• I’ve been writing original songs for cello and voice for around 15 years, inspired by place (particularly the Welsh coastline), folklore, nature and love, often with a drive towards social and environmental justice.

    I’ve self-released several EPs, my latest Mesolithic Mermaid in 2025. My songs have been played multiple times on BBC Introducing, by Adam Walton - “Hypnotic, Elemental & Brilliant” (Fool, 2024) and Bethan Elfyn “Absolutely Gorgeous (True North, 2025).

    I am increasingly writing bilingually and in Welsh, my second language.

    Find my tracks through the ‘Releases’ page - most are available to buy on bandcamp.

    For upcoming gigs, check out the ‘Gigs’ page.

  • Over the years I have been blessed to work with many fantastic artists of a whole lot of different disciplines, from storytellers to dancers to poets to aerialists, to performance artists to ecologists, and many other musicians.  I worked as composer/performer for outdoor aerial circus Whispering Wood Folk for 6 years.

    I have also worked extensively in theatre, including with the Royal Shakespeare Company (Cymbeline 2016/17 depping for Sianed Jones; Cymbeline 2023; and The Winter’s Tale 2025).  

    I am currently playing and singing with the Ragged Storytelling Collective developing our new musical storytelling show Cân y Dŵr / Song of Water. 

    See my archive (coming soon) for past projects.

  • I have done session work for many acclaimed artists, including Cynefin (whose album Shimli was shortlisted for Folk Album of the year 2025), Georgia Ruth (Mai, 2020), Gwilyn Bowen Rhys (Aden, 2025), Cerys Hafana (Tra Bo Dau, 2025),  Briony Greenhill (Crossing the Ocean (2022) and Danny Emerson.

  • I am passionate about making site-specific work that connects deeply with place, and have completed several ecologically-oriented arts projects, weaving music, folklore, storytelling, ritual, collective vocal improvisation and deep listening practices, engaging people in the local community and beyond.

    In 2025 I was chosen for an artist residency with Tir Canol in the Dyfi Valley, inviting members of the local community to add to a cauldron of sound, creating a song-potion of regeneration (inspired by the local myth of Ceridwen and Taliesin) for the land.  3 Diferyn/3 Drops can be heard on my bandcamp. 

    In 2023 I was invited to collaborate with the Glanio Collective to co-compose a score for an outdoor promenade performance in Machynlleth, with Jim Somniac.

    For other past projects, see my archive (coming soon).

  • I have had 15+ years of being immersed in the realm of story, myth and folklore,  accompanying storytellers, including Peter Stevenson, Deb Winter, Sarah Mooney, Martin Maudsley and Milly Jackdaw, and more recently beginning to develop my own storytelling skills.

    In 2021 I co-won the Gwobr Esyllt Harker Award with Deb Winter (through Welsh women’s storytelling collective Chwedl) to create our show Secrets and Silences.‍  ‍

croeso ~ welcome

AILSA MAIR

MUSICIAN & SOUND ARTIST

Hello! This is my new home for sharing online morsels of sound, art and other creative news. (Please excuse the missing info on my other pages - I am working through some new website glitches!)

If you are new to my work, I’m Ailsa Mair, a classically-trained and somewhat rewilded singer-cellist, viola da gamba rebel, composer/songwriter, sound artist, sometimes-storyteller, and facilitator rooted in mid Wales. I perform my own songs as a solo act, collaborate with artists of many disciplines, teach embodied voice workshops, play and sing for ceremonies, and make sound art in relation to place.

I am deeply inspired by the land, sea and stars around me and by nature’s cycles.

I make music with and for the earth, and in solidarity with people and more-than-human species living on the edges in this time of great change and challenge.

I’ve shared a little about each aspect of my work in the menu above.

Please feel free to get in touch! 

  • I love to play for ceremonies and over recent years have played and sung at weddings, funerals, grief tending ceremonies, cacao ceremonies and other celebrations. If you are looking for a musician to weave sound to suit your sacred event, I can provide composed or improvised music and ambient soundscape with cello, voice, viola da gamba and more that aims to deeply tune into the spirit of the space that is being held.  Please feel free to get in touch through the contact form.

  • I have facilitated workshops in embodied voice and collective vocal improvisation for over 10 years, and feel passionate about helping others liberate their voices.  In 2017 I started MOONCHOIR, a small vocal improv collective in mid Wales which meets outside on the land to sing and sound at full moon.

    Look out for upcoming workshops on my Workshops page.

  • Nature’s cycles guide me and my work in many ways, from offering seasonal performances and workshops inspired by the Celtic wheel of the year and traditional Welsh seasonal celebrations, to using the moon cycle and my own menstrual cycle as guides for visioning, planning, developing and offering my work. 

    In 2022 I trained with Red School on their Menstruality Leadership Programme and in the future I hope to offer workshops that pass on this wisdom, especially geared towards supporting other performing artists to harness the power of their cycles.

  • It’s impossible to sum up the magic of Tinc y Tannau, a trailblazing bilingual viol-and-voice duo I was blessed to be part of for a few years with the incredible and very much missed Sianed Jones.  We wove beauty and mischief at festivals, in exhibitions, on sheep farms, across waterfalls, in theatres, and through the ether as we did our final collaboration together during lockdown 2020.  You can find our album GALW on bandcamp (see Releases page) and more on our projects in the Archive (coming soon). 

    If anyone has photos to share of any of our adventures together, I would love to receive them - please get in touch.