Ailsa Mair Fox
Musical Storyteller
image - Valériane Leblond
The Fairytale Cellist
hi, i'm ailsa mair fox (a.k.a. hughes)
Classically trained and wholly untamed...
Having studied and identified mainly as a cellist from age 7, over the last decade, as well as song-writing, I have found myself falling deep into the realm of Stories, collaborating musically with many other storytellers and more recently doing the storytelling bit myself. Earlier in 2021 I co-won the Gwobr Esyllt Prize with Deb Winter, to develop my craft as a storyteller. I thrive as a musical improviser and write songs with the cello, influenced by musical traditions from all over the world, and fuelled by my own intuitive connection with the land in which I roam and live.
I work as much as possible outdoors, having done a lot of site-specific performance all over Britain, including years of touring with aerial circus company Whispering Woods, collaborating with dancer & choreographer Denise Rowe on Dartmoor, various bands and solo and in collaboration with my duo Tinc y Tannau in Wales. I have played with the Royal Shakespeare Company (Cymbeline 2016-17); and on more than one occasion have been employed as a musical mermaid on the shores of Cardigan Bay.
If you like you can find loads more about me in two interviews I did in 2020:
one with writer Leslie Tate here:
https://leslietate.com/2020/05/9599/
...and one with Folklife presenter Caitlin Tan for West Virginia Public Broadcasting, about a project I've collaborated on with storyteller Peter Stevenson, called The Moon Eyed People:
some nice things people have said about my work...
"One of the most heart-felt singers i have ever met, Ailsa literally gives me tingles down my spine. Her musical ability is astonishing and transcendental"
- Musician, sound healer, Artist Stu Hampton
"You sound like a full-grown fairy and my Mum loves you"
- fan at the Green Gathering
"Beautiful Cello Witch"
- fan
Past Collaborations &projects include:
Tinc y Tannau - duo of viol beauty and mischief with Sianed Jones
Whispering Wood Folk - magical family aerial circus/storytelling shows set in the woods:
http://whispering-wood-folk.co.uk/
Ombiviolum - Zimbabwean/Celtic fusion band, Devon: http://www.ombiviolum.com/
Dancer & choreographer Denise Rowe - 'She Who Walks'; 'Enter the Circle'
https://www.earthdances.co.uk/
Peter Stevenson (illustrator, storyteller, writer) - MANY shows with this amazing being!
http://cabinetofcuriosities.moonfruit.com/
Georgia Ruth (Welsh Music Prize winner) - cello parts on 2020 album 'Mai': https://georgiaruth.co.uk/
Tingle - cosmic reggae in West Wales: https://www.tingleme.uk/about
Mackerel Sky - magical duetting with the extraordinary Pixy Tom
https://www.facebook.com/pixytomsmusic/
Ayla Schafer - visionary songwriter (inc. EP 'Words and Wolves' )
https://aylasong.bandcamp.com/album/words-and-wolves
Joanna Bond - performance art piece: 'Inseparability of Human and Nature'
Sacred Activists' Sanctuary - Co-holding of this beautiful zone at The Green Gathering Festival
http://www.greengathering.org.uk/
'Pan, Miss Mae, & their Pole of Disarray - with Kitty O'Blitherin a.k.a Cath Rigler as part of Machynlleth Comedy Fest 2019 (funded by Articulture)
https://kittyoblitherin.weebly.com/