Neither Linda nor Mark Morpurgo had much connection to Scottish traditional music in their younger years — Linda recalls thinking of what she saw on the White Heather Club as firmly “teucher music.” It was only in their forties, after a move back to Glasgow, that everything changed. The moment of transformation came when Linda attended a concert and announced, having never played a musical instrument in her life: “I think I’m going to learn the fiddle.” It was an act of pure serendipity. Sara Melville, then administrator of Glasgow Fiddle Workshop, happened to overhear and introduced herself — and that chance encounter set the course of the next chapter of their lives.
Linda joined GFW’s committee soon after starting to play, and eventually became its chairperson. When space at the classes in Kinning Park became too tight, she helped broker a partnership with Stow College that gave the Workshop room to grow — expanding the range of instruments on offer, increasing the number of classes, and providing, as Linda put it, the financial security that was very much needed. At the same time, she and the committee secured substantially healthier grants from the Scottish Arts Council, laying more stable foundations for the organisation’s future.
When Linda and Mark eventually moved to Lochgoilhead, they wondered whether there might be any appetite for traditional music in such a small and rural community. They offered a free come-and-try session, borrowing fiddles from GFW. Twenty-five people turned up. Together with tutor Amy Geddes, they took a leap of faith — no money for venues, no money to pay Amy, no fiddles of their own, no constitution, no committee — and built Lochgoilhead Fiddle Workshop from the ground up. It was here that their combined skills came into their own: Linda’s teaching background and grant-writing tenacity alongside Mark’s experience in sales, marketing, and management.
LFW went on to achieve things that would have seemed impossible in those early bootstrapped days. It negotiated with Argyll and Bute Council to bring strings tuition into six local schools — filling a gap in a county that had piping provision but nothing for string players. It established Fèis Ceann Loch Goibhle, offering tuition in Gaelic song, accordion, fiddle, whistle, clàrsach, and outdoor activities, and organised concert tours for young musicians including a trip to Ireland where they met the then President Mary Robinson. It brought world-class performers to Sunday afternoon family concerts in the community — Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas, Duncan Chisholm and Ivan Drever, Chris Stout and Catriona McKay, and many others — giving many people in Cowal their first experience of hearing live traditional music of that quality on their doorstep. Anna-Wendy Stevenson, James Ross, and US fiddler Jamie Laval also toured village halls and schools around Argyll under LFW’s auspices, with the Workshop forging links with Cowalfest and the Loch Fyne Food Fair to widen its reach across the region.
Mark threw himself into the role of press and marketing officer with considerable imagination, persuading the editor of the Dunoon Observer to become LFW’s press partner — securing almost unlimited space for previews, reviews, and musician profiles, often running to double-page spreads. He went on to write for other Argyll papers and for music magazines including Living Tradition, Fiddle On, and Box and Fiddle, and produced a triannual magazine, Fiddle Folk, for Workshop members, concert-goers, and parents of the schoolchildren. Meanwhile Linda researched and applied for grants with tireless persistence, even as she became increasingly outspoken about the disadvantages faced by small rural organisations in a funding landscape that, in her view, too often rewarded scale and urban location over grassroots impact. Her argument was simple and remains as relevant as ever: “You don’t water a tree at the treetops, you water it at its roots.”
The awards that followed reflected the breadth and quality of what Linda and Mark had built. LFW won the Community Project of the Year at the Scots Trad Music Awards in 2003 — with the whole village rallying behind the vote — and the Community Action Award at the Scottish Charity Awards in 2008. Most tellingly, LFW and Fèis Cheann Loch Goibhle won the Scottish Rural Sparks Award from the Carnegie UK Trust, with Carnegie’s Rural Director observing that Lochgoilhead Fiddle Workshop had had a profound effect on the community, encouraging people to preserve their musical culture and making top quality music and tuition accessible far beyond the village itself.
When Linda and Mark eventually returned to Glasgow, Linda rejoined GFW as a player — until her sudden death in late 2023. Mark continues to attend and support traditional music, taking quiet pride in watching the scene flourish, in the young performers emerging through workshops and the RCS, and in events like Celtic Connections growing from strength to strength. He is happy, as he puts it, and just a little proud to think that he and Linda played a part, however small, in its continuing revival.
Linda and Mark Morpurgo’s induction into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame is a recognition of two people who gave their energy, their skills, and their hearts to building something that mattered — in Glasgow, in Lochgoilhead, and across Argyll — and who understood that the future of a living tradition depends on what happens at its roots.