Band
Bodega are a young, five piece band drawn from the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. The band was formed in March 2005 while all five members were attending high school at The National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music. They were the winners of the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Band award for 2005/06 and released their self titled debut CD on Greentrax in 2006.
Since then, the band has played at most of the prominent UK festivals including Celtic Connections 06, 07 and 08 where they shared the stage at a major concert with Moving Hearts. The have toured France, Italy and Norway with returns to all in the near future. The band also had two very successful US tours in the Spring and Fall of 2007 , performing at the Old Songs Festival, Summerfest in New Bedford, the Cincinnati Celtic Festival and Celtic Classic in Bethlehem. They returned to North America in the summer and fall of 2008 to participate at the Celtic College and festival in Goderich On, the Milwaukee Irish Festival, the Chicago Celtic Festival and a return to Bethlehem for the Celtic Festival.
2009 was a busy year for the band as they appeared at festivals including Tonder and toured in Italy, performed in Holland and Norway. Bodega were awarded folk band of the year at the 2009 Scottish Trad Awards.
Gillian Chalmers
Gillian Chalmers is a piper, fiddler and whistle player who hails from Fraserburgh in Aberdeenshire and was one of the first students to be accepted at The National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music when it opened in 2000.
Gillian was highly successful in the junior competitive piping scene but is now concentrating on playing in a group setting. Having gained a first class honours in her BA (Scottish Music- Piping), she is now regularly performing whilst studying for a Professional Graduate Diploma in Education.
Tia Files
Tia Files is a mult-instrumentalist from Oban. In Bodega, Tia focuses on rhythm with acoustic guitar and djembe, but is a highly-talented piper, fiddler and bassist too. As well as performing with Bodega, she is also a member of the Ruairidh Macmillan trio and is currently working on his debut album.
Tia is very interested in composing music and was given her first opportunity in this field to take part in the Distill project 2009. Following this, she was commissioned to write a piece “Skylight” for Aberdeen international youth festival which was performed by “Ceol Mor” and directed by Harris Playfair.
Norrie MacIver
Norrie MacIver from Carloway in Lewis is widely known for his prize winning Gaelic singing and is another multi-instrumentalist who plays accordion, guitar and djembe. Norrie has graduated with Honours from the RSAMD in Glasgow.
Norrie is also a member of Na Seoid and has toured with different bands across scotland. He has also provided backing vocals on albums for artists such as Julie Fowlis, Skipinnish and Rachel Walker.
June Naylor
From Uig on the Isle of Skye, June is a highly sought after soloist and teacher. June graduated from the University of Strathclyde with a BA Honours in Applied Music degree. She studied under the instruction of the renowned harp player Savourna Stevenson where she focused her attention on contemporary harp music.
As well as the band, June has a dynamic trio with Double Bass and Percussion performing an eclectic mix of contemporary harp music.
June was awarded the prestigious Scottish Arts Council Dewar Award in 2008 and the Alexander Stone Award from the University of Strathclyde for excellence in solo performance.
Ross Couper
Ross Couper is a highly successful fiddler from Shetland. He has attended Alasdair Frasers Valley of the Moon music school in summer 2004 and has previously won the Young Shetland traditional Fiddler of the Year. He has played all over Scotland, Scandinavia and mainland Europe.
