Scottish Voices
Welcome to Scottish Voices!
Scottish Voices is a vocal chamber music ensemble (multiple pictures of our various configurations shown below), based in Glasgow, Scotland (pictured above), directed by composer Graham Hair.
… and the Gelderland Project Choir‘s work with Scottish Voices
… and the Animusic Congress (Portugal) area. Animusic is a series of Congresses in Portugal, in which Scottish Voices have been frequent participants.
… and the Musica Scotica area, a publication series to which Scottish Voices is a contributor.
Scottish Voices is a professional vocal ensemble
and different from the RSCM Scottish Voices
which is a choir.
Who We Are
Scottish Voices is a chamber music ensemble, which performs and records music from the Western Classical Tradition: like a string quartet, but constituted of voices, not instruments. However, we often combine forces with various instrumentalists, and some of the instrumentalists who collaborate with us contribute instrumental solo items to our performances and recordings. We are not a choir either (we sing with one voice to a part), although we sometimes combine forces with choirs. The majority of Scottish Voices performers are women, and there are two configurations of the ensemble: the Women’s Voices configuration (SSAA) and the Octet configuration (SSAATTBB). Most of our repertoire is contemporary, ie from the 21st century, although from time to time we also perform music from earlier eras: not excluding the 20th and 21st centuries, together with some popular, traditional, “roots” and “multi-cultural” musics, from various parts of the world and in many different languages.
Scottish Voices started in 1991 as a trio of women vocal soloists (Alice Dumas, Amanda Morrison and Taylor Wilson) with Graham Hair as accompanist. Over the years it has slowly evolved into something like a co-operative, involving three generations of singers (35 sopranos and mezzos over the 30-year period), and recent performances and recordings have involved collaborations with male singers as well. The singers have been accompanied by several pianists, organists, harpists, vibraphonists and instrumental duos, as well as, on a few occasions, string quartet, ensemble or orchestra. The ensemble is based in Glasgow, but also performs in other Scottish venues, eg Edinburgh, Stirling, and Aberdeen.
Graham Hair’s chamber version of Sergei Taneyev’s cantata “John of Damascus” is a sequel to his chamber version of Alexander Kastalsky’s “Requiem for Fallen Brothers”.
The first recording session was at St John’s Renfield Church in Glasgow, on Thursday, August 20th, 2026.
The musicians (depicted above) were (left to right): Lynn Bellamy (mezzo-soprano), Phil Gault (bass), Toni James (piano), Kotryna Starkute (soprano) and Roger Paterson (tenor).
Taking a bow at Director Graham Hair’s final concert at the podium: The Cathedral of the Western Isles, 31st August 2025. Graham is passing the baton in order to concentrate on writing and composing.
The photo above was taken after the Scottish Voices concert on Saturday, July 22, 2023, in the auditorium of the Classical Orchestra of Central Portugal in Coimbra, Portugal: the city of Portugal’s ancient (13th-century) University. It shows a cohort of the Women’s Voices configuration (SSAA) of Scottish Voices singers. From left to right: Scottish Voices director Graham Hair, pianist Hebba Benyaghla, mezzo-soprano Annie Lewis, sopranos Myrna Tennant and Rachel Thomas, mezzo-soprano Taylor Wilson and composer Margaret McAllister.
Above: cohort of the Octet configuration (SSAATTBB) of Scottish Voices singers (left to right: sopranos Sally Carr and Rachel Thomas, mezzo-sopranos Lynn Bellamy and Ruth Kiang, tenor Ted Black, basses Pedro Ometto and Will Frost and tenor Liam Bonthrone), following the recording of Scottish Voices director Graham Hair’s work Lament for Hagia Sophia (for 8 voices with electro-acoustic sound) in the Memorial Chapel of Glasgow University in April 2018, with sound-recordist Tim Cooper (extreme left) and director Graham Hair (extreme right). The album Crossing Musical Fontiers is currently (September 2023) available via the Naxos Digital Music Library, or in “hard copy” (CD).
Photo by Nick Bailey
Scottish Voices at the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Edinburgh Newtown Church, George Street, Edinburgh.
(1) Friday August 23rd…….
Left to right: Graham Hair (director), Alasdair Scott (who read the poetry of Catriona Montgomery in both Gaelic and English), pianists Michael Barnett and Toni James, Kotryna Starkute (soprano), Hebba Benyaghla (pianist), Lynn Bellamy (mezzo-soprano), Katie-Louise Dobson (soprano) and Taylor Wilson (mezzo-soprano).
The repertoire was: Graham Hair/Catriona Montgomery: Four Flower Songs/Perennial Meditations; Katy Cooper: “Where the Stars are Led”; Alexander Scriabin: Preludes (opus 11, numbers 2, 4, 5 and 9); Graham Hair: Mediterranean Duets.
