Category: Gaelic song

Friends of Wighton’s autumn season

cappuccino concert, concert, dundee, Frigate Unicorn, Gaelic song, music, Scottish, traditional

Friends of Wighton’s  autumn season  kicks off with a series of great concerts featuring some of the finest singers, in both Scots and Gaelic traditions, in Scotland.  

Wighton Heritage Centre:

Cappuccino Concerts – admission £5, (tea & coffee available for small donation):      

Saturday 20th August, 11am (doors open 10.30)

Double Mod Gold Medallist Wilma Kennedy, one of Scotland’s finest Gaelic singers – and, we are proud to say,  Wighton Gaelic song tutor – with a programme which includes songs from Albyn’s Anthology, which is in the Wighton Collection.

Saturday 24th September, 11am (doors open 10.30):

Caim:

Heather Innes (vocals, bodhran) and Pauline Vallance (vocals, clasarch, flute) first played together for an impromptu song on Ciaran Dorris’ live Christmas show on Celtic Music Radio December 2013. They enjoyed working together and decided to continue if the occasion arose. It has a number of times and as well as singing in the Caim trio for concerts and festivals in the last few years, Pauline and Heather have continued to give duo concerts in Scotland and are looking forward to a tour in Ontario, Canada in May 2017.

Lunchtime Recitals – admission free, donations welcomed.

Wednesday 7th September, 1.15pm – 1.45pm:  

Iona Fyfe, singer

Iona Fyfe, from Aberdeenshire, combines modern contemporary folk music with the traditions of Scotland’s haunting traditional ballads and lively songs.  Iona has performed extensively across Scotland and Europe at festivals such as Celtic Connections, Folkest Italy, Aberdeen International Youth Festival, Dundee Celt Fest and currently studies Traditional Music at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Frigate Unicorn, Victoria Dock, Dundee:

Friday 30th September. 7.30pm

MBO Band!  – McKerron Brechin & Ó hEadhra

Fiery tunes and beautiful songs from the Gaelic and Scots tradition by three of Scotland’s finest musicians.

The Scottish trad trio of Charlie McKerron (fiddle), Sandy Brechin (piano accordion) and Brian Ó hEadhra (guitar & vocals) are three accomplished musician who draw on a wealth of tunes and songs from the Gaelic and Scots traditions.

They each are acclaimed composers in their own right. The trio have performed in Scotland and abroad and have wowed audiences with their choice of material and engaging stage performances. Each artist is also known through their work with other acclaimed acts; Charlie performs with Capercaille and Session A9; Sandy with Bùrach and the Sandy Brechin Band; Brian with Cruinn.

Sandy Brechin – “whose accordion bellows boldly blow where no box has blown before.”  – Archie Fisher
Brian Ó hEadhra – “the most vocally talented, versatile and engaging male vocalist in Gaeldom.”   – fRoots
Charle McKerron – “Fiddle wizardry”  – Stuart Morrison, The Herald

Tickets from HM Frigate Unicorn or Dundee Box Office

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Wighton Centre open days

books, clarsach, dundee, fiddle, Gaelic song, harp, harpsichord, Jimmy Shand, Karen Hannah, manuscripts, music, open day, party, Scots song, Scottish, Sheena Wellingon, Simon Chadwick, traditional, whistle

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!

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Scottish music 78s

78rpm, clarsach, concert, dundee, fiddle, Gaelic song, gramophone, piano, pipes, Scots song, Scottish, Simon Chadwick

Scottish 78s might make you think of Jimmy Shand or Harry Lauder, but there will be nothing as obvious as that on Wednesday 1st October. Instead, Simon Chadwick will show off some rare gems from his collection of old Scottish 78rpm gramophone records.

For the free lunchtime concert in the Wighton Centre, upstairs in Dundee Central Library, Simon will crank up his 1927 HMV portable machine to play a selection of discs dating from the teens, twenties and thirties.

Featuring stars including Marjory Kennedy-Fraser at the piano, and John MacDonald of Inverness on the pipes, the programme will present beautiful early performances of Gaelic song, Scots song, fiddle, bagpipes and clarsach.

The Wighton Centre, with its collection of historic Scottish music books, is a beautiful airy venue with a lovely acoustic, and will be the perfect setting to listen to the quiet, quavering sounds coming out of the antique machine – entirely acoustic and mechanical.

The event is at 1.15pm on Wednesday 1st October, in the Wighton Centre, upstairs in Dundee Central Library. Admission is free.

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