Mairi Campbell was born and raised in Edinburgh, attended local schools and had violin lessons with Miss Gavin, until she changed to viola aged 11 to form a string quartet with her three sisters. Playing Elgar’s Serenade for Strings at the Edinburgh competitive festival in 1976 was the highlight for the Campbell String Quartet! Mairi was 11 years old and her little sister Sarah was only 8 years.

She finished school at Broughton’s City of Edinburgh Music school having studied with Michael Beeston of the Edinburgh String Quartet. Four years at the Guildhall School of music and living in a commune in Bethnal Green provided a good balance and a rich learning environment in and out of music.

Her time in London was hugely influenced by her viola teacher, Csaba Erdelyi, MPCS, a course new to classical musicians at that time, which encouraged the musicians to do workshops in the ‘community’, learn about improvisation and generally come out of the concert hall and into the real world...