Robert Wallace Laird
Bio
“Music is a journey of the soul. For those who wish to pursue its greatest depths and secrets it can be a rewarding place of solace and peace”.
Laird attended the Ian Tomlin School Of Music in Edinburgh as a classical pianist and composer. His compositions consist of solo piano works, string quartets, piano quintets, classical electronic works and orchestral/symphonic metal works.
Laird was born in Chingola, Zambia in 1987 and lived there for eight years before moving to the Scottish Highlands, (the ancestral home of his family). He began his musical journey with Classical Piano at age nine. Learning by himself his also began working on other instruments which included the guitar and was lucky to be able to perform in bands of many genres such as, Metal, Scottish Folk, Rock, Jazz and Pop. Whilst performing numerous styles of music, Laird also began experimenting with his writing skills, utilizing elements of the many musical influences in his life.
When he left the Scottish Highlands in 2005, Laird moved to Edinburgh where he furthered his classical piano studies with Simon Coverdale at the Ian Tomlin School Of Music. He also began to refine his compositional skills under the guidance of Ken Dempster and experimented with compositional methods like MIDI and Serialism.
During Laird’s time at the Ian Tomlin School Of Music, he also performed many great piano works such as Beethoven’s Pathétique Sonata Op.13 No.8; Rachmaninoff’s Preludes, including Prelude in G Minor Op.32 No.5 and Prelude in C# minor Op.3 No.2; Liszt’s Liebestraum and many other works from numerous composers such as Copland, Debussy, Ravel, Grieg, Scriabin, Chopin, Schubert, Mozart, Scarlatti, J.S Bach and more. Playing and studying the great composers of the past has greatly influenced Laird's musical journey and life ethos. Laird has a particular affinity for Scriabin's music and he is currently working on a recorded collection of his piano works and a set of his own piano works inspired by the composer.
After finishing his Honours Degree in Piano Performance and Composition in 2011, Laird moved to Perth, Western Australia. He began to focus more on his compositions, forging his own style using the influences from the many genres he loves. Laird mostly enjoys composing classical music encompassing elements from the electronic and metal genres. His latest projects have involved players from the West Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO). Laird has also embarked on a new collection of works called, "Orchestral Epics" which encompass his love for classical music, symphonic metal and film/game scores. Laird hopes to develop this style of work further and perhaps reimagine the standard Orchestral set up for a modern audience.