Baba Yaga are the unusual combination of saxophone and the harp. Karen and Gwen met whilst studying at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and have forged this musical partnership out of a passion for promoting their instruments. Taking advantage of the varied sound colours of harp and saxophone, they explore transcriptions, original compositions and most recently have toured their own arrangement of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.
Gwen has performed with the Orchestra of the Scottish Opera, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. On the traditional side of her work, she was part of the ground-breaking “project 10” Mewn Bws in Wales and has recently represented Wales at the Lorient Festival Interceltique. Gwen has published three books of music for clarsach through Alaw Publishing and some of her arrangements have been included in the Trinity College graded exam syllabus. 2019 saw the launch of her first solo album, Mentro.
During her studies, Karen won the Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s Apprenticeship Scheme and the Mary D Adams Prize for Chamber Music. Karen continued her studies with soprano saxophonist Christine Rall (Rascher Saxophone Quartet) with the aid of a Creative Scotland Personal Development Award. A varied career of chamber and orchestral music, Karen has performed with the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Karen is soprano saxophonist in the award winning saxophone quartet Sax Ecosse and has performed in Europe and the UK including The Edinburgh International Festival, returning artists at The Emerging Artist Series-The Usher Hall, Celtic Connections, the World Saxophone Congress, Norway’s St Olav’s Festival, Maltings Theatre and live on BBC Radio Scotland’s Classics Unwrapped.
