 |
|
            
|
 |
Clan Currie Society to Present Benefit Concert in Stirling, Scotland "Dunkeld’s Genius" to be Performed on Saturday, October 25, 2008 The Clan Currie Society announced today they will be presenting a benefit concert at the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum in Stirling, Scotland on Saturday, October 25, 2008 at 7:30 PM. "Dunkeld’s Genius – The Music of Niel Gow and Gordon Duncan" will be performed by the 2007 Glenfiddich Scottish Fiddle Champion, Calum Pasqua accompanied by Susie Petrov. The concert will be a joint fundraiser for the Society's music scholarship program as well as the Stirling Smith Gallery & Museum.
The concert will celebrate the music of two of Dunkeld's most prominent musicians, fiddler Niel Gow (1727 – 1807) and piper Gordon Duncan (1964 – 2005). Though separated by time, both were and are considered two of the finest musicians in their respective instruments. "We are absolutely delighted to be showcasing Calum Pasqua’s incredible talent," said Robert Currie, president of the Clan Currie Society. "This evening provides an extremely rare opportunity to hear Mr. Pasqua perform as he prepares to defend his title at the 2008 Glenfiddich Scottish Fiddle Championship at Blair Castle. Clan Currie audiences are already well familiar with Susie Petrov’s amazing talent from her annual performance at our "Pipes of Christmas" concerts. We are delighted to be introducing Mr. Pasqua to our musical family."
In addition to his Glenfiddich victory in 2007, Pasqua also won the coveted title of fiddler to the Marquis of Huntly, Chief of the Clan Gordon for his performance at the 2008 Aboyne Highland Games in Scotland last month. Currie added, "It is our hope that the Gordon Chief will be able to join us in Stirling for this grand event." Admission to the concert is £10 for general admission seating, £5 for students with ID and senior citizens. Seating is limited and will be offered on a first-come, first-serve basis. For further information contact the Society at +908-273-3509 or by e-mail to clancurrie@mail.com. Next up on the Society's Calendar of Events will be a benefit performance for the NY Children's Aid Society at their 2008 Miracle on Madison fundraiser on Sunday, December 7 followed by the 10th Annual performance of "The Pipes of Christmas" on December 20 and 21. About The Clan Currie Society The Clan Currie Society is an international, non-profit cultural and educational organization, active in preserving and promoting highland heritage at Scottish Games, ethnic festivals, as well as community groups and classrooms. The Society has over 3,000 members worldwide. The organization started as a family name society in Glasgow, Scotland in 1959 to further the knowledge and appreciation of the MacMhuirich (pronounced MacVurich) bardic dynasty. The MacMhuirichs served for over 700 years as professional poets primarily to the Lords of the Isles and later to the MacDonalds of Clanranald, among other prominent Scottish families and clans. The Red Book of Clanranald, one of Gaelic Scotland’s literary treasures, was penned by successive generations of the MacMhuirich family. The Society will celebrate its 50th anniversary in Scotland next summer as part of the Homecoming 2009 initiative. Clan Currie will take part in The Gathering 2009 in Edinburgh (July 25-26) and then travel to the west of Scotland for a clan celebration featuring a community ceilidh, a clan golf tournament and a Service of Thanksgiving (July 31-August 2). About the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum Founded with the Bequest of Thomas Stuart Smith (1814 – 1869), the Stirling Smith Art Gallery & Museum opened in 1874. Built in the Italianate style and designed by John Lessels, the museum is situated within its own grounds below Stirling Castle. The Smith provides the city of Stirling with a museum service and a focus for the historical and cultural life of its people.
