[scots-l] [Fwd: [START] Merry Christmas! Good news from Fife!]

[Toby Rider]

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Fife’s Traditional Musicians in Schools start on a high note Fife’s Traditional Musicians in Schools project has proved a great success in its first term with residencies in three Secondary Schools and one-off workshops elsewhere. Singer and piper Maggie Anderson packed a great deal - big ballads, mining songs, contemporary folk music, dance, performance and composition - into the short stint she had at Lochgelly High School before leaving to take up a full time post at New Lanark. Her place was taken by singer and flautist Catriona Chisholm who has three first year classes, a double Higher class, and one very talented piper doing double Advanced Higher. The wide range means that Catriona is covering everything from learning songs and tunes by ear and teaching penny whistle to working on advanced arrangements for pipes and other instruments. Catriona, whose family home is in Wormit, is thoroughly enjoying being at Lochgelly High School. "The kids are wonderful, some particularly keen to sing Scots (it MAKES SENSE to them!) and also to sing to me what they have learnt at home, from their Grannies or at Primary. And, most importantly, the teaching staff are wonderful!" she says. Catriona and some of the Lochgelly High School pupils will also be involved in an important collecting, recording and performing project being co-ordinated by fiddle player Karen Hannah for the Fife Miners Cultural Committee. Rob Mackillop, the Tayport based internationally renowned lutenist and expert on Scottish early music, is resident at Madras College, St Andrews. There have been two workshops this term, one with Barnaby Brown who is widely regarded as a leading expert on 17th and 18th century pibroch, the other with Musician in Residence, Rob MacKillop. In the pibroch workshop Barnaby encouraged the pupils into composing their own tune based on compositional principals laid out in the 18th century canntaireachd manuscript of Colin Campbell. The pupils wrote a very uplifting piece which Barnaby wrote out for distribution to the whole pipe band. In Rob MacKillop's workshop, the pupils learned about the tradition of lute and guitar playing in Scotland over the last thousand years, and saw how elements of this tradition can be used in modern music. The role of Fife-based musicians over the centuries was emphasised. The school orchestra has been rehearsing the 'Sonata of Scots Tunes' by Crail-born composer, James Oswald. This eighteenth-century masterpiece brilliantly pulls together traditional and classical elements. The orchestra have also begun rehearsing 'The Scottish Lute Suite', an arrangement of tunes from the Scottish lute repertoire set for lute and Chamber Orchestra by Musician in Residence, Rob MacKillop. This will receive its first performance at a concert in St Andrews before Easter in a programme which will highlight the work done as part of the Residency. Rob MacKillop reports that: "The pupils and staff have given a very positive response to this ancient repertoire, and the final concert looks set to be a cracker. Scotland, and especially Fife, has such a wonderful, under-explored musical heritage. It is a delight to see young talents taking a creative interest in it." Brilliant fiddle player, Pete Clark, is currently working at St Columba’s High School, in his native Dunfermline, with his pupils eagerly looking forward to recording a CD of Scottish music in the New Year. Pete, regarded by many as the definitive interpreter of the work of Niel Gow, is an experienced performer and teacher with a string of CDs, featuring musicians as diverse as the BT Scottish Ensemble and the Gallivanters Ceilidh Band, to his credit. Events elsewhere have included a visit by the distinguished Ulster singer Len Graham to Viewforth High School, Kirkcaldy, and workshops by members of the Blazin' Fiddles group for pupils from High Schools in Glenrothes. Fife Council Arts Development’s Musicians in Schools project is supported by the Scottish Arts Council as part of the National Cultural Strategy. ref: TMS2 words: 648 Contact: Sheena Wellington, 01382 223355 Rob Mackillop:          01382 552 577. Catriona Chisholm: 01786 471649 Pete Clark:                01350 727900 Sheena Wellington Traditional Arts Development Officer Fife Council Arts, 7 Pleasance Court, Dundee DD1 5BB tel/fax 01382 223355 Sheena Wellington Traditional Arts Development Officer Fife Council Arts, 7 Pleasance Court, Dundee DD1 5BB tel/fax 01382 223355

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