Musicians from Edinburgh

Michael Barson (born 21 April 1958) is a Scottish-born multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and composer. In a career spanning more than 40 years, Barson came to prominence in the late 1970s as the keyboard player for the band Madness.

Ian Scott Anderson (born 10 August 1947) is a British musician best known for his work as the singer, flautist, acoustic guitarist, primary songwriter, and sole continuous member of the rock band Jethro Tull. He is a multi-instrumentalist who also plays harmonica, keyboards, bass guitar, bouzouki, balalaika, saxophone and a variety of whistles. His solo work began with Walk into Light in 1983; since then he has released another five albums, including the sequel to the 1972 Jethro Tull album Thick as a Brick, titled TaaB 2: Whatever Happened to Gerald Bostock? (2012).

Morag Beaton (2 July 1926 – 1 April 2010) was a Scottish-Australian dramatic soprano who established her reputation as Turandot, a role she sang in Australia more than any other soprano to date. She also sang Tatiana (Eugene Onegin), Venus (Tannhäuser), Abigaille (Nabucco), Eboli (Don Carlos) Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana) and many other roles. Her operatic career in Australia was relatively brief, lasting only from 1965 until 1983, with a final recital at the Sydney Opera House in 1983.

Jean Redpath MBE (28 April 1937 – 21 August 2014) was a Scottish folk singer, educator and musician.

Thea Musgrave CBE (born 27 May 1928) is a Scottish composer of opera and classical music. She has lived in the United States since 1972.

Joseph Hislop (5 April 1884 – 6 May 1977) was a Scottish lyric tenor who appeared in opera and oratorio and gave concerts around the world. He sang at La Scala, Milan, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, and the Opéra-Comique, Paris, as well as forging a remarkable career in Denmark and Sweden, where he was made a Knight of the Dannebrog and a Knight of the Order of Vasa. He toured America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand on several occasions and made a large number of recordings, some of which are available on CD re-issues. Hislop is notable for having been the final teacher of the Swedish tenor Jussi Björling and for developing a number of fine British singers through his post-War work at the Guildhall School of Music and at Sadler's Wells. After retiring to Fife, he taught the Scottish baritone Donald Maxwell.

Richard Peter Gaughan (born 17 May 1948) is a Scottish musician, singer and songwriter, particularly of folk and social protest songs. He is regarded as one of Scotland's leading singer-songwriters.

Alastair Fairweather (12 June 1927 – 21 June 1993) was a British jazz trumpeter, born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Educated at the city's Royal High School and Edinburgh College of Art, Fairweather served his National Service in Egypt.
In 1949 Fairweather started a band with his school friend Sandy Brown. In 1953 the pair went south to London with Stan Greig recorded several sides for Esquire Records as the Sandy Brown and the Fairweather-Brown All-Stars. They performed at the Royal Festival Hall.
When Brown went back to Scotland to finish his architecture studies, Fairweather joined the Cy Laurie Jazz Band. From 1966 to 1968, he worked for clarinetist Acker Bilk. Following a second career as a teacher in Harrow, London, Fairweather returned to Edinburgh in 1987, where he remained and played until his death in 1993 at the age of 66.

Ronald Grant Browne ("The Voice") (20 August 1937 in Edinburgh, Lothian, Scotland) is a Scottish folk musician and songwriter, who is a founding member of The Corries.

John "Ian" Bairnson (3 August 1953 – 7 April 2023) was a Scottish musician, best known for being one of the core members of the Alan Parsons Project. He was a multi-instrumentalist, who played saxophone and keyboards, although he was best known as a guitarist. He was also known for preferring the sound of a sixpence to a plectrum. In addition to his work with Parsons, Bairnson was also a member of the band Pilot and played guitar on four Kate Bush albums, including the guitar solo on her 1978 debut single, "Wuthering Heights".