The original bequest includes paintings by British and European artists of the 19th century, as well as a major collection of works by Thomas Stuart Smith. The fine art collection has been enhanced by gifts, donations and purchases since 1874, and now includes work by Scottish artists from the 19th century to the present. Other aspects of the collection include Scottish and local history, archaeology, costumes, ethnography and natural history. To celebrate the 60th birthday of HRH The Prince of Wales on 14 November 2008, ten of the Royal Collection’s finest drawings by the Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) will travel to museums and galleries across the United Kingdom in 2008-9. The exhibition will visit The Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum in Stirling from 8 August to 2 November 2008. About Calum Pasqua
Calum Pasqua is a Scottish fiddler from Brooklyn, NY. As a youth, he studied classical violin technique, Scottish fiddle music and Scottish Country Dance. Calum was awarded full scholarship to study violin with Eliot Chapo, former concert master of the New York Philharmonic at the Florida State University School of Music. He performed in various orchestras in the southeast all the while playing fiddle in pubs and for dances. Calum currently resides on Long Island where he is Director of Strings at Hewlett High School, a Grammy Top 100 school for music programs. In 2007, Calum was the very first American to be invited to compete in the Glenfiddich Scottish Fiddle Competition at Blair Castle where he earned 1st place along with an invitation to return and defend the title in October, 2008. Calum now performs primarily with friends/musicians Susie Petrov, piano and Dan Houghton, bagpipes Together they seek to convey to audiences the essential beauty and power of Scottish music.
Susie Petrov holds a Bachelor of Music in piano performance from the Peabody Conservatory, a Masters degree from Temple University, and the Kodàly Teaching Certificate. Susie is a co-director and a teacher for the Kodàly Music Institute at the New England Conservatory. By day, she teaches young people to sing and dance at school in Winchester, MA. Her work is informed by her studies, research and performances of Scottish traditional music and dance. For 10 years, Susie taught Scottish music in Scotland at summer music courses run by Fèisean nan Gàidheal. In 2000, she was a guest lecturer in the Scottish music course at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. Susie has eight recordings and two printed collections of Scottish music to her credit. Her most recent book, "We're A' Connected" was published by Taigh na Teud on Skye. This past season, Susie performed Scottish music at the Boston Celtic Music Festival, Club Passim, Clan Currie's Pipes of Christmas, and the Moab Music Festival.
Susie is delighted to return to Scotland to play with Calum Pasqua. In 2007, Calum was the first American invited to the Glenfiddich Fiddle Championship. Susie and Calum are featured on the newly-released cd, "That Pinewoods Sound." They are equally at home playing for Scottish dancing and giving concerts of Scottish music where they enjoy sharing their extensive knowledge and love of the idiom. Niel Gow was born on 22nd March 1727 in Strathbraan, west of Dunkeld, Scotland to John Gow and Catherine McEwan. The family moved to Inver where Niel's father followed his trade as a weaver. There was also a strong local tradition of music and Niel soon showed an aptitude for this. In his teens he had lessons from John Cameron of Grandtully and established his reputation by winning an open competition in Perth in 1745 when he was only 18. His standard and style of playing was such that he became in great demand for all social occasions as far afield as Edinburgh. He was patronized by the Atholl family and an account book contains his signature for wages of £5 a year in the 1770 and 1780s. He remained in Inver all his life despite his increasing fame. In 1787 he was visited there by Burns on his tour of the HighIands. He had married Margaret Wiseman by whom he had eight children and after her death he married Margaret Urquhart. His sons also became accomplished musicians; John and William establishing themselves in London as musical publishers, NathaNiel played with many bands in Scotland but was less successful in business affairs, despite publishing six collections of Reels and Strathspeys. Niel's portrait was painted by Raeburn; one of these hangs in the Ballroom at Blair Castle beside his fiddle, others were commissioned for the County Buildings Perth and Lord Panmure. On his death in 1807 he was buried in the local graveyard at Little Dunkeld but his musical tradition lived on through many generations of fiddlers in Inver.
