The final concert of the festival featuring: The Gordon Duncan Experience; Hannah Fisher (fiddle) & Ciorstaidh Beaton (harp); Patsy Reid (fiddle) & Alice Allen (cello)
Patsy Reid & Alice Allen
Patsy Reid (fiddle) and Alice Allen (cello) came together to release their album Strathspey Queens last year. A little over 100 years since James Scott Skinner recorded ‘The Strathspey King’ their recent album is their own take on his iconic recording.
After leaving the brilliant and loud Breabach, Patsy Reid has become the most in- demand traditional fiddle player in the UK. She performed alongside Dougie Maclean and Kylie Minogue at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony, with Zakir Hussain at the London 2012 Olympic Festival followed by an extensive tour of North America, and in 2019 she worked with Mark Knopfler on his musical adaption of Local Hero, in which she also performed at the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh. In the studio, Patsy is a one woman string quartet, contributing violin, viola and cello to albums by Flook, Seonaid Aitken, Donald Shaw, Brian Finnegan, Georgia Cécile, Duncan Chisholm, Kathryn Tickell, Hamish Napier, Duncan Lyall, Tim Edey, Ross Ainslie & Ali Hutton and many many more.
Alice performs regularly with fiddler Alastair Savage and was Chamber Music Scotland's Ensemble in Residence 2019-21 as one half of the duo GAIA, with violinist Katrina Lee. Alice grew up immersed in the North East fiddle tradition and each summer attended Natalie Haas' Scottish music camps on the Isle of Skye. Her playing style is deeply rooted in both the Scottish music tradition and the classical music tradition and she is tutor of Scottish traditional cello at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She is co-founder of the Scottish Freelancers Ensemble with GAIA partner Katrina Lee, and member of folk group LYRE LYRE, with Marit Fält and Patsy Reid. Alice is part of Seonaid Aitken's six piece ensemble and performs in a duo with guitarist Jenn Butterworth. More recently she has appeared alongside the Maxwell Quartet as part of the Isola Quartet with Kana Kawashima (Scottosh Chamber Orchestra), Rachel Spencer (SCO) and Katrina Lee (Scottish Ballet). Alice performs on an English Preston School cello, circa. 1780.
Hannah Fisher
Hannah Fisher grew up a stone’s throw from Niel Gow, just a few centuries later. Hannah’s musical career has taken her and her fiddle far and wide including tours with bands Idlewild and King Creosote as well as playing with Karen Matheson and Dougie Maclean. Hannah also enjoys a successful solo career.