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Far North Retreats

INSPIRING TUTORS - EPIC LOCATION - FINE FOOD - MIGHTY CRAIC

THE RETREATS 2020

Smallpipes, Song & Mixed Instrument

31st May - 4th June

Tutors: Fin Moore, Gary West, Fiona Hunter, Jenny Sturgeon, Mike Vass

Fiddle, Smallpipes & Mixed Instrument

5th - 9th June

Tutors: Sarah Hoy, Iain Macfarlane, Gary West, Fin Moore, Ingrid Henderson

Cost: £280 (16 hours tuition, lunch & dinner, concerts, sessions & ceilidhs)

Accomodation: There is limited accommodation at the venue and various types of accommodation in the village of Durness. A free bus is put on each evening to and from the village.

Payment & cancellations: It costs nothing to register for a place. A non refundable deposit of £80 will be requested in the weeks following your registration with the balance of £200 to be paid by March 2020. In the event of a cancellation your balance payment will be refunded if your place can be re-sold.

NB: Teaching will be on smallpipes in A. All teaching will be by ear but manuscript also provided.

THE RETREATS

TUTORS

TUTORS 2020

MIKE VASS

2020

Mike Vass is one of the most creative forces on the Scottish music scene. As a musician, composer, producer and arranger Vass has amassed a body of work that encompasses early appearances as a livewire young fiddler, collaborations with many of the leading voices among today’s Scots and Gaelic tradition bearers, delivering multi-media performances, overseeing critically acclaimed recordings, and scoring for prestigious ensembles.

INGRID HENDERSON 2020

Ingrid was the youngest ever recipient of the Radio 2 Young Traditional Musician of the Year award, winning it at the tender age of thirteen and since then has cemented her position as one of the finest instrumentalists in Scotland today, playing with the likes of Gaelic supergroup Cliar, Blazin’ Fiddles and more recently with Margaret Stewart & the Glenfinnan Ceilidh Band. She is principal harp tutor at the National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music and until recently lectured on the BA Gaelic and Music at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Isle of Skye. She is also much in demand as a Musical Director having worked on various BBC Alba television projects including the flagship Hogmanay Show, Ceilidh na Bliadhn’ Ùire.

FIN MOORE 2017 - 2020

FinFin Moore is a piper, born & bred. He plays the Highland pipes, Border pipes and Scottish Small Pipes and makes all of the above at his workshop in Dunkeld.

Fin has gained a great reputation as a teacher. Teaching at the Gaelic College in Cape Breton for four seasons, the Lowland and Border Pipers’ Society annual weekend in Melrose and at The Piper’s Gathering, Vermont and other international schools. He has performed at the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow, Celtic Colours in Cape Breton, the Edinburgh International Festival and the William Kennedy Piping Festival, Armagh, as well as numerous appearances around the world.

GARY WEST 2017 - 2020

Gary West initially learned his piping with the Vale of Atholl Pipe Band, winning both the Scottish and European Championships, before adding bellows pipes to his repertoire in the late 1980s. He has performed on over 30 CDs, and has toured widely throughout the world. For the last 20 years, his teaching of Scottish smallpipes has been in demand throughout Europe and North America - his emphasis is on musical interpretation as well as technique, and he is comfortable teaching by ear or with written music. Either way, he will also make you sing!

SARAH HOY

2019 & 2020

Having been an enthusiastic learner at music events in her teens, it was natural for Sarah to turn to teaching. Sarah has taught and performed at Celtic Connections, Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh Fiddle Festival and featured on ‘Heat The Hoose 2’, a compilation of top Scottish fiddlers. Sarah has been a regular musician for the dance classes at Ceòlas. Although Sarah is now a primary school teacher, she continues to teach and play traditional music and is a member of the Bella McNabs Dance Band.

