Catriona McKay, a native of Dundee, has earned widespread acclaim for her groundbreaking approaches to the traditional Celtic harp, or clàrsach, throughout a multifaceted career that encompasses both independent projects and numerous joint ventures with other musicians and groups. Her entry into the British folk music community occurred via her role in Fiddler's Bid, a Celtic ensemble based in Shetland. Serving as the group's harpist and pianist, she made her first recorded appearance on their 1998 album Hamnataing, the band's initial release for the Greentax label. In 2002 she issued her self-titled debut solo album, which displayed both her technical command and an adventurous spirit that would mark her output over the next ten years. The sessions included her Fiddler's Bid colleague Chris Stout, beginning a sustained creative partnership that generated repeated duo performances and recordings as well as her involvement with the Chris Stout Quintet. After the 2005 duo album Laebrack with Stout and Fiddler's Bid's Naked and Bare, she released her second solo effort, Starfish, in 2007. This ambitious set of original material was tracked on a custom-designed Starfish McKay harp and combined electro-acoustic contributions from Alistair MacDonald with bass, guitar, and a string ensemble. McKay and MacDonald later formed the improvisational duo Strange Rainbow, which issued two experimental albums in 2008 and 2009. She simultaneously developed a collaboration with Swedish nyckelharpa player Olov Johansson, resulting first in Foogy (2009) and then The Auld Harp (2013). While continuing her work with Stout, Fiddler's Bid, MacDonald, and Johansson, McKay composed and recorded her third solo album, Harponium, which appeared in 2014. That same year she and Stout performed as soloists with Scottish composer Sally Beamish on the atmospheric orchestral album Seavaigers. The pair returned with their own duo release, Bare Knuckle, in 2017.
