Isla Ratcliff is a passionate and inventive fiddle player, singer and composer from Edinburgh whose work sits at the meeting point of Scottish traditional music, classical repertoire and contemporary composition.
Her appearances at the Shetland Folk Festival will centre on showcasing her 2025 album release, The Scottish Four Seasons, a bold Scottish trad reimagining of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, released last year to mark the 300th anniversary of the work’s original publication.
The Scottish Four Seasons draws out the rhythmic, dance-led qualities of Vivaldi’s music while re-rooting it in Scotland’s landscape and seasonal life. The project reflects on how Scotland’s climate has shifted over the past 300 years, with music that evokes everything from spring growth and summer intensity to autumnal abundance, winter gatherings and the increasingly unpredictable nature of the seasons. Crossing the boundaries of classical and folk music, the album is both a celebration of tradition and a thoughtful response to contemporary environmental concerns.
Alongside this major work, Isla has built a growing reputation for her inventive musicianship and expressive performance style. She was a Semi-Finalist in the BBC Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2022 and a nomininee for Musician of the Year at the MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards in 2025. She has performed across Scotland, the UK and Europe, including at Celtic Connections, the BBC Proms, Cambridge Folk Festival, Sidmouth FolkWeek and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
A graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the University of Oxford, Isla brings a strong grounding in both classical violin and Scottish traditional music to her work. She will perform in Shetland alongside musician friends Juliette Lemoine on cello and Shetland's very own Amy Laurenson on piano.
Given that Tim Kliphuis has also rearranged Vivaldi's Four Seasons, we will be inviting Isla's trio to collaborate with Tim Kliphuis Trio and have involvement with the Stirling Queen project too.
"Quite the best debut album that has come this way in a long time" The Living Tradition
"Conveys a real sense of commitment to traditional culture and her role in conserving and handing on this heritage". Margaret Bennet, folklorist and folk singer.
