With a varied musical appetite, Mary performs as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral harpist, and in the community. She has a passion for giving recitals that showcase the harp’s full potential, especially in rural communities, and previous solo performances include Skye Chamber Music, Isle of Arran Music, Just Festival in Edinburgh, Classic Music Live! Falkirk, Ripon Cathedral, the Bowes Museum, Music at Junction 50, Holkham Hall in Norfolk, and Hove Music Society, as well as at London’s Wigmore Hall. She has performed on recordings with Trevor Pinnock, the Gabrieli Consort and on Paul Patterson’s CD of harp works. Mary has been concerto soloist with the King’s Chamber Orchestra, Kingston Chamber Players, the Dacorum Symphony Orchestra, the Thames Consort, and St Cecilia Orchestra in Yorkshire, playing works by Handel, Debussy, Mozart and Rodrigo.
Freelance orchestral work has recently included performances with the RSNO, Scottish Opera, Royal Northern Sinfonia, the BBC Philharmonic, Opera North, the Royal Opera House, London Mozart Players, and at the Edinburgh International Festival and BBC Proms. With a passion for chamber music, Mary has enjoyed working with smaller groups such as OperaUpClose, the London Sinfonietta, King’s Chamber Orchestra and the Riot Ensemble on several occasions. She performed alongside Christopher Hogwood in a Gresham College lecture-recital, and featured several times in RAM’s Tuesday Chamber Music Series. Upcoming performances in 2026 include a European Tour with the CBSO and continued work with her newly-formed flute and harp duo with Matthew Howells. (see Howells Reid Duo)
Mary also loves bringing joy to schools, churches and hospital settings. Mary currently works with Live Music Now Scotland, having completed four years on the Live Music Now scheme in London and now leads workshops and mentors younger musicians in SEN settings, as well as giving participatory performances for adults living with dementia.
Sample programme: Music for a Summer’s Evening
Le Rappel des Oiseaux – Rameau
La Source – Albert Zabel
Les Annesses Grises sur la route d’el Azib and La Voliere Magique – Marcel Tournier
Carnival de Venise – Félix Godefroid
* INTERVAL *
Follets – Hasselmans
Suite Galactique – Caroline Lizotte
Extracts from Spiders Suite – Paul Patterson
Impromptu Op 86 – Gabriel Fauré
Repertoire also includes:
J S Bach – Partita no 1 in B flat major
Alfredo Rolando Ortiz – Los Árboles de las Mariposas (The Butterfly Trees), Un Vals para Soñar (A Waltz for Dreaming), El Pájaro Campana (The Bell Bird)
Deborah Henson-Conant – Baroque Flamenco
Félix Godefroid – Étude de Concert Op 193
trad Scots A Red Red Rose
Aram Khachaturian – Oriental Dance, Toccata
trad Welsh arr John Thomas – Watching the Wheat
Gabriel Fauré – Impromptu Op 86
Alessandro Scarlatti – Sonata in A, K113
Jean-Philippe Rameau – L’Egyptienne
Louis-Claude Daquin – Le Coucou
J S Bach – French Suite No 6 in E, BWV 817
Sophia Dussek – Sonata in C minor, Op 2, No 3
Franz Liszt – Liebesträume
Claude Debussy – Valse Romantique
Claude Debussy – Rêverie
Henriette Renié – Pièce Symphonique
J S Bach – Italian Concerto
J S Bach – Partita no. 2 in C minor BWV 826
Benjamin Britten – Suite for Harp
Mikhail Glinka / arr Balakirev – The Lark
Mikhail Mchedelov – Variations on a Theme by Paganini
Elias Parish-Alvars – Variations on Themes from Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor
Elias Parish-Alvars – Variations on Themes from Bellini’s Norma
Marcel Tournier – Images Suite
Albert Zabel – Fantasy on Themes from Gounod’s Faust
Scottish performances
12 noon, Friday 29 January 2027: Classic Music Live! Falkirk, Trinity Church
A Night at the Opera, three dates with Classical Musicians Scotland orchestra:
Sunday 12 October 2025, Newton Stewart Cinema and Theatre
Saturday 18 October 2025, Gibson Hall, Dollar
Wednesday 22 October 2025, St Andrews Hall, Crieff
1 – 2pm, Saturday 17 May 2025: Spire concert series, Glasgow
A Night at the Opera four dates with the Classical Musicians Scotland orchestra:
Sunday 13 October 2024, Crail Community Hall
Thursday 24 October 2024, North Esk Parish Church
Friday 25 October 2024, MacArts, Galashiels
Tuesday 29 October 2024, Lanark Memorial Hall
2 – 4pm, Saturday 19 August 2023, Low Parks Museum, Hamilton
12:00 to 12:45, Friday 4 November 2022, Classic Music Live! Falkirk Trinity Church
