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)
Alan Brown was born and raised less than half a mile from where the present day Wighton Library stands and Dundee has been a major influence on his career to date. Exiled from the city since 1970 he is difficult to pigeonhole: singer, songwriter, musician, composer, novelist, journalist, after dinner speaker, playwright, poet, standup, tour guide, and is probably best summed up as – an entertainer! After thirty years performing professionally in Scotland and overseas, it was the Wighton which hosted his first ever solo appearance in his hometown and we are delighted to welcome him back. Expect a varied programme of award-winning songs and stories, brand new material and a few surprises.
Sheena Wellington is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting on Wednesday 3rd December at 1.15pm (link open from 1.05pm) with singer Alan Brown
On Wednesday 6th October at 1.15pm, Friends of Wighton will be delighted to present on Zoom the wonderful Robyn Stapleton, one of the finest singers of her generation. The reviewers have raved:-
‘Rich, characterfully lilting, warm and clear’ The List
Robyn is an award-winning singer and song leader who shares her talent and passion for traditional music with audiences and communities throughout Scotland and internationally.
‘Her warm sweet voice has a depth and colour that belies her youthfulness’ fROOTS
Don’t miss it – link below
Sheena Wellington is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
And to kick off the new season we have Choras. Harmony singing trio Choras are Aileen Carr, Janice Reavell, and Barbara Dymock. Each is a much loved and respected traditional singer in her own right and together they excel. A concert with this acappella trio with their superb harmonies, eclectic selection of songs and sense of fun is not to be missed!
Barbara Dymock is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Choras
Mezzo-soprano and musicologist Dr Sally Garden hails from an Angus farming family, and is the youngest of four professional musician siblings. She has a special interest in Scots and Scandinavian song and is founder of the Grieg Society of Scotland. Her recital and research work, which has seen her tour the castles, kirks and concert halls of Scotland, has also taken her to Norway, Denmark and Germany.
Sally is a member of the Walter Scott Minstrelsy Project (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz), a former Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Scandinavian Studies (University of Aberdeen), and earlier in her career was appointed Historical Musician in Residence at the Wighton Heritage Centre, Dundee, where she directed a 3-year programme of events to unfold one of Scotland’s finest music archives. In 2009, she pioneered the first ever live music event at the National Library of Scotland, with an invited lecture-recital on Scottish-Scandinavian musical links, entitled Hu, Hei, Duncan Gray! Sally is also editor of the complete songs of Aberdonian composer Ronald Center
Wighton Heritage Centre, Central Library, Wellgate, Dundee DD1 1DB:
Wednesday 7th September, 1.15pm – 1.45pm
Lunchtime Recital with Iona Fyfe:
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.
Growing up in Huntly within the Traditional Music and Song Association of Scotland movement, Iona is a fine exponent of Doric poetry as well as Traditional Ballads and Bothy Ballads. Singing at numerous national competitions, she has won a number of prestigious titles such as Best Female Singer both at Aberdeen TMSA 2016 and Buchan Heritage Society 2016. Iona’s sensitivity for ballads is what led her to be awarded 100/100 marks for her Traditional Song, Bonny Udny at The Buchan Heritage Society 2016 – an unprecedented mark in solo Traditional Ballad competitions.
“Iona’s voice displays incredible confidence and maturity… Even without accompaniment, Iona’s voice is as finely tuned, precise and eminently enjoyable an instrument as you’ll find… Utterly haunting.” – Folk Radio UK
BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award 2015 Semi-Finalist, Iona Fyfe, has become one of Scotland’s finest young ballad singers who, at 18 years old, continues to embrace and promote the repertoire and language of Aberdeenshire throughout the UK and further afield.
Iona’s first EP The First Sangs was released in March 2015 and debut band EP was released in July 2016. https://itun.es/gb/C0aQ5
For the first Cappuccino concert of 2016, Simon Chadwick will be in the Wighton Centre playing a selection of historical Scottish clarsach music using the beautiful decorated replica of the medieval “Queen Mary” harp.
The event will be held in the Wighton Centre, upstairs in Dundee Central Library. Doors open at 10.30am when coffee and newspapers are served, and the music will run for an hour starting at 11am.
Simon will play a selection of tunes associated with the famous medieval harp, from medieval variation-sets traditionally associated with the Lords of the Isles, who may have commissioned the Queen Mary harp in the medieval Hebrides, through to 18th century airs once played on the Queen Mary harp by the Robertsons of Lude, when it was preserved by them at their house near Blair Atholl in Perthshire in the early 1700s.
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
