Specialist Practitioners

INDIVIDUALS

Barbour, Freeland – accordionist, music author, composer, radio and record producer

Bennett, Margaret – folk singer and ethnographic researcher

Black, Ronald (Raghnall MacilleDhuibh) – formerly Senior Lecturer in Celtic Studies at the University of Edinburgh and formerly Gaelic Editor of the Scotsman, a broadcaster, writer and researcher on Gaelic culture including pipers. His website Querndust collates articles written for the West Highland Free Press (e.g. on songs and the herring industry).

Brown, Barnaby – piper, specialist in northern triplepipe, canntaireachd, pibroch

Chadwick, Simon – early harp

Clark, Peter – fiddle, particularly Neil Gow and 18th century Scotland

Freeman, Fred – expert on the Scots song lyrics and producer of the Complete Songs of Robert Burns and The Complete Songs of Robert Tannahill with Linn Records.

Gatherer, Nigel – tutor with site hosting resources for learning traditional whistle, mandolin and uk

Green, Nick – Archaeocoustics Scotland – the ancient soundscapes of Scotland, with creative projects associated with interesting spaces

Kennedy, Mary Ann (Màiri Anna NicUalraig) – singer specialising in Gaelic repertoire both traditional and new

MacDonald, Finlay- Director of Piping at the National Piping Centre.  This link provides details of other leading piping instructors based at the Centre.  Listed with the Scottish Book Trust.

McGregor, Aaron – violinist and researcher, specialising in 17th and 18th century Scottish fiddle music

McKillop, Rob – early guitar and lute

Miller, Jo – ethnomusicologist and educator, with a particular expertise in music education and community-based traditional music, and traditional song transmission in Lowland Scotland

Robertson-Kirkland, Brianna – historical musicologist interested in singers and musical education in the eighteenth century.  Also research assoicate for the AHRC project compiling the edited collection of the complete works of Allan Ramsay.

Ross, James – pianist, composer, educator, with an exciting track record of projects that engage with Scotland’s history e.g. in collaboration with Alexander McCall Smith, a song cycle called These are the Hands that explores Scotland’s relationship with the sea and land.

Ross, James D (MBE) – singer, wind player, conductor and researcher, specialist in Scottish Renaisance choral music, and Renaissance and Baroque instrumental music.  Director of Musick Fyne, Musick Fyne Soloists, Coronach, and The Marvel of Peru. Email ross.coronach  AT  btinternet.com

Taylor, Bill – early harp performance and reconstruction via Ardival Harps

Wilkins, Frances – ethnomusicologist, with research projects investigating the role of music in the religious and social life of people living in the Northern Scotland, and the historic links through the fur trade between Scottish and Cree/Eeyou fiddle music and dance traditions in Canada.

GROUPS and PRACTIONER-LED NETWORKS

Cappella Nova – vocal ensemble founded 1982, specialising in early and contemporary Scottish music

Chamber Music Scotland – projects that celebrate chamber music’s traditions in Scotland, and explore its future. Excellent directory of current practitioners.

Concerto Caledonia – instrumental ensemble, also work with singers, to ‘bring to life the classical traditional music of Scotland’s history’.  Important and extensive list of albums of historic repertoire.

Coronach – instrumental ensemble playing Renaissance wind, string and keyboard instruments, mostly 16th century Scottish.  Colloborations with vocal ensembles The Musick Fyne Soloists and Musick Fyne.  See D James Ross, individual listings.

Cultural Connections – practitioners and educators, using drama and music to promote Scottish history (Lorna and Dave Dewar)

Dunedin Consort – baroque music specialists, performances include, but not exclusively, Scottish repertoire

Local Voices – ethnographic organisation offering to assist with projects curating community identity, with a special focus on Scots language and tradition; directed by Steve Byrne (of the folksong group Malinky), Mairi McFadyen (folklorist specialising in Scots narrative song), and Chris Wright (folklorist and ethnologist with an expertise in Scots song and ballads).

Marvel of Peru, The – instrumental ensemble playing Baroque wind, string and keyboard instruments, exploring the music of Baroque Scotland, and collaborating with vocal ensemble The Musick Fyne Soloists and Musick Fyne in larger-scale Baroque works.  See D James Ross, individual listings.

Musick Fyne and the Musick Fyne Soloists – vocal ensembles specialising in Renaissance, Baroque and modern sacred polyphony (e.g. Robert Carver).  Collaborations with instrumentalists Coronach and The Marvel of Peru.  See D James Ross, individual listings.

RareTunes – a practioner-led site with links to session recordings from folk music players

Tannahill Weavers – band formed in 1968 in Paisley, named after poet Robert Tannahill.

Scots Baroque – early music group based in Glasgow exploring intersections between Scottish early chamber music, folk, and contemporary music, played on period instruments.

Spinacino Consort, The – early music group based in Edinburgh, founded by lutenist Eric Thomas, whose performances shed light on the music of 16th and 17th century Scotland

West End Baroque – a concert series of baroque and classical msuic based in Glasgow (originally in the Drake Bar) using historically informed performance to explore new and unexplored repertoires, with links to research into Scots fiddle tunes

Wire-strung Harp – an international group of practitioners and researchers dedicated to collate research and resources relevant to the clarsach or wire-strung harp in Scotland and elsewhere.  Links for harps, repertoire, players, makers, and traditions, and social media events and conversations.