Philip Martin Cunningham, MBE (born 27 January 1960 in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

) is a Scottish folk musician and composer. He is best known for playing the accordion with Silly Wizard, as well as in other bands and in duets with his brother,

Johnny Johnny is an English language personal name. It is usually an affectionate diminutive of the masculine given name John, but from the 16th century it has sometimes been a given name in its own right for males and, less commonly, females. Varia ...

. When they played together, they would egg each other on to play faster and faster, and try, light-heartedly, to trip each other up. Phil has also collaborated with numerous other great Celtic musicians; one prominent example of this is his partnership with

Aly Bain Aly Bain MBE (born 15 May 1946) is a Scottish fiddler who learned his instrument from the old-time master Tom Anderson. The former First Minister of Scotland Jack McConnell called Bain a "Scottish icon." Career Bain was born in the town of ...

. The duo have (as of 2020) released nine albums, and between 1989 and 2019 they had a yearly spot at the New Year's Hogmanay Live broadcast on BBC Scotland.

Biography

Cunningham played

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a ree ...

and

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

from a young age. He attended school in Portobello, and was raised

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into se ...

, attending church regularly and playing organ. However, by age fifteen due to issues with

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

he left, and now describes himself as a spiritualist. At the age of 16, he left school and joined his older brother

in the group Silly Wizard, where he sang and played accordion, tin whistle, harmonium,

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

, and

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

. He also wrote many of the group's songs. After the breakup of Silly Wizard, Phil and Johnny recorded two albums and toured with Irish siblings

Mícheál Ó Domhnaill Mícheál Ó Domhnaill (; 7 October 1951 – 7 July 2006) was an Irish singer, guitarist, composer, and producer who was a major influence on Irish traditional music in the second half of the twentieth century. He is remembered for his innovativ ...

and Triona Ni Domhnaill as the quartet Relativity. Phil has since had a successful solo career, releasing the solo albums ''Airs & Graces'' and ''The Palomino Waltz'' and producing albums with Aly Bain, Mark Knopfler, Dolores Keane, Altan, Connie Dover and Kris Drever. In more recent years, Phil has also composed classical music and music for theatre and television, with 1997 seeing the premiere of his ''Highlands and Islands Suite'' at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. In 2002, Phil was appointed MBE for services to Scottish music. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters, at

Glasgow Caledonian University Glasgow Caledonian University ( gd, Oilthigh Chailleannach Ghlaschu, ), informally GCU, Caledonian or Caley, is a public university in Glasgow, Scotland. It was formed in 1993 by the merger of The Queen's College, Glasgow (founded in 1875) and G ...

's graduation ceremony on 27 November 2007.

Discography

Solo albums

*''Airs & Graces'' (1983) *''Palomino Waltz'' (1989)

Silly Wizard

*''

Caledonia's Hardy Sons ''Caledonia's Hardy Sons'' is the second album by Silly Wizard originally released in the U.K. on Highway Records in 1978, and in the U.S. in 1980 on the Shanachie label. Track listing #"Mo Chuachag Laghach (My Kindly Sweetheart)" (02:26) #"Th ...

'' (1978) *''So Many Partings'' (1980) *''Wild and Beautiful'' (1981) *''Kiss the Tears Away'' (1983) *''A Glint of Silver'' (1986) *''Live Wizardry'' (1988)

Relativity

*''Relativity'' (1986) *''Gathering Pace'' (1987)

With Johnny Cunningham

*''Against the Storm'' (1980)

With Aly Bain

*''The Pearl'' (1995) *''The Ruby'' (1997) *''Another Gem'' (2000) *''Spring The Summer Long'' (2003) *''Best of Aly and Phil'' (2004) *''Roads Not Travelled'' (2006) *''Portrait'' (2010) *''Five and Twenty'' (2012) *''No Rush'' (2020)

With Connie Dover

*''Somebody'' (1991) *''The Wishing Well'' (1994) *''If Ever I Return'' (1997) *''The Border of Heaven'' (2000)

With Kris Drever

*''Mark the Hard Earth'' (2010)

With Mark Knopfler

*'' Privateering'' (2012)

References

External links

Official web siteBBC Scotland TV series website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cunningham, Phil 1960 births Living people Members of the Order of the British Empire Musicians from Edinburgh Scottish folk musicians Former Latter Day Saints People educated at Portobello High School Relativity (band) members Silly Wizard members 21st-century accordionists Tin whistle players 21st-century flautists