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Heather McClelland

From performing with her family at an Irish busking festival aged six, to appearing with her vocal harmony trio The Sugar Sisters on Radio 2 and at the Royal Albert Hall, Heather McClelland's whole life has involved music and singing. 

Raised in an alternative background which included Irish and West African musical influences, as well as several years spent travelling the country with her family in a converted postal van, her teenage years saw her love of Simon & Garfunkel and Crosby, Stills and Nash create an obsession with vocal harmonies that lasted through her university years, as well as the three years she spent in Brazil, studying music and performing with some of Brazil's leading musicians. Finding her own musical interests leading to a more folk and electronic-influenced style, she stripped back her instrumentation and experimented with vocal harmonies, developing an atmospheric and ethereal sound brought together by her uniquely pure-toned and fragile voice.

At the same time, she has always combined her creative practice as a singer and composer with work in outreach settings. Over the years she has led community choirs, worked with refugees & asylum seekers, taught young people with EBD and SEN and worked as a musician in clinical settings. This led to her current work as musician in residence at Great Ormond Street Hospital and at the Royal Brompton Hospital, where as the lead artist for the paediatric music programme Vocal Beats, she has pioneered the use of beatboxing and vocal percussion for young people in a healthcare setting.