Christine Martin‘s journey in Scottish traditional music began in rural Ayrshire, where she grew up in Lugar with a musical father who played both accordion and piano. Her formal musical education started fortuitously when Ayrshire Council introduced violin lessons at Cumnock Academy, where she was taught by Iain Tyre, leader of the BBC Radio Orchestra, who became a significant influence on her development.
Her early years were spent immersed in local musical traditions, playing fiddle at Burns suppers and cèilidhs, as well as performing with the school folk group and the Ayrshire Youth Orchestra. Without local violin teachers available, she would travel to Kilmarnock and Ayr for lessons at weekends, demonstrating early on her dedication to mastering traditional music. Her musical horizons expanded further when she discovered the clarsach after hearing Wendy Stewart perform in Lochinver, leading her husband Alasdair to craft her first instrument.
Christine’s most significant contributions to Scottish traditional music came through her pioneering work in education and publishing. In 1986, she co-founded what would become Fèis Rois in Easter Ross with Jock Watt, Neil McKechnie, and Kate Martin, followed by Fèis an Earraich in Skye in 1989 with John McDonald and Kate Martin. These initiatives have played a crucial role in passing traditional music to new generations and helped establish the now-thriving Fèisean movement across Scotland.
Her publishing venture, Taigh na Teud, began in 1987 when she was teaching the Tain Fiddle Group. Initially hand-writing music sheets for her students using a light table and Letraset for titles, she developed this into a significant publishing enterprise. Her Cèilidh Collections, co-written with Anne Hughes, have remained popular teaching resources for over three decades, serving musicians across multiple instruments.
Christine’s commitment to preserving and sharing Scottish music extends to her meticulous work in re-typesetting historical manuscripts, including the valuable Patrick McDonald and Angus Fraser collections. She has also made groundbreaking contributions to Gaelic culture by producing the first Gaelic translations of Asterix (“Asterix an Ceilteach”) in 1989 and Tintin (“An t-Eilean Dubh”) in 2013, making these beloved stories accessible to Gaelic speakers.
In 2011, she volunteered with the Piping Centre’s “Noting the Tradition” project, recording and preserving the stories of Skye’s pipers and their families for future generations. This work exemplifies her dedication to documenting not just the music but the rich cultural context surrounding traditional Scottish music.
Christine’s recognition with the Hamish Henderson Services to Traditional Music Award acknowledges her substantial contributions to Scottish traditional music through teaching, publishing, and preservation work. Her advice to young musicians – to keep listening to older players and their recordings – reflects her deep respect for traditional music’s roots and its continued relevance for new generations, while her own work ensures that valuable resources and learning opportunities remain accessible to all who wish to explore Scotland’s musical heritage.