And the repertoire for the following concert (on Sunday, August 25th), was: Hans Gal: Trio for violin, clarinet and piano; Margaret McAllister: Selections from “Six Gaiku: Meomhrachd fiadhain tir (Contemplations on a Wild Land)” … reflections on haiku in Gaelic by Skye poet and artist Alistair Young; Graham Hair: Mediterranean Duets.
(2) Friday, August 9th…….
Left Panel: Performers who presented the Trio for Violin, Clarinet and Piano by Hans Gal were: Hector Scott, (violin), Shinobu Miki (clarinet) and Toni James (piano) … Hector (left), Shinobu (second from left) and Toni ((right).
Performers who performed four of the Seven Songs of Love by Anton Garcia Abril were: Alison McNeill (soprano) and Toni James (piano) … Alison (second from right) and Toni (right).
Between them, in the centre, are the pianists who played for the singers in the vocal works (Where the Stars are Led by Katy Cooper and Mediterranean Duets by Graham Hair). They are Michael Barnett (third from left) and Hebba Benyaghla (fourth from left).
Right panel: Toni and Alison, after the concert.
(3) Sunday August 4th…….
From left to right): Myrna Tennant (mezzo-soprano), Katie Dobson (soprano), Lynn Bellamy (mezzo-soprano), Kotryna Starkute (soprano), and pianists Anne Robertson, Toni James and Michael Barnett. The repertoire: Katy Cooper: Where the Stars are Led; Alexander Scriabin: Preludes (opus 11, numbers 2, 4, 5 and 9); Graham Hair: Mediterranean Duets.
Scottish Voices in Glasgow
The photo above was taken by Nick Bailey from the School of the Science and Music Research Group on Friday, September 22nd, 2023, in the Stevenson Hall of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. It was taken following the recording of “Miranda’s Enchanted Island” (for mezzo-soprano with piano and 6 percussionists) by composer Janet Beat. The team involved in the recording included (from the extreme left): pianist Anne Robertson, percussionists Thomas Lowe and Callum Speirs, sound-recordists Amit Anand and Tim Cooper, Scottish Voices director Graham Hair, percussionists Darren Gallacher, David Kerr, Noah Chalamanda and Ruaridh Neil, and mezzo-soprano soloist Taylor Wilson.
Scottish Voices in Edinburgh
The photo above was taken after the Scottish Voices concert on Saturday, August 19, 2023 in the Scottish Arts Club in Rutland Square, Edinburgh: part of the SAC’s programme for the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The performers in the photo are (from left to right): Rachel Thomas (soprano), Myrna Tennant (soprano), Toni James (pianist), Annie Lewis (mezzo-soprano), Taylor Wilson (mezzo-soprano) and Graham Hair (director), The programme featured, amongst other items, a number of new settings of poetry in the Scots Gaelic language. Further photos from our contribution to the 2023 Edinburgh Festival will be posted here in due course.
Scottish Voices in Edinburgh
The photo above was also taken after the Scottish Voices 2023 concert for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival: following the performance of a new work in Scots Gaelic (Mac-Talla: Echoes), by Margaret McAllister. The performers in the photo are (from left to right): Michael Barnett (pianist), Margaret McAllister (composer), Katie-Louise Dobson (soprano), Lynn Bellamy (mezzo-soprano), Roger Paterson (tenor), Jonathan Kennedy (baritone) and Phil Gault (baritone).
Scottish Voices in Glasgow
The photo above was taken after the Scottish Voices concert on May 18, 2023, in the Memorial Chapel of Glasgow University. The performers in the photo are (from left to right): Rachel Thomas (soprano), Katie-Louise Dobson (soprano), Graham Hair (conductor), Lynn Bellamy (mezzo-soprano) and Taylor Wilson (mezzo-soprano).
Photo by Nick Bailey
Scottish Voices in Glasgow
The montage of photos above shows the participants in the Scottish Voices concert given in the Memorial Chapel of Glasgow University on May 18, 2023, The bottom row of the montage shows (from left to right): Taylor Wilson (mezzo-soprano) with Alistair MacDonald (compoer and interactive electro-acoustic sound-projection), harpist Sharron Griffiths, and Taylor Wilson with pianist Hebba Benyaghla. The portait images in the top row of the montage show (left to right) composers Kathryn Cooper, Emily Doolittle, John Gormley and Margaret McAllister.
Photos by Nick Bailey.
