Corrina Hewat, awarded Music Tutor of the Year 2013 at the Scots Trad Music Awards, was born in Edinburgh and brought up in the Scottish Highlands. She is a harper, singer, composer & arranger, musical director, recording artist, musical collaborator, workshop leader and Scottish Harp Tutor at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Corrina attained a first class Honours degree in Jazz and Contemporary Music on Scottish Harp & Pedal Harp studying with the acclaimed Maire Ni Chathasaigh and went on to achieve recognition for her work with Bachué (with pianist David Milligan), Chantan (singing trio with Christine Kydd and Elspeth Cowie), Grace, Hewat, Polwart (vocal trio with Karine Polwart and Annie Grace), Shine (with harpist Mary Macmaster & Gaelic singer Alyth MacCormack) and Scots big band supergroup The Unusual Suspects (nominated Live Act of the Year 2005). She is now working on the Corrina Hewat Band with Kate Young, Heather Downie, Signy Jacobsdottir and a newly reformed Shine plus her solo work.
Having developed a creative and powerful technique on small harp, Camac Harps sponsored her with the gift of an Electroharp in 2002 and she continues to work with them on developing a new instrument superior in sound and light enough for travel. She is part of the award-winning Pathhead Music Collective (Creative Places 2013), was a finalist in the BBC 2 Young Traditional Musician 1995; nominated Instrumentalist of the Year 2004 at the Scottish Traditional Music Awards; an award winner in the 2012 Camac Harp Trophy competition at the Interceltique Festival, Lorient and is the recipient of a ”˜Women in Music’ Award for composition. She was also awarded an Artists Bursary by Creative Scotland for development in song, songwriting and self, to further her career in 2014. The diversity of her stylistic influences is reflected by some of the artists she has recorded and performed with; Eric Bibb, Horse, Carol Kidd, Peggy Seeger, Gordie Sampson, Eddi Reader, Karine Polwart, Bobby McFerrin and in the British Council’s Shifting Sands project merging Middle Eastern music with the music of the UK, her input being described as ”˜gold dust’ by the musical director Andy Mellon.