JENNY STURGEON

2020

Jenny Sturgeon is a singer-songwriter described as "a significant new talent" (Bright Young Folk) on the folk and acoustic scenes. Jenny's music is rich with imagery and her songs are bound together by common threads of folklore, history and the connection people have with the wild. Having trained as a biologist her enthusiasm for nature and wild places effortlessly creeps in to all of her work. Sturgeon’s songcraft is at the centre of her engaging and honest performance, with accompaniment on guitar, harmonium and dulcimer she has been described as “a wonderful singer who can change the atmosphere in the room with her affecting delivery” (Boo Hewerdine). In 2018 she was nominated as Composer Of The Year in the Scots Trad Music Awards.

IAIN MACFARLANE

2020

Born and bred in the historical West Highland village of Glenfinnan, Iain MacFarlane has been immersed in Highland music and song all his days. From a young age he received tutelage on the bagpipes and fiddle from his father, Charlie and also from famed Loch Ness-side fiddler, Donald Riddell as well as Pipe Major Evan MacRae.

The world renowned Blazin’ Fiddles ensemble was the main stay of his performing work over the past twenty years but Iain has also been involved in musical collaborations with Boys of the Lough, Phil Cunningham, Iain MacDonald and the toe-tapping Glenfinnan Ceilidh Band. Iain and Ingrid also run Old Laundry Productions, a studio and music production company based in Glenfinnan which has produced award winning albums such as Duncan Chisholm’s ‘Farrar’ and Julie Fowlis’s ‘Dual’.

FIONA HUNTER

2020

Fiona Hunter is one of Scotland’s foremost traditional singers and is fast garnering a reputation as a highly gifted song interpreter.

Fiona has been singing as part of renonwed folk song group Malinky for the best part of a decade. Her time with the group has seen them win many accolades including the prestigious Folk Band of the year award at the 2010 MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards. Fiona has also been twice nominated in the Scots Singer of the Year category at the awards.

TUTORS 2017-2019

ANNA MASSIE 2018 & 2019

Equally at home as accompanist or melody player, Anna Massie is one of Scotland’s foremost guitarists. A skilled multi-instrumentalist, she also excels on the fiddle, mandolin and tenor banjo. Renowned for her work with Blazin’ Fiddles and Mairearad Green, the past few years have also seen Anna perform with her own band, Bella Hardy, Julie Fowlis, Kate Rusby, Karen Matheson, Capercaillie and Eddi Reader. Three time nominee for Best Instrumentalist at the Scots Trad Music Awards, she is a highy talented musician.

KARINE POLWART 2018 & 2019

Five-times winner at The BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, twice for Best Original Song, her 2004 album Traces (produced by Iain Cook of Chvrches) was shortlisted for both the Scottish Album of the Year Award and BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards Album of the Year. The Guardian chose it as international folk-roots release of 2012. Her debut solo album Faultlines won Best Album at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards back in 2005, following six years of touring as a traditional Scots singer with Malinky and Battlefield Band.

SIOBAHN MILLER 2018 & 2019

Siobhan Miller is a shining star on the Scottish folk scene. Her performance focuses strongly on communicating through traditional, contemporary and self-penned song. She came to prominence as winner of the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award in 2008, which was followed by both the Hancock Horizon Award and Up and Coming Artist of the Year at the Scots Trad Music Awards in 2009. Siobhan has won her the title of Scots Singer of the Year an unprecedented three times at the BBC Alba Scots Trad Music Awards, as well as the 2018 BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Best Traditional Track.

LAUREN MacCOLL 2017 & 2018

Lauren is considered one of Scotland's most expressive fiddle players. She has won various awards as a soloist and performs with many regular projects: chamber folk quartet RANT, Salt House, the Rachel Newton trio to name but a few. As a tutor Lauren has given workshops across the country. Her passion for teaching led her to set up the Black Isle Fiddle Weekend. She teaches at RCS Junior Conservatoire, for various Feisean and privately.

DUNCAN CHISHOLM

2017

Duncan Chisholm is one of Scotland’s most recognised and accomplished fiddle players and composers. Born and brought up near Inverness in the Highlands of Scotland, Duncan has spent most of his life developing his unique musical voice. Fiddle playing at its best, Duncan’s feather-light handling of dynamics and ornamentation, allied with his pure-distilled tone, lend his characteristic spine-tingling magic to his music.