Composers John Rae and the Northern Telegraph Route

Stuart MacRae

Stuart MacRae – Born in Inverness in 1976, Stuart MacRae has established himself as one of the most distinctive of contemporary composers, writing music of elemental power and emotional subtlety.

Stuart’s music has been performed at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the Edinburgh International Festival, and by ensembles including the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Ensemble, Hebrides Ensemble, BCMG and London Sinfonietta, as well as numerous orchestras.   Stuart was Composer in Association with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra from 1999 to 2003. He was resident composer at the Spannungen Kammermusikfest in Heimbach, Germany in 2003, and Edinburgh Festival Creative Fellow at the University of Edinburgh from 2005 to 2006. From 2006 to 2007 he was a resident composer at Internationales Künstlerhaus Villa Concordia in Bamberg, Germany.  Recent projects include the operas The Devil Inside, written for Music Theatre Wales and Scottish Opera, Anthropocene, for Scottish Opera, and a series of works based on the Prometheus myth for the Lammermuir Festival.

Ailie Robertson

Ailie Robertson is a multi-award winning composer, and harpist from Scotland. She has been commissioned by some of the world’s most prestigious cultural institutions including the BBC Proms, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Scottish Ensemble, Red Note, Bang on a Can, The RSNO, Cappella Nova, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, The Scottish Chamber Choir and the Riot Ensemble. She was composer-in-residence with Sound Festival 2019-2022 and composer-in residence with Glyndebourne Opera from 2020-2022. She was awarded the ‘Achievement in New Music’ prize at the inaugural Scottish Awards for New Music and has also won prizes for ‘Best Chamber work’ and ‘Innovation in New Music’.

She holds a PhD in composition from Trinity Laban Conservatoire. Her work ranges from composing concert music to film scores, working with traditional choirs through to collaborating with other artists on abstract, site-specific installations. As well as more conventional concert hall music, she has a passion of writing for amateurs, for young people, for the theatre and, also, devising unusual and site-specific works.

Eli Tausen á Lava

Eli Tausen á Lava Raised amid crashing waves, howling winds, and the raw forces of nature, Eli Tausen á Lava channels the quiet fortitude of the landscapes that formed him. As a child in the Faroe Islands, he learned to cherish the silence between the storms — the whisper of the draft at the window, the crackle of the fireplace, the sound of his grandmother’s hum. These intimate moments became the heartbeat of his music.

His compositions reflect an ocean of memory, each piece a meditation on what it means to feel connected to a place, a moment, a person. His debut album, Impressions (2020), was born in the shadow of the pandemic — a response to fear, isolation, and the search for a path back to life as he knew it. In his second album, In a Field (2022), he reached back to his childhood and early adulthood, capturing fleeting moments like fireflies in a jar.

To pursue his dreams, he left Tórshavn, the town at the edge of the world, and moved to the city at the center of it all: New York. A rich tapestry of musical, cultural, and personal experiences awaited. He absorbed all the city had to offer, seizing every opportunity to witness his inspirations on stage, and immersing himself in the art of composition under the guidance of some of the most prominent composers of the Downtown music scene. However, after a few years in New York, a deep, innate longing awakened — a longing for violent seas, steep cliffs, and starry skies.

Arnannguaq Gerstrøm

Arnannguaq Gerstrøm is a composer, conductor, and flutist born in Greenland in 1977. From 1996, she pursued music studies in Denmark, Sweden, and England, earning the title ‘Master of Fine Arts’ in 2004 from Lund University’s Academy of Music in Sweden, with the flute as her primary focus. During her study period at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, she specialized in alternative flute techniques with a focus on contemporary music. Arnannguaq has also undergone composer training through the Far North network at Vadstena-Akademien, with Hróðmar Ingi Sigurbjörnsson, a composer from Iceland, with Ensemble Adapter (Icelandic/German ensemble) in Berlin, and private training in conducting, arrangement, and composition with Svenn Skipper from 1993 to 2004.

Arnannguaq has had a longstanding freelance career as a flutist, conductor, and composer. She has performed in numerous concerts in Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Denmark, and Venezuela. Her works have been premiered in venues such as Tivoli Concert Hall, Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO), Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, El Sistema Symphony Orchestra Venezuela, and she has composed pieces for Michala Petri, Theatre of Voices, and Storstrøms Ensemble. Arnannguaq has created works for H.M. Queen Margrethe 2 and the Crown Prince Couple. One of her signature pieces is a graduation piece for flute players in the bachelor’s and master’s programs at Lund University’s School of Music in Sweden.

As a composer, Arnannguaq possesses a distinct sonic universe. With a solid foundation in classical music tradition and roots in Inuit and Greenlandic culture, she creates unique compositions for soloists, ensembles, and orchestras.