Pendulum Trilogy

Mairi’s trilogy of solo shows – Pulse (2016), Auld Lang Syne (2018) and Living Stone (2024) – has toured extensively, earning much critical acclaim along the way.

The Pendulum Trilogy was shown at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2025.  

Step into a world where story, sound, and spirit collide. In bold collaboration with visionary director Kath Burlinson, Mairi has crafted a trilogy of genre-defying solo theatre that brings our awareness from the everyday encounters to their cosmic and comical counterparts.  

Hailed for Her Artistry

Mairi’s work reaches into cultural memory and lived experiences. She touches something ancient and fiercely alive. Audiences, artists, and critics alike have been profoundly moved by these intimate and powerful performances.

Mairi’s creative force extends beyond her solo work. She has collaborated on projects such as Wolves with Barrowland Ballet (2018), and composed three major original scores for the British Youth Music Theatre.

For 30 years Mairi has been involved in grassroots support in the Scottish Traditional music scene.  She has taught fiddle camps in Scotland, Canada and Germany.  Since 2007 she has taught fiddle at her adult learner camps on the island of Lismore.  The  Lismore Fiddle Retreats are a treasured support for learners of all ability.

Biofield Tuning

Biofield Tuning is an alternative sound therapy method that uses tuning forks to scan and balance the human biomagnetic field, or aura. Created by Eileen Day McKusick, the practice aims to clear emotional and physical stress by using sound waves to restore a coherent rhythm to the body’s electrical system. 

Mairi is now a certified Biofield Tuning practitioner, offering one to one sessions from her home in Edinburgh or remotely.  To find out more or book a session click here.  

Lineage 

Father’s line: 

My great grandmother, Jane Livingstone, was born and grew up on the Island of Lismore in Argyll, Scotland.  Their family had a horse drawn cart and would go round the island selling groceries and fish. Jane married Hugh Campbell, a crofter and stonemason from Benderloch. They had 10 children. My grandfather, Duncan was their fifth child. He was a piper and stepdancer until the first world war where he fought in the cavalry during the battle of Amien in 1918. His horse was shot from under him and he nearly died on the battlefield. In that moment he had a deep conversion to God which shaped the rest of his life.   On his return to Scotland he abandoned music (other than Psalma) and became an itinerant missionary with the Faith Mission. 

In 1949 he was called to the island of Lewis by two Macleod sisters (Trump’s great aunts) to guide people to God. He wrote extensively about his experience of the Lewis Revivals at that time.  

Mother’s line:  

My Great Grandfather, John Anderson, was born in Rhynie, Aberdeenshire in 1862. In 1890 he left Aberdeenshire to go to China as a medical missionary with the China Inland Mission. He spent the next 40 years in Yunnan and had five children with Alexandrina Ross. They survived the Boxer Rebellions at the turn of the century and established a hospital. They returned to Aberdeen in 1929. 

Their youngest son, my grandfather, Gordon, returned to Aberdeen with his family aged 11. He went on to study medicine in Aberdeen during and met my grandmother Marjorie Kerr, an Edinburgh teacher.  They both returned to China in 1933 to continue the medical work his mother and father had established.   My mother (Marjorie), and her sister were both born in China. Three years later, in 1939, Gordon died of typhoid, aged 30. Marjorie returned to Scotland with my mother and her sister, to settle in Edinburgh. 

My time:

I am the third child of four daughters of Archie Campbell and Marjorie Anderson. Born in 1965,  I grew up in Edinburgh and spent holidays on the island of Lismore where mum and dad bought Carnie Cottage in 1970. My mother and father joined the Quakers (Religious Society of Friends) and I grew up in that tradition. 

My education was at local comprehensive schools. At age 16 I won a place at the City of Edinburgh music school and then continued my music education at the Guildhall school of music in London from 1984 – 88 as a violist.  After college I spend a couple of years as a freelance orchestral musician, playing with the SCO, RSNO and other ensembles.    

In 1990 I travelled to Cape Breton, Canada and discovered the Highland diaspora tradition of fiddling and step dancing.  From then on, my passion for traditional music took centre stage. On my return I met David Francis, and we formed a duo, The Cast. Dave played guitar and I sang and played fiddle and viola. We went on to make five albums of traditional and contemporary music over the next two decades. We had two daughters and life got busy. I taught fiddle and led classes with the Scots Music Group and Sangstream, a local folk choir in Edinburgh.  Dave worked for TRACS (Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland). We had a ceilidh band and played dances most weekends. Our version of Auld Lang Syne was placed in the movie Sex and the City in 2008.  

In 2009 I met Kath Burlinson, a theatre director and founder of the Authentic Artist Collective.  Inspired by Steve Byrne saying ‘dig where you stand’ I asked Kath if she would help me craft some personal narrative music theatre shows.  She agreed.  Since 2011 we have created Red Earth (2012) and Revival (2013) which honour my father and mother’s lineage, followed by Pulse, (2015), Auld Lang Syne (2018) and Living Stone (2024). 

In 2025 I performed Pulse, Auld Lang Syne and Living Stone as the Pendulum Trilogy, in rep, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.  

All three shows feature and are inspired by the presence of a 25 kilo quern stone that we found on my great grandmothers’ croft on Lismore. This stone is a companion to me and has a significant and grounding impact for myself and audiences during shows.

I now live six months a year on the island of Lismore in Argyll, teaching violin to the seven children at the primary school, leading the local dance band and running my own fiddle camps from the island. 

Discography

Awards

Notable Performances