With Inver and the west ferry of Dunkeld being an important junction of North-south and East-west roads, who knows whether he heard a traveling fiddler at the Inver Inn or at the Dunkeld fairs. Niel started fiddling at the early age of nine, and he was largely self taught until the age of thirteen. He would learn his craft mostly by practice but also by watching other fiddlers - their bowing technique and how they held their fiddles. When he was thirteen he had lessons from John Cameron, a retainer of Sir George Stewart of Grandtully, and by the age of eighteen had acquired such skill that he carried off first prize in a competition with the cheerful consent of the nine other players including his tutor John Cameron and DaNiel Dow, who later became famous as a composer of Scottish music. To avoid any favoritism at this competition a blind musician, John McKaw, was appointed judge but he, after naming Niel the winner, said he would recognize Niel's bow hand anywhere. As well as pIaying the fiddle, Niel composed many beautiful airs, the best known being his lament for his second wife and his lament for Lord James Murray of Abercairney. He is credited with anything from 50 to 87 compositions even though at best he could scarcely read music at all. Niel Gow died in 1807 aged 80; of his sons only John and NathaNiel survived him, and they erected a plain marble stone to him in Little DunkeId Kirkyard. This stone suffered from the ravages of the weather so much that in 1986 the Niel Gow Memorial Trust was formed to have the original stone placed in the Dunkeld Cathedral Chapterhouse and a new one replacing it in the Kirkyard. About Gordon Duncan (1964 – 2005)
Noted piper and pipe maker Hamish Moore once said of Gordon Duncan, "This man is precious and should be one of Scotland's living national treasures". Gordon Duncan was one of a young generation of Scottish pipers who opened up the piping scene to a more innovative approach. He began playing at the age of 8, taught initially by his father and his older brother, himself a successful piper and Pipe Major. He was a highly successful junior competitor, but at the age of seventeen stopped competing regularly to focus on the folk scene. He recorded with a number of bands, including Wolfstone, The Tannahill Weavers and the Dougie MacLean Band. He continued to compete at local competitions and invitational competitions, such as the MacAllan competition in Brittany, where pipers are expected to showcase their mastery of different types of Celtic music and their virtuosity. This came to a head in 1993 after a blistering display at a knockout competition held in BBC Studio 1 in Glasgow. After hearing Gordon play, renowned piping judge, Seamus MacNiel said "If that's what piping's about today, I'm taking up the fiddle". A year later (1994), Duncan released a solo album (his first widely available, although he had produced a self published album some years earlier), entitled Just for Seumas. It displayed the full range of Duncan's mastery of piping, opening with a tune from Seumas MacNiell's own collection of music, through traditional competition material, piobaireachd and music arranged with snare drum, guitar and bouzouki accompaniment, to the memorable closing track consisting of a heavy dance beat accompanying Duncan's playing. This track included what was then seen as sacrilege - the first line of the piobaireachd Lament for Mary MacLeod was used as a harmony line for a reel. He followed up this album with The Circular Breath, with Gerry O'Connor on banjo. One of the most notable features of this album is that almost all Duncan's compositions played on the album are included as sheet music in the sleeve notes.
Musically, Duncan was hugely innovative and his first 'hit' composition is a classic example. Although pipers have known for hundreds of years that it is possible to manipulate the bagpipe chanter to obtain accidentals outside the bagpipe's mixolydian scale, these were never used or their possibilities considered until the 1980s when a few pipers began to look into them. Duncan was also famous for his support and encouragement of young pipers, often preferring to hear others play than to play himself. A Gordon Duncan Memorial Trust was established in 2007. The Trust raises funds for the promotion of piping and other forms of traditional music amongst young people in Scotland. The specific aims of the Trust are: The Trust will host its second annual tribute concert on Saturday, September 27, 2008 at the Perth Concert Hall in Perth, Scotland. Click here to view the flyer for "A National Treasure II – A Celebration of the Music of Gordon Duncan." To learn more about Gordon Duncan or to make a contribution, visit their website at: http://www.gordonduncan.co.uk/.
Home •
History of the Clan • Clan
Leadership • The Currie Tartan •
Clan News clancurrie@mail.com
|
