Judith Peacock Cummings

Scottish Gaelic singer and harpist. Judith Peacock Cummings was born near Glasgow, Scotland. She took up the violin at the age of 7 and the clàrsach (Scottish harp) when she was 15. In 1984 she joined The Whistlebinkies and has made several recordings with the group, appeared on national and foreign radio and television, and toured Sweden, France, Germany, Iceland, China, Ireland and the U.S.A.

Judith is a fluent speaker of Gaelic and has a special interest in Gaelic music and the old traditional songs. She has won numerous prizes at local and national Gaelic music festivals for both clàrsach and traditional singing, including the gold medal for traditional singing at the Royal National Mòd in Scotland in 2000. She is one of only a handful of musicians who teach the clàrsach through the medium of Gaelic.

These recordings are from an unrealised Whistlebinkies project. Recorded at Craig Armstrong’s studio, Glasgow, 21 January 2002.