Ewen Henderson (born 1987) is a multi-instrumentalist

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

ian from Fort William in Scotland.

Musical career

Henderson comes from a musical family, with his sisters Megan (of Breabach) and Ingrid and brother Allan (formerly of Blazin' Fiddles) in particular being musicians of renown. He started learning the fiddle at the age of five under the tutelage of Aonghas Grant Snr. Besides fiddle, Ewen regularly performs on

bagpipe Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, No ...

, penny whistle and piano. He is also fluent in

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...

and sings in the language. He has been a member of Battlefield Band (2010–2014), the Pneumatic Drills and Skipinnish but is currently most often found performing with Mànran, the band he helped found in 2010. His

singing has been aired on

BBC Alba BBC Alba is a Scottish Gaelic-language free-to-air public broadcast television channel jointly owned by the BBC and MG Alba. The channel was launched on 19 September 2008 and is on-air for up to seven hours a day. The name ' is the Scottish Gae ...

broadcasts. Since 2015, Ewen has also performed regularly with

World music "World music" is an English phrase for styles of music from non-English speaking countries, including quasi-traditional, Cross-cultural communication, intercultural, and traditional music. World music's broad nature and elasticity as a musical ...

pioneers the Afro Celt Sound System. Henderson is in high demand as a composer and created the soundtrack to the 2016 BBC Alba documentary "The Wee Govan Gadgies/ Pìobairean Beaga Bhaile Ghobhainn". and was involved in the soundtrack for ITV drama

Sanditon ''Sanditon'' is an 1817 unfinished novel by the English writer Jane Austen. In January 1817, Austen began work on a new novel she called ''The Brothers'', later titled ''Sanditon'', and completed twelve chapters before stopping work in mid-Ma ...

. He has also worked regularly as a

Musical Director A music director, musical director or director of music is a person responsible for the musical aspects of a performance, production, or organization. This would include the artistic director and usually chief conductor of an orchestra or concert ...

, including "Strì is Buaidh: Strife and Success" at 2017's

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 trad ...

festival, a show covering Gaelic political music over the last 600 years, several series' of

's Alleluia! and the opening concert of the 2022 Royal National Mòd Since 2021, Henderson has also been working as a broadcaster, notably on

BBC Radio Scotland BBC Radio Scotland is a Scottish national radio network owned and operated by BBC Scotland, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts a wide variety of programmes. It replaced the Scottish BBC Radio 4 opt-out service of the same name from 23 N ...

's Piping Sounds programme and BBC Radio nan Gàidheal's Crùnluath. These shows won the award for Trad Music in the Media at the 2024

Scots Trad Music Awards The Scots Trad Music Awards or Na Trads were founded in 2003 by Simon Thoumire to celebrate Scotland's traditional music in all its forms and create a high profile opportunity to bring the music and music industry into the spotlight of media an ...

. Ewen's most recent solo album, "Lèirsinn - Perception" was named as one of the best Folk Albums of 2024 by

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

newspaper. A keen follower of the sport

shinty Shinty () is a team sport played with sticks and a ball. It is played mainly in the Scottish Highlands and among Highland migrants to the major cities of Scotland. The sport was formerly more widespread in Scotland and even played in Northern ...

, he has played for Glasgow University Shinty Club.

Discography

With Mànran

* 2011: '' Latha Math'' (Single) * 2011: '' Mànran'' * 2013: ''The Test'' * 2017: ''An Dà Là / The Two Days'' * 2021: ''Ùrar''

With Battlefield Band

* 2011: '' Line-up'' * 2013: '' Room Enough For All''

With The Donnchadh Bàn Boys

* 2014: ''Mìorbhail nam Beann''

With Afro Celt Sound System

* 2016: ''The Source''

Solo

* 2020: ''Steall'' * 2024: ''Lèirsinn - Perception''

References

External links

Ewen Henderson Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Henderson, Ewen 1987 births Living people Shinty players Folk fiddlers Scottish folk musicians Scottish multi-instrumentalists 21st-century Scottish male singers Scottish Gaelic singers People from Fort William, Highland Battlefield Band members Mànran members 21st-century Scottish violinists