The Lunchtime Recital on Wednesday 2nd February, 1.15pm -1.45pm will be given by mother and daughter duo MoragAnne Elder and Elisabeth Flett, playing fiddles and singing a selection of tunes to do with winter and the North.
Both, of course, are long time friends of the Wighton, MoragAnne currently running the mixed instruments class and Essa who has grown up coming to Wighton classes and whose musical career we follow with great interest and pride.
Essa is taking part in the Danny Kyle Open Stage online at the end of the month – her slot is on January 31st at 5pm on Celtic Radio and you can listen in here: https://www.celticmusicradio.net
For our last concert of 2021 Friends of Wighton can’t provide the usual mincepies and chocolates but we are offering a very special pre-Christmas Zoom treat! Our guests are the award-winning traditional singer Shona Donaldson and the far-famed Tarland fiddler Paul Anderson MBE.
Shona Donaldson grew up in Huntly in a musical family, learning the fiddle and attending traditional music festivals including Strichen and Keith. As well as picking up the usual song repertoire, Shona also learned from bothy ballad singers like Jock Duncan and Geordie Murison. Soon, to the delight of her mentors she was winning prizes in the normally male–dominated bothy ballad world.
In 2015, Shona became the first woman to win the coveted Bothy Ballad Champion of Champions title to add to her 2009 Scots Singer of the Year award. She is also an accomplished songwriter.
Paul Anderson MBE is widely regarded as the finest fiddle player of his generation. Having found, at age five, an old French violin under the spare bed in his grandparents’ house, he has gone on from there to win all the major fiddle prizes including the Glenfiddich Scottish Fiddle Championship.
Paul has toured extensively here and abroad and is also well-known as a composer with over 300 works including many for film, television and theatre. His 8 solo albums and over 40 album with other musicians have received international acclaim.
Since lockdown began the couple, who recently celebrated their 14th wedding anniversary, have produced 86 “Live from the Lounge” shows from the Tarland home they share with sons Hector and Roderick. These can be checked out on Paul’s Facebook page.
Sheena Wellington is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Lunchtime Recital with Shona Donaldson, traditional singer, and Paul Anderson MBE, fiddle
Wednesday 1st December 1.15pm – 1.45pm (Zoom available from 1pm)
For the Friends of Wighton July Lunchtime Recital, we are delighted to welcome well known musician and researcher ROSA MICHAELSON
Rosa will give us an illustrated talk about James S. Kerr, who published the popular fiddle collections of Merry Melodies. In the past 12 months she has been doing research on musical life in Scotland in the second half of the 19th century, focusing on Kerr and dance music. She presented this at the online North-Atlantic Fiddle Convention at the end of June .
Rosa Michaelson was taught the violin at primary school in Edinburgh in the 1960s using the Eta Cohen method, with its repertoire of folk tunes. In secondary school, her violin teacher gave her a copy of Kerr’s Merry Melodies to study, and she played for ceilidhs and in several orchestras. Rosa joined the Edinburgh Shetland Fiddlers in the 1970s and was a founder member of the first all-female Scottish traditional music group, Sprangeen. She has been in several ceilidh/dance bands, including the Loose Moose Ceilidh Band. She regularly contributes to sessions in Edinburgh and Fife. Rosa is an Honorary SL at the University of Dundee; she works p/t in the School of Computer Science, St Andrews University.
Sheena Wellington is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Gavin Marwick and Ruth Morris: Wednesday 21st April 2021 1.15pm – 1.45pm
Spirited fiddle and beautiful nyckelharpa bring you a wonderful selection of old and new tunes for all around Scotland and Europe. Gavin Marwick and Ruth Morris have been performing together for over fifteen years in bands such as Bellevue Rendezvous, Gav’s various Journeyman shows and their Galloway based ceilidh band Whirligig. The duo is a new and exciting way to enjoy their intimate and engaging acoustic string driven sound.
The link for the video below will be live from 1.15pm on 21st April
Frigate Unicorn, Dundee 3rd January, 2019, 6pm – 10pm A Guid New Year
Family Ceilidh for all ages to end the Festive Period
All Star line-up includes Robert Lovie, singer, raconteur Sheena Wellington, singer Kyle Howie, piper House Band featuring Alan Small, Karen Hannah & Kyle Innes
Tickets £10 adults, £5 children, £20 family (price includes welcome drink and stovies)
For tickets and more information 01382 200900 mail@frigateunicorn.org
The Friends of Wighton group will welcome the Scottish Traditional Music Awards to Dundee by inviting visiting and local music lovers to take a close-up look at the fascinating Wighton Collection and enjoy a live music sessionat the same time.
The Centre will be open from 2pm to 5pm on Friday 4th December and from 10am -12.15pm on Saturday 5th December. Books will be on display and Wighton tutors and committee members will be there to sing, play and answer questions!
The Wighton Heritage Centre was opened on 24th November 2003. Located upstairs in Dundee Central Library, it provides a dedicated space for the storage and display of the internationally important Wighton Collection. 700 volumes of old Scottish music were collected together in the early 19th century by Dundee merchant Andrew Wighton, and were bequeathed to the city after his death.
The Wighton books with other donations and acquisitions, are now kept in glass-fronted bookcases in the Wighton Centre. The Centre also acts as a bright, atmospheric performance and study centre, allowing scholars to access the riches of the collection, and providing a lovely performance space for music and other events.
As well as a monthly Cappuccino Concert, and a free Wednesday lunchtime recital every month, the Friends of Wighton run classes in traditional Scottish music every week: Scots song, Gaelic song, fiddle, whistle and clarsach (Scottish harp).
The Friends also work towards the conservation and cataloguing of the collection of books, and have made some important acquisitions to add to the collection. They are currently fundraising to conserve rare music books from the collection of Sir Jimmy Shand and visitors will be able to contribute. Jimmy’s musical taste was exemplary, as shown by the lovely 18th and 19th century manuscripts in his collection. Rumour has it that one or two of the Shand books, currently not on public display, might make an appearance at the Open Days!
Last Monday, the Wighton Centre was turned into a recording studio by recording enginner Bob Turner, to record some tracks for the forthcoming limited edition CD produced by the Friends of WIghton as part of the fundraising for the Sir Jimmy Shand Collection.
Tracks were recorded from Mark Spalding playing a Ronald Stevenson composition on the harpsichord, the Wighton Singers, Ellie McDonald reading poetry, Simon Chadwick playing the replica Queen Mary harp, and Morag Anne Elder on the fiddle with Katie playing cello.
At least two of the tracks are the first ever recordings (the harpsichord and harp track). Other tracks are being recorded at Gardyne Studios, and also some tracks will be donated by other artists from their published CDs.
If you missed claiming the CD as a perk on our Indiegogo crowdfunding last month, you will still be able to buy your copy when the strictly limited edition is released.
The Lunchtime Recital at Wighton Heritage Centre, Central Library, Wellgate Centre, Dundee, on Wednesday 4th February, will feature well-known local fiddle teacher Morag Anne Elder & 17 year old Joanna Stark.
The Tayport duo will brighten a winter day with Music for the Season played on fiddle, cello and guitar.
Yesterday, the song and instrument classes joined together for their famous annual Christmas party. We listened to Gaelic songs, Scots songs, fiddle, whistle and clarsach tunes, as well as a piano piece and some unexpected extras!
Here’s a couple of photos. Classes restart on Saturday 10th January (Scots Song on Tuesday 13th).