Scottish Voices in Glasgow
The photo above was taken during the Scottish Voices rehearsal on May 28, 2021, in the Renfield Centre on Bath Street in Glasgow. The performers in the photo are (from left to right): Simon Bird (trumpet obbligato), Toni James (piano), Sharron Griffiths (harp), director Graham Hair, Alison McNeill (soprano), Frances Morrison-Allen (soprano) and Laura Margaret Smith (mezzo-soprano).
Photo by Nick Bailey
Scottish Voices in Glasgow
The photo above was taken in September 2022 at rehearsal for the launch of a Scottish Voices album/CD of works by Alexander Kastalsky and Roger Sessions performed by Scottish Voices and members of the choir Russkaya Cappella. The members of the choir (the quartet on the left) were George Lapshynov (counter-tenor), Caz Cockburn (alto), Susan Sheldon and Ashley Holdsworth (sopranos). The members of Scottish Voices (the quartet on the right) were Taylor Wilson and Lynn Bellamy (mezzo-sopranos), and Alena Bulateskaya and Rachel Thomas (sopranos). The programme also featured new works to texts in the Gaelic language by several contemporary Gaelic poets, set to music by several contemporary Scottish composers.
Photo by Nick Bailey
Scottish Voices in Borton, Massachussetts, United States.
The photo above was taken after the Scottish Voices recital on April 14, 2019, in the Old South Church on Boylston Street in Boston, Massachussetts, in the United States. The performers in the photo are (from left to right): Anne Lewis (mezzo-soprano), Yelena Beriyeva (pianist), Laura Margaret Smith (mezzo-soprano), Myrna Tennant (soprano), Jacqueline Pollauf (harpist) and Alison McNeill (soprano).
On tour in downtown Boston, United States:
Laura Margaret Smith, Myrna Tennant, Alison McNeill and Anne Lewis.
Scottish Voices in Belmonte, Portugal
Scottish Voices quartet on tour in Portugal (in Belmonte, outside the School of Music, after its morning rehearsal there, and before its concert in the Igreja de Santiago, on Friday evening, September 20, 2019). From left to right: Myrna Tennant, Frances Morrison-Allen, Graham Hair, Emma Versteeg, Taylor Wilson and harpist Sharron Griffiths.
Scottish Voices in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal
Lucy Anderson, Lynn Bellamy, Grace Wain, Dorcas Owen and Frances Morrison-Allen, with pianist Anne Robertson, after their performance in the Museu José Malhoa in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal in July, 2018.
Scottish Voices in Glasgow
Soprano Myrna Tennant (left) and mezzo-soprano Laura Margaret Smith (right), with pianist Lauryna Sableviciute (centre), outside St John’s Renfield church, Kelvindale, Glasgow on October 24, 2021: a photo call during preparation for their recorded performance of duets for soprano and mezzo-soprano with piano accompaniment by Mendelssohn (op 63) and Brahms (opp 20 and 61).
Photo by Nick Bailey
More…….
Scottish Voices records for the Ravello label in the United States, and will visit the States for the fourth time in June 2026. The ensemble has also made six visits to the Animusic Congress in Portugal (Braga in 2014, Tavira in 2015, Porto in 2017, Caldas da Rainha in 2018, Belmonte in 2019 and Coimbra in 2023), as well as other trips to sing in New Zealand and in Cyprus. Recordings for the Australian label Tall Poppies and the UK label Nimbus are also in the pipeline.
In 2018 and 2019, recorded tracks have included two by director Graham Hair: Lament for Hagia Sophia (SSAATTBB and electro-acoustic sound and O Venezia, part 2 (SSAA and harp), and Melancholy Sonnet (SSAA and vibraphone) by one of our collaborators, American composer Bruce Mahin. Over the years, thanks to assistance from native speakers of other languages in the Glasgow area, Scottish Voices has sung in nearly 20 languages including (material already recorded) Latin, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Greek, Hungarian, Russian, Gaelic, Hebrew and English, and (material in the pipeline) Dutch, Czech, Romanian, Portuguese, Galician, Turkish, Persian and Swahili: not to mention languages as ancient as Sanskrit, Aramaic and Classical Arabic, and works (mostly contemporary) to wordless syllables or phonetic text.
Footnote to Funding Bodies: his website also serves as Graham Hair’s personal website (details under “Personnel/Director and Co-director” drop-down menu, under which “Director: Detailed CV” is a sub-menu).
See also the following pages about…..
- What We’ve Done: Our History
- Why We Do What We Do: Our “Mission Statement“
- Our Aims & Objectives: Finding Roots, Connecting Generations, Reconciling Divisions, Sharing Cultures, Crossing Musical Frontiers, Bridging Disciplines.
Details of a Plethora of Projects (Past, Present and Future), including concerts, recordings, scores, articles (etc!) follow the links in the Projects menu at the top of any page.
