Press Reviews
Oak & Thorn Review of 'Binneas nam Ban - Celtic Connections 2018
Have you ever been in the presence of royalty? That’s what it felt like when Margaret Stewart, Gold Medal Mod winner, 2008 Gaelic Singer of the Year and 2011 Musician in Residence at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig; Scotland’s Gaelic College,walked onto the stage and began singing. Her voice filled the hall, spreading its magic and power. Performing with a harp accompaniment (by Ingrid Henderson), Stewart swept the audience back in time, to an era of the great bards.
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Herald Review of A' Bhanais Ghaidhealach - Celtic Connections 2013
Stewart compiled and part-composed The Highland Wedding, to give A'Bhanais Ghaidhealach its English title, for last year's Blas! festival of Highland culture, adding melodies of her own to existing songs and dance music to carry the narrative from courtship to feasting. In fact, her story goes from cradle to boudoir, beginning with her own gorgeous singing of a lullaby telling a new-born heir about the glorious wedding that's foreseen for him and incorporating a film of the happy couple's, er coupling – all done in the best possible taste, of course. Rob Adams, The Glasgow Herald
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Scotsman Review of 'SMO @ 40' - Celtic Connections 2013
Among highlights were ... Margaret Stewart’s 'Giullan Geal Thu', from the college’s home ground of Sleat, her stately delivery converging with the pibroch phrases from Angus Nicolson’s small pipes. Jim Gilchrist, Scotsman
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Glasgow Herald Review of 'SMO @ 40' - Celtic Connections 2013
If there was a palpable sense of achievement in this concert to mark the transition of a college established in a Skye farmsteading into an internationally regarded seat of learning, then there was also a feeling of triumphs still to come through the skills being passed on by tutors whose performances confirmed them as masters of their craft. ... Many riches followed, not least Allan MacDonald's sublime solo Highland pipes set, Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas's grooving fiddle and cello rapport, and a beautiful pibroch-love song duet from Margaret Stewart and piper Angus Nicholson.
Rob Adams, Glasgow Herald, 21 Jan 2013
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Review of A' Bhanais Ghaidhealach at Blas 2012, for Northings
... the stage was set with a gentle lullaby, a song which lulls a baby boy to sleep telling him how, when he grows up and gets married, all the nobility of Gaeldom will dance at his wedding; followed by a sprightly song about lads going a-courting. This leads to an idiosyncratically Gaelic custom, ‘night visiting’, evoked by some tunes from the MacInnes Collection, a challenging volume of piping tunes where every sequence has a different variation, and there did indeed seem to be a noticeable air of concentration on the musicians’ faces.
Longing and Yearning was the next section, that stage in a relationship which leads to the proposal of marriage. Margaret Stewart’s a capella rendition of the answer to the proposal led into a pibroch by and duet with Angus Nicholson, the high point of the evening for this reviewer as her exquisite, pure silver tones mingled perfectly with the pipes. A set, it turns out, which were made specifically to match her voice – a practice which could be more widespread. It was fabulously good to hear ... Jennie MacFie, Northings.
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Blas Festival Preview, Scotsman Article - Aug 2012
We’re discussing her flagship commission for Blas, next month’s annual festival of Highland culture. In The Highland Wedding, the highly regarded singer will, for a change, celebrate some of the happier themes of Gaelic culture, drawing from the wealth of traditional music and song relating to courtship and matrimony. She does so with the help of a crack team of Highland musicians: Iain MacFarlane on fiddle and accordion, Allan Henderson on fiddle and piano, Ingrid Henderson on clarsach and piper Angus Nicolson. Jim Gilchrist, The Scotsman
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Courting success with a Highland celebration - Glasgow Herald article
Sometimes speaking about music isn't enough. In the middle of describing the form her commission for this year's Blas festival will take, Margaret Stewart abandons the spoken word and bursts into song – a pibroch-style tune she has composed with piper Angus Nicolson – to show exactly what she means.
As she sings, there's no hint of the nerves she says she felt when she presented her musicians with the new compositions that sit among the traditional Gaelic songs and tunes in her Blas piece, The Highland Wedding..... Rob Adams, Glasgow Herald Click here for full article
Ceòl Mòr Ostaig, Ceòl 's Craic, CCA, Glasgow - May 2012
"Stewart’s liquid, velvety tones ........ finely nuanced expressive fluency fully displayed in a selection including an emigrant ballad, a lullaby and a fugitive crofter’s missive to his wife, the last vividly conjuring the song’s mingled emotions of longing, loneliness and stoicism even for those unversed in the language." Sue Wilson, Northings
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Celtic Connections, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Jan 2011
"Margaret Stewart opened the show, accompanied by the fine musicians of Daimh, augmented by Donald Shaw on harmonium. Her pure silver tones aided by precise diction and breath control, simply soared off the stage and captivated the Concert Hall..." Jennie MacFie, Northings
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Celtic Connections, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Jan 2009
".....blessed with the voice she has, she could be singing about the DFS Sale and still achieve a high sense of emotion." Barry Gordon, Northings
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Celtic Connections, The National Piping Centre, 2008
“Margaret Stewart was joined at the Piping Centre by some well-known names from the Scottish music scene for the launch of her latest CD, Togaidh mi mo Sheolta. Stewart’s variety of songs ranged from such jewels as ‘An Dòmhnallach Urramach’ from North Uist, to the song based on a pipe air ‘Co Leis an cro druim-fhionn ud thall’, and the haunting love song ‘O thug ‘ad bhuam thu’. Stewart is well known, justifiably so, for her extensive research and it was refreshing to hear these songs which are not so common in the sung Gaelic repertoire of today. Once into her stride in the set, in which all the songs were accompanied, her impeccable traditional delivery was everything we have come to expect from her. It was in her encore that we saw once more her true forte – the passionate, expressive, confident and fluid delivery of a totally a-capella traditional song…...” Hi-Arts, January 2008
Album reviews
"Albums of Gaelic song probably don't come much betterthan this. Margaret Stewart brings her natural authenticity to a body of material that she inhabits as effortlessly as one might expect from somebody so steeped in the Gaelic culture." - Folking, 2008
"It is an album that carries the past into today's world, and has the kind of reflective beauty of time standing still." - Folkworld, 2008
"arguably the most authentic voice in traditional singing" - The Voice 2002
"Gaelic music at its beautiful best. Margaret's voice is pure and compelling"
- Roots and Branches
"nothing short of superb" - The Reed and Chanter
"stylish vocal presentation" - Living Tradition 2001
"Margarets singing is exquisite" - The Tartan & The Green, March 1998
"an awe-inspiring and moving performance" - West Highland Free Press, Aug 1997
"one of those 'to die for' voices - gloriously warm and flexible - that somehow comes from being born and brought up in Lewis" - Folk Roots, Oct 1998
