About Maeve
Harper, composer and producer.
Described by one critic as “a phenomenal harp player who can make her instrument ring with unparalleled purity”, Maeve Gilchrist has taken the Celtic (lever) harp to new levels of performance and visibility.
Born and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland, and currently based in Brooklyn, New York, Maeve‘s innovative approach to her instrument stretches its harmonic limits and improvisational possibilities. She is as at home as a soloist with an internationally renowned orchestra as she is playing with a traditional Irish folk group or using electronic augmentation in a more contemporary, improvisatory setting.
She tours internationally as a band leader and composer as well as belonging to a number of innovative collaborations including the prestigious Silkroad Ensemble, Arooj Aftab’s Vulture Prince Ensemble, progressive folk-quartet DuoDuo (featuring percussive dancer Nic Gareiss, cellist Natalie Haas and Yann Falquet of Quebecois super-group Genticorum) and a more electronics based project with Nashville—based bassist Viktor Krauss. She has appeared at such major music events as Celtic Connections in Glasgow, Tanglewood Jazz Festival, the World Harp Congress in Amsterdam and the historic opening of the Scottish Parliament. She has played with such luminaries as Yo-Yo Ma, Esperanza Spalding, Tony Trishka, Ambrose Akinmusire, Darol Anger and Kathy Mattea.
Maeve has released five albums to date, including her most recent 2020 recording, The Harpweaver which was hailed by the Irish times in it’s five-star review as “Buoyant, sprightly and utterly beguiling….a snapshot of a musician at the top of her game.” Other albums include three recordings for the Adventure Music label including her 2017 release with bassist Viktor Krauss, Vignette and a self-released solo-album, the Ostinato Project is a beguiling exploration of the possibilities of her instrument. In 2018 Maeve was a featured soloist on the Dreamworks blockbuster movie soundtrack, How to tame your dragon: The hidden world.
Maeve was the first lever harpist to be employed as an instructor by her alma mater, Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she taught for five years before switching to being a visiting artist in 2018. She has written several instructional books published by Hal Leonard Music and 80 Days Publishing. She is also an in-demand composer and arranger, with past commissions including a ground-breaking concerto for lever harp and symphony orchestra co-written with North Carolina-based composer Luke Benton and several works for harp and string quartet including her three-movement piece Pastures Red premiered at the Edinburgh International Harp festival in 2018. Maeve is the the co-artistic director of the new Rockport Celtic Roots and Branches Festival and the co-music director of WGBH’s Christmas Celtic Sojourn.
