Lisa Robertson

Recently profiled in the BBC Music Magazine’s ‘Rising Stars’ feature, Lisa Robertson is a composer from the West Highlands of Scotland who is particularly interested in combining sounds from nature and from traditional music, in examining relationships between people and the land, and in highlighting environmental concerns.

Performers of her work include the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the vocal group EXAUDI, the Red Note Ensemble, the Hebrides Ensemble and the mezzo soprano Lucy Schaufer. Lisa’s music has been heard at festivals including the Cheltenham Music Festival, West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Sound Festival, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, where in 2019 she played her solo violin piece Can we not hear the birds that sing?, and in the following year clarinettist Heather Roche performed Heartwood, relayed live on BBC Radio 3 and subsequently broadcast on the BBC World Service.

Three times shortlisted for the Scottish Awards for New Music Dorico Award for small/ medium scale work, she was also joint winner of the West Cork Chamber Music Festival Composers’ Competition, and runner up in the Cappella Nova Composers’ Competition and the Walter and Dinah Wolfe Memorial Award.

She is currently undertaking a PhD at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with Emily Doolittle and William Sweeney, and has participated in masterclasses with Brian Ferneyhough at the Ferienkurse Darmstadt and with Sir Harrison Birtwistle at Dartington International Summer School. In 2017 her a cappella The Silent Word Sounds was included in the CD release Annunciations, a collection of sacred music for the 21 st century created as part of TheoArtistry’s composers’ scheme, in association with Sir James MacMillan and performed by St Andrew’s University’s St Salvator’s Chapel Choir. In 2019–2020 Lisa was one of four composers featured in the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain’s Young Composers Scheme.