tuition from Iain Speirs. In 2014, Chaimbeul took up the

being gifted a set of pipes by

Hamish Moore Hamish Moore is a Scottish musician and bagpipe maker. Among Moore's contributions to Scottish music are his development of a revived form of the bellows-blown Scottish smallpipes; his 1985 recording of the Lowland and smallpipes, ''Cauld Wind Pi ...

, and received tuition on the smallpipes from his son Fin Moore. A bursary from the

Saltire Society The Saltire Society is a membership organisation which aims to promote the understanding of the culture and heritage of Scotland. Founded in 1936, the society was "set up to promote and celebrate the uniqueness of Scottish culture and Scotland’s ...

allowed her to visit Bulgaria to study the piping tradition there, and her music has been influenced by Bulgarian, Irish, Scandinavian and Cape Breton traditions. Chaimbeul has worked extensively with Aidan O'Rourke, as well as

Ross Ainslie Ross or ROSS may refer to: People * Clan Ross, a Highland Scottish clan * Ross (name), including a list of people with the surname or given name Ross, as well as the meaning * Earl of Ross, a peerage of Scotland Places * RoSS, the Republic of Sout ...

, John McSherry, Paul Meehan, Martin Green, Carlos Núñez and Allan MacDonald. Chaimbeul won the

BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award The BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award is an annual competition for young folk musicians in the United Kingdom. It was first awarded in 1988 as the Young Tradition Award, taking its present name in 1998. Recent winners of the award include Brighde ...

in 2016, and the "Horizon Award" in the 2019

BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards The BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards celebrate outstanding achievement during the previous year within the field of folk music, with the aim of raising the profile of folk and acoustic music. The awards have been given annually since 2000 by British ra ...

. Her debut album ''The Reeling'' was recorded in 2019 in the Cromarty East Church, featuring Aidan O'Rourke, Radie Peat from

Lankum Lankum are a contemporary Irish folk music group from Dublin, consisting of brothers Ian and Daragh Lynch, Cormac MacDiarmada and Radie Peat. In 2018 they were named Best Folk Group at the RTÉ Folk Music Awards, while Radie Peat was named Bes ...

, and

. She has played at events including

Celtic Colours Celtic Colours International Festival is a Celtic music festival held annually in October in communities on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. First held in 1997, the festival has featured musicians from the Celtic world and attracted vi ...

Celtic Connections The Celtic Connections festival started in 1994 in Glasgow, Scotland, and has since been held every January. Featuring over 300 concerts, ceilidhs, talks, free events, late night sessions and workshops, the festival focuses on the roots of tra ...

, and Piping Live. Her older sisters Màiri and Steaphanaidh are harpists, her father Aonghas Phàdraig Caimbeul is a writer and broadcaster, and her mother Liondsaidh Chaimbeul is a sculptor.

Discography

* ''The Reeling'' (2019)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chaimbeul, Brighde Players of Scottish smallpipes People from the Isle of Skye Great Highland bagpipe players 1998 births Living people Scottish bagpipe players 21st-century Scottish women musicians Scottish Gaelic music People educated at St Mary's Music School