“The music! It’s so beautiful and emotive, and so unique. I just want to learn it and master it.”
By Sophie M Stringer
Emma Russell is a 15-year old from Cambridge who is a determined and talented musician, with an impressive array of instruments under her belt. She performs on the flute, piccolo, repinique, steel pans, vocalist and can now add bagpipes to her impressive skill set.
Encouragement from a friend led Emma to begin learning the pipes almost two years ago. Being half Scottish, Emma has strong roots and spent most holidays vacationing in Scotland. She thus has a great love for Scottish music and tradition, spending many summers at Highland Games, where she always admired the skill and soulful power of the Highland bagpipes and thus the drive to learn.
She began lessons at the National Piping Centre and was delighted to be paired with Ailis Sutherland, an inspiring female piper and tutor at the NPC. It only took a few lessons before Emma was hooked and realised the pipes were definitely for her. The bagpipes and the ways of Scottish Traditional Music brought a new and exciting change to Emma’s learning style, one she hadn’t met before through her other musical pursuits.
Ailis describes Emma as a joy to teach. “Emma and I enjoy the process of working towards the goals we set together. Emma is someone who has already achieved so much, and who shows a lot of promise – as a musician and as a person.
“From our first lesson, Emma’s been incredibly diligent and focused on piping,” Ailis continues. “She also plays flute, and has an excellent grounding in music theory, so it’s great to see a young person transferring their skills onto another instrument. As a teacher, a huge part of my job is to try and motivate students to practise and strive for better – Emma seems to have that part covered, so it means we can use our time to look at the nuances in different tunes and work on tidying up ornaments.”
Emma has since joined her local Cambridgeshire Caledonian Pipe Band and is loving the experience. They have been very welcoming and she had her first performance with the band last November at the local Remembrance Day processions. Emma was also awarded a school music grant by the Henry Morris Memorial Trust, which allowed her to attend the NPC Holiday Club (formerly Junior Gathering) last year. She found it to be an “incredible, inspiring experience”, one that she would highly recommend to other young aspiring pipers and one she hopes to attend again soon.
Emma’s fiercely self-determined enthusiasm for piping has seen her delve deep into the Scottish Traditional scene. She actively seeks to immerse herself in the different styles of piping, and as part of her studies has used her creative skill set to compose original works for the pipes, including a slow air and 6/8 jig.
We asked Emma about her sources of inspiration. Here is what she had to say!
What inspires you?
“The music! It’s so beautiful and emotive, and so unique. I just want to learn it and master it.”
Who inspires you?
“The amazing pipers I have met at the NPC are my biggest inspiration. People like Ailis Sutherland, Emma Hill, Sophie Stringer, Andrew Bova and Finlay MacDonald. People who I have been privileged to be able to listen to and even be in a room with. I hope one day I might be as incredible as them! I love the joy they spread with their teaching. I want to be able to do that too.”
Emma has great piping ambitions for the future. She is excited to continue learning all there is to know, and would love the opportunity to experience Piping Live!, compete and teach others, passing on her love of piping. She is determined to continue composing and arranging, combining her classical music background with Scottish traditional music. Most of all, Emma hopes to inspire other young girls to take up the pipes and hopefully enjoy it as much as she does!
