Deborah Shaw
Performer (individual)
Aurora Engine / Deborah Shaw is a composer, songwriter harpist and pianist living and working in Scotland. He EP ‘The Road to Mordor its on general release and she recently received funding from CREATIVE SCOTLAND to record and release an album due in 2022. Live performances bring harps, loops, effect pedals, vocals and synths, woven together to create ethereal sounds. Lyrics can be heartfelt or comic, music can be multi-layered or simply a voice and a harp.
Combining acoustic instruments with electronic manipulation has developed into a trademark sound of Aurora Engine. Her new album explores this sound further marrying it with story and song, introducing a range of troubled narrators, and delivered in Shaw’s ‘Pit Yacker’ North-Eastern dialect. As a producer she will also take lead role in the production of the new work.
A recent exciting collaboration with Chris Watson Sound Engineer took a road into field recordings, capturing harp sounds in the wild, sounds which will on the the new album.
Working as a film composer, Shaw has written 3 film scores over the last 2 years, ‘Down The Rabbit Hole’ (Available on Amazon Prime) for SPIRAL OUT PICTURES with and two other productions due for release in 2022 HOT ACHES PRODUCTIONS and CINETOPIA
Funded by FILMHUB SCOTLAND in partnership with CINETOPIA Shaw developed ‘Electric Muses’ a live scoring event celebrating women using technology as part of their creative practise, live scoring a 1920’s film by female Surrealist director Germaine Dulac. This screening will tour UK cinemas in 2022.
Shaw’s work explores dark themes of grief, loss, and reflects on her journey into single motherhood, and the loss of creative voice .
Contact email
Works
| Title | Year composed | Instrumentation Genre |
|---|---|---|
| It's In The Trees | -2 | Solo instrument |
Events
| Date | Title | Venue |
| 8 Aug 2022, 4 p.m. | 'It's In The Trees' | The Jazz Bar, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK |
| 9 Aug 2022, 4 p.m. | 'It's In The Trees' | The Jazz Bar, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK |
| 11 Aug 2022, 4 p.m. | 'It's In The Trees' | The Jazz Bar, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK |
| 12 Aug 2022, 4 p.m. | 'It's In The Trees' | The Jazz Bar, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK |
| 15 Aug 2022, 4 p.m. | 'It's In The Trees' | The Jazz Bar, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK |
Upcoming events
- 12 Oct 2026, 12:30
[Composers' Coffee Club: online coffee chat for composers & musicians] - 22 Oct 2026, 18:00
[Neil Smith: Try Try Try (soundfestival 2026)] - 28 Oct 2026, 18:00
[Composing for Media - NMS Peer to Peer session 3] - 29 Oct 2026, 19:30
[BBC SSO: Enrico Chapela's 'Antiphaser' (Concerto for electric violin and orchestera)] - 30 Oct 2026, 18:00
[James Weeks: weatherworld quartets (soundfestival 2026)]
Recent updates
Works
- Les Mélodies Nutritives, by Julien Lonchamp
- Sòlás Collective - Improvised, by Tom Macfadyen
- Quartet no 6 (Ma), by Matthew Whiteside
Events
- Composing for Media - NMS Peer to Peer session 3
- Neil Smith: Try Try Try (soundfestival 2026)
- James Weeks: weatherworld quartets (soundfestival 2026)
Projects
- Pete Stollery conducts Joe Stollery premiere
- Aides... mémoires... Project album launch
- On a Wing and a Prayer
Opportunities
- Red Note Factory Weekend – 17 & 18 October 2026
- Noisy Nights – Call for Scores
- Nordic Music Days 2027: Call for Works
