Phamie Gow
Musician – composer – singer/songwriter – producer – musical/creative director
Phamie’s Biography
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Phamie Gow is best described as being a multi talented world-renowned innovative harpist, a living composer, singer, recording artist, and in short, an artist of our time.
Phamie’s love of the harp started at a very young age, in fact in the belly of her mother as she danced around to the sounds of The Incredible String Band with Phamie inside. When Phamie was 2 years old, she often danced herself to the rhythm of the washing machine. By the age of 7 and a half she started playing the piano, and by the age of 11 and a half she was lucky enough to get her hands on the strings of a rented harp. Six months later, with the aid of a book and a cassette (before youtube era), she taught herself how to play. It was then, gave her first public performance at the age of 12 which made a marking impression on peoples hearts and minds. That was the beginning of Phamie’s musical journey.
9 albums later, numerous singles and EPs and recordings released, hundreds of countries visited and played, Phamie Gow’s diverse range of musical talents and her collaborations with other artists has brought a new flavour of undeniable talent to Classical/Celtic cross over music.
Her first album, released at the age of 19, made a strong and lasting impression. At an early age Phamie was already described as “an extraordinary talent and a definite rising star” and her sixth album, “Road of the Loving Heart”, reinforces that view, making a huge and emotive impact as an important new wave piano composition of the 21st century. Phamie’s music is regularly played on radio stations around the world, including Classic FM, BBC etc. Since releasing her 9th album Beyond the Milky Way she received over 10 Million plays on Spotify in less than a year.
Phamie’s roots are Scottish, and although she is based in the countries capital city of Edinburgh, she has lived abroad in Barcelona, Montpellier, New York City and London in amongst touring other parts of the world as far afield as China, Thailand and South America. That said, her music has its own life now and is being played by thousands of fans all over the world from Australia to Japan.
With such a broad range of musical talent as a performer and composer she defies certain musical boundaries.
Her harp playing has been described as “the sound of four instruments at once” and also as ranging from “Celtic to Electric, taming each instrument of its own individual sounds, with the lightest of touch or with the vitality of a rock star”: She proved this with her collaboration with the Indie-rock band, Band of Horses.
Her albums within the last decade have already had great success. Aibhlin McCrann described her first, “Winged Spirit,” as “a young prodigy and a creative force worthy of our attention”, while Catriona Black in the Gaelic Music column said of “Lammermuir” that it was: “Full of sparky originality and sends a tingle up your spine”.
“Dancing Hands”, her third album was produced after receiving an award from the Scottish Arts Council. Michael Moll of Folkworld hailed it as an outstanding album, which demonstrated “the full depth of musicianship… Exciting music, with a lot of variety, yet rounded with a clear thread running throughout: an album of the highest caliber”.
Phamie’s first solo piano album, “Moments of Time”, broke away from the longstanding respect she had achieved in her role as a versatile, highly innovative and modern harpist and established her firmly as a pianist and composer of extraordinary quality and depth. Alexander Bryce of The Scotsman stated that it was “laced with emotion, lyricism and an underlying sense of peace” while describing her fifth album, “La Vida Buena – The Good Life”, which returned again to the harp and voice, as “showing a masterful gift and talent as a solo harpist, singer and composer. The sheer breadth and variety of her albums and the consistency of her success is reflected in her live performances to an even brighter degree”.
Phamie Gow is at ease and expressive in her live performances. She has collaborated with artists such as Philip Glass at the Carnegie Hall. She was invited to play for HH Dalai Lama at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh on his first visit to Scotland, and the sell-out performance received a five star review from The Scotsman. She has also worked with artists such as Galician instrumentalist Carlos Nunez (Jimi Hendrix of the pipe world), celtic fiddler Ashley MacIsaac (Canada’s Celtic super star and platinum disc award winner) and singer Marisa Monte (pop legend of Brazil).
”A young woman who brings a vivid imagination to her writing, Gow pours herself into a performance, balancing the ethereal and philosophical content with a determined, earthy and engaging attack”
Rob Adams
The Herald
“As a Harpist she has been described as ‘A virtuoso who can tickle and glide across the strings just as majestically as Harpo Marx once did, her enthralling and slightly unnerving music was enough to give even Mike Oldfield goosebumps.’”
Barry Gordon
The Evening News – The Scotsman
Phamie has toured much of Europe, Canada, and South America and starred in the sell out Broadway show ‘Tapeire’ in NYC with the world’s fastest tap dancer.
She is quickly becoming a house hold name, and often performs in festivals around the world, like in Paraguay and China where she had 20,000 people at her first performance, covered by National Chinese TV.
As a teenager she studied under the late concert pianist and composer, Ronald Stevenson, before doing a degree in Scottish Music at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD), alongside contemporaries such as actor, James McAvoy. Phamie was already being commissioned to score the music for theatre productions, small films, and performances during her studies.
As a composer, Gow has had numerous commissions including writing for animations, short films, dance and theatre companies.
2020 is starting with a new collaboration with Phamie and the RSNO (Royal Scottish National Orchestra) performing the symphonic version of Lammermuir in The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall as part of Celtic Connections.