Carol-Anne Mackay - ProfilesArchive

About Me

Carol-Anne Mackay (Highland bagpipes, border pipes, small pipes, vocals, whistles, accordion) comes from Strathy on the north coast of Sutherland. It was here that she began her piping, aged nine, under the instruction of the late Pipe Major Charles OBrien BEM from Strathnaver. Since then, Carol-Anne has been a regular prize-winner of high-grade competitions locally and nationally and is in great demand as both piping and accordion tutor and piper for Highland dancing.After completing her degree from the R.S.A.M.D., Carol-Anne studied Gaelic at Sabhal Mor Ostaig before taking up the post of itinerant piping tutor in Wester Ross schools where she is a well-respected and popular teacher. Her strong, clean style of playing has also made her a much sought-after musician; as well as being a founder member of Dochas, she has been a member of the band Anam, guested alongside The Levellers and Evelyn Glennie and is also the honorary piper to the Clan MacKay Society.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 10/03/2006
Band Website: www.dochas.co.uk
Influences: My music has been influenced by lots of lovely folks. I was lucky enough to grow up in an area where traditional music and Gaelic song was very much to the fore. My Mam was a great influence and encouragement to me as was my Piping tutor, Pipe Major Charlie O'Brien of Strathnaver. I was encouraged and inspired but lots of other local heros too! I would say my greatest piping influences have been The MacDonald Brothers from Glenuig, Angus McColl, Duncan MacGilvray, and Gordon Walker.
Record Label: Macmeanmna

My Blog

Update!

Well it's been a long time since I've posted a blog here! Played our last Dochas gig for a while last weekend at the Orkney Folk Festival. It was a lovely one to finish up on. I'm due a b...
Posted by on Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:37:00 GMT

Other news- school- Rachel Walker Band- Urachachd

Outside the Dochas world, I've been kept busy with all sorts of things. School keeps me going as usual with ceilidhs, folk group classes, concerts etc. We have a new regional ceilidh band which invo...
Posted by on Sat, 23 Jun 2007 11:07:00 GMT

Dochas update!

Well, it's Saturday June the 23rd. Can't believe it's so long since I've blogged! Bebo seems to be taking up all my time these days! Dochas haven't been too busy in the last few months but we've enj...
Posted by on Sat, 23 Jun 2007 02:46:00 GMT

Update!

It's been a wee while since I did my one and only blog so thought I'd write a few lines to say what I've been up to! School has been pretty busy with different things and trying to find enough sets of...
Posted by on Thu, 23 Nov 2006 00:12:00 GMT

Busy Busy Busy!

We've just finished our fifth week back at school after the summer holidays and these last few weeks have been very busy! As well as teaching piping through the day, I also do a few evening clas...
Posted by on Sat, 16 Sep 2006 17:32:00 GMT