SEALL Presents…The Festival of Small Halls 2026 – Ardvasar Community Hall

A graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Traditional Music Master’s programme, Lauren was nominated for Up and Coming Artist of the Year at the 2024 MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards. Her debut album, Uddevalla, was inspired by musical traditions from Sweden, Haiti, India, Indonesia and Greece. Lauren’s music celebrates cultural similarities and differences and includes traditional songs and melodies, original compositions and contemporary arrangements.

Alongside her own music, Lauren has also contributed to several series of Outlander and Outlander: Blood of My Blood. She has performed throughout the UK and internationally, creating immersive performances that connect audiences through tradition, sharing culture and storytelling.

Kris Drever

Kris is among Scotland’s most acclaimed and distinctive contemporary musicians, celebrated for his warm voice, virtuosic guitar playing and unique songwriting voice. Raised in the Orkney Islands, Drever has carved out a unique place at the intersection of traditional folk and modern acoustic music, as a solo artist and as one third of the award-winning trio Lau.

Over the course of his career, Kris has won numerous awards, including BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards for Best Singer, Best Original Song, and Best Group with Lau. His solo work combines lyrics of depth and authenticity with expertly pitched arrangements, exploring themes of place, identity, and social change, delivered with clarity, compassion, and poetic insight.

Pàdruig Morrison

Pàdruig is an acclaimed accordionist and composer from Grimsay in Uist in the Outer Hebrides. A 2020 finalist in the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year, and a founding member of Beinn Lee, Pàdruig’s music is a powerful, innovative voice connecting his Gaelic heritage with new compositional horizons.

Pàdruig released his debut solo album this January, comprising of entirely self-penned music and original Gaelic songs. Buin is an exploration and deep reflection of connections to place, history, culture, and the Gaelic language.

Equally comfortable in the world of classical composition – gaining a PhD in composition in 2024, exploring the synthesis of Scottish traditional music and contemporary classical composition – he has written music for the National Trust for Scotland, the St Magnus International Festival, and for members of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. His debut solo album Buin is deeply rooted in the traditional Gaelic music that feels most like home to Pàdruig.

Ailis Sutherland

Ailis Sutherland is a piper from Kirriemuir.

Taught by her father at the kitchen table, she has gone on to perform across the UK, and in Europe, Asia, the USA and Australia with various bands and projects, most recently as part of the Finlay MacDonald Band. Ailis has featured in a range of high-profile events, including performing on the runway at the Dior Cruise 2025 Fashion Show, for the Van Cleef & Arpels Fleurs d’Hawaï Launch, and an Abbey Road Studios recording session for video game soundtrack. She was featured in a Sky Arts documentary where she was filmed playing pipes in the crown of Stirling’s iconic Wallace Monument and performed at the table read for Outlander Season 8 in 2024. She took to the stage at Edinburgh’s Hogmanay 2024, to perform ‘Common People’ with 90s Britpop legends Pulp.

Ailis is also a World Pipe Band Champion, having won the Grade 1 title with Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia Pipe Band in 2015, and a finalist in the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician Award (2023). She holds a First Class Honours degree in Applied Music from the University of the Highlands and Islands, where she also studied wooden flute with acclaimed Glenuig musician Iain MacDonald.

Nominated for MG ALBA’s Up & Coming Artist Award in 2019 for her work with Hecla, Ailis has collaborated with a wide array of artists and ensembles, such as GRIT Orchestra, Croft No. Five, Brìghde Chaimbeul, Kathleen MacInnes and Allan MacDonald. She has also appeared with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO), the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and as part of a PRS Foundation/Chamber Music Scotland performance with Maxwell Quartet.

Ailis went freelance full time in 2025, having built a reputation as an experienced and committed music educator alongside her performance career. With 12 years of teaching experience, she has worked with students of all ages and stages across the world. In her previous role as Clubs Producer at the National Piping Centre, Ailis developed community-based education projects, that create accessible pathways for children to learn Scotland’s national instrument.

Her teaching portfolio also includes piping programmes with the University of Glasgow, University of Edinburgh, the Royal Guard of Oman, the Royal Oman Police and the Indonesian Defence University. Ailis regularly delivers workshops and classes with cultural organisations including Fèis Rois, Fèis Bharraigh, Fèis Tìr an Eòrna, Scots Music Group and Far North Retreats, as well as with the Italian Spring School (Pisa/Bologna, Italy), Sychrov Piping Seminar (Prague, Czech Republic), Celtic Arts Foundation (Washington, USA) and Càirdeas (Vermont, USA).