Catriona Macdonald is a musician and teacher from

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the ...

and is considered to be one of the world's leading traditional fiddle players.

Background

Macdonald started studying fiddle with Dr

Tom Anderson Thomas Anderson (born November 8, 1970) is an American technology entrepreneur and co-founder of the social networking website Myspace, which he founded in 2003 with Chris DeWolfe. He was later president of Myspace and a strategic adviser ...

MBE in 1981 at age 11 (she considers herself to be a late starter), was a founding member of

Shetland's Young Heritage Heritage Fiddlers (or Shetland's Heritage Fiddlers) is a group of Shetland fiddle players, originally formed in 1981 under the guidance of the late Dr Tom Anderson MBE, who put the group together from the young pupils that he tutored. The group wa ...

and won the Shetland Young Fiddler of the Year competition in 1983. In 1992 Macdonald won the BBC Radio Two Young Tradition Award and went on to study voice for four years at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

in London. She lives in Scotland and focuses both on an her international music playing and an academic career . Macdonald is an active teacher with a passion for sharing her knowledge of traditional fiddle techniques and

vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...

. Professionally she is Head of Music Performance and Degree Program Director for British Folk at Newcastle University as well a Doctoral candidate. Catriona has worked as a tutor and course assessor for the Scottish Music Degree at th
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
in Glasgow, and has taught at Universities in Norway, Ireland, Denmark, Canada and Australia as well as Stirling and Highlands and Islands in Scotland. Catriona regularly tutors at a variety of summer schools and residential courses around the world including "Burwell Bash", "Shetland Fiddle Frenzy", "Folkworks" and "Blazin' in Beauly" ( Blazin' Fiddles' own summer school). Catriona tours and performs at many International Festivals such as Celtic Colours,

Kaustinen Folk Music Festival Kaustinen Folk Music Festival ( fi, Kaustisen kansanmusiikkijuhlat), celebrated yearly in July in Kaustinen, Finland, is the biggest folk music and dance festival in the Nordic countries. It was first celebrated in 1968. The festival originated ...

Celtic Connections The Celtic Connections festival started in 1994 in Glasgow, Scotland, and has since been held every January. Featuring over 300 concerts, ceilidhs, talks, free events, late night sessions and workshops, the festival focuses on the roots of tra ...

and many others As well as her own band, Macdonald currently plays with international members of fiddle band

String Sisters String Sisters (or The String Sisters) are a folk supergroup made up of six of the world's leading female fiddlers. History Formation In January 1998 at the world-renowned Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow, Scotland, Shetland fiddler Catr ...

(

Annbjørg Lien Annbjørg Lien (born 15 October 1971) is a Norwegian musician, playing the hardingfele (Hardanger fiddle), violin, and nyckelharpa. Career She first came to national prominence in 1986. Shortly afterwards got a recording deal with the Heilo la ...

, Liz Knowles

Liz Carroll Liz Carroll (born September 19, 1956) is an American fiddler and composer. She is a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellowship Award. Carroll and collaborator Irish guitarist John Doyle were nominated for a ...

, Emma Härdelin and

Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh (; born 26 July 1959) is an Irish fiddler and the lead vocalist for the Irish folk music band Altan, which she co-founded with her late husband Frankie Kennedy in 1987. Today, Mairéad is recognised as a leading exponent ...

) as well as touring in duo with

and also

Timo Alakotila Timo Alakotila is a Finnish composer, arranger, and musician born 15 July 1959. Career Timo Alakotila's range of music styles stretches from Finnish folk music of the '' pelimanni'' style over some jazz influences to more or less Finnis ...

. She has been a member of The Unusual Suspects and was a member of Scottish fiddle band Blazin' Fiddles until 2011.

Discography

Solo albums

* 2000 — Bold * 2007 — Over the Moon

Groups and collaborations

* 1994 Opus Blue (with Ian Lowthian) * 1998 Hodden Grey Ian Bruce * 2001 A Shot at Glory soundtrack (with Mark Knopfler) * 2004 The Old Style (Blazin Fiddles) * 2005 Magnificent Seven (Blazin Fiddles) * 2005 Live in Scotland The Unusual Suspects * 2006 Strange But True Kathryn Tickell * 2007 Blazin' Fiddles Live (Blazin Fiddles) * 2007 Live - String Sisters * 2008 Stramash Colin Steele * 2010 Big Like This The Unusual Suspects * 2011 Thursday Night in the Caley (Blazin Fiddles) * 2013 Vamm (Vamm - Patsy Reid, Catriona Macdonald and Marit Fält) * 2017. Between Wind and Water (String Sisters)

Awards

1992

BBC Radio Two BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...

Young Tradition Award for Best Musician in Britain Polls 2001 "Top 5 World Music Albums of the Year" fRoots Magazine 2001 "Top 10 Folk Albums of the Year 2000" MOJO Magazine 2001 (Folk Album of the Month, April 2000) MOJO Magazine 2001 Recognised artist "Album of the Year and Musician of the Year" BBC2 Folk Awards 2001 (Included in the released compilation cd The Folk Awards on Topic records) "Scottish Folk Album of the Year" CD NOW Scottish Traditional Music Awards' 2004 Live Band (Blazin Fiddles) 2005 Album of the Year (Blazin Fiddles)

References

External links

Official MySpace page

Catriona Macdonald profile
at

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macdonald, Catriona People from Shetland Scottish folk musicians Shetland music Shetland fiddlers Living people Blazin' Fiddles members String Sisters members 21st-century violinists Year of birth missing (living people)