In an inspiring session at the City of Edinburgh Music School on Wednesday (11 November 2026), Malin Lewis told pupils that one of the things their time studying the music of school alumnus Martyn Bennett had taught them was that good music should not be restricted by genre. Martyn spent much of his career as if no musical boundaries existed, an attribute that can be traced back to his eclectic education.
Malin is the first musician to visit the school under the auspices of the Soundhouse Winter Festival, and chose to talk about the influence the late musician and composer has had on them. From an early age Malin listened to Martyn Bennett’s music and soon realised that there was more to piping that entering competitions where every gracenote should be played ‘just so’.
In fact the more Malin learned about Martyn the more inspiring the late piper became. Although learning piping at his grandfather’s knee from a very early age and steeped in the tradition, Martyn Bennett had entered the City of Edinburgh Music School at a time when it wasn’t possible to join as anything other than a classical musician. He auditioned on violin and piano at the age of 13, becoming an accomplished classical player by the time he left the school.
Martyn Bennett became famous for being one of the finest pipers of his generation, for his reverence for Scotland’s traditional music, but also for making this music his own. He was a pioneer of using the dance beats of the 1990s to bring the pipes to a whole new audience, paving the way for many of the bands who came after him.
Bennett saw each style of music he played or sampled as of equal value, blurring the boundaries and eliminating the need for genre to be used to define or evaluate it.
Malin also talked about making their own pipes, something they have been doing since the age of 14. The school pupils were fascinated by how these pipes had a greater range than traditional pipes and enjoyed a demonstration of how overtones can be reproduced using throat singing techniques.
The session ended with an awe-inspiring short recital from Malin on their hand made pipes, neatly demonstrating the range of the instrument, their compositional ability and how they had taken inspiration from Bennett and others to make their a sound that was very much their own.
Martyn Bennett attended the City of Edinburgh Music School as a teenager. He released seven albums and toured all over the world in the 1990s and early 2000s. He died in 2005 at the age of 33. His influence amongst pipers and musicians across Scotland and beyond cannot be overstated. Read more about Martyn here »
Malin Lewis is playing the closing concert of the Soundhouse WInter Festival on Monday 30 November 2026. Get your tickets here »