{"id":1511,"date":"2015-05-07T09:42:19","date_gmt":"2015-05-07T08:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/?page_id=1511"},"modified":"2015-05-07T09:42:19","modified_gmt":"2015-05-07T08:42:19","slug":"kirsteen-graham","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/kirsteen-graham\/","title":{"rendered":"Kirsteen Graham"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kirsteen-Graham\"<\/a>Kirsteen Graham, Gaelic singing & drama teacher<\/p>\n

FOR THE past 24 years Kirsteen Graham\u2019s \u201cday job\u201d has been Gaelic singing tutor for Gaelic Medium units in schools on Skye, but her influence has reached much further in permeating the area\u2019s cultural activities. Not only has she imbued her pupils with a love of their native song, but outside school hours she has thrown herself into running and managing F\u00e8is an Earraich, nurturing young singers and musicians throughout Skye and Lochalsh.<\/p>\n

As Arthur Cormack, chief executive of F\u00e8isean nan G\u00e0idheal, points out, there are simply not enough hours in the school day to encompass the scope of Kirsteen\u2019s work: \u201cShe has spent years preparing children for the local and national M\u00f2ds and for Christmas and end-of-term concerts, and she has also, over many years, written original material for drama competitions and schools performances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kirsteen was raised in Edinburgh by parents with Skye and Lewis backgrounds. While growing up she sang in choirs, ceilidhs, M\u00f2ds and church from an early age in Edinburgh as well as with a dance band on Skye in her teens and early twenties.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were one of these hybrid Heilan\u2019 families,\u201d she recalls, \u201calways going back to Skye or to granny and grandpa in Argyll.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually, she just didn\u2019t go back to Edinburgh. After early occupations ranging from hotel work to roadworks site clerk, she married and settled in Lower Breakish, at the south end of Skye, and when her own children were still very young, she was asked by the school at nearby Broadford if she\u2019d help prepare young singers for M\u00f2ds.<\/p>\n

She recalls her first F\u00e8is experience being a visit to Barra in 1988, by which time she had a family of her own: \u201cThere were three mums and seven assorted children, plus I was expecting our fourth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two years later the job of Gaelic singing tutor for Skye\u2019s five Gaelic-medium primaries came up and she applied. It was six months before she heard that she\u2019d got the job and she has been travelling round the island teaching ever since, though she says she\u2019s now thinking of retiring. \u201cI\u2019ve been fortunate in finding a job that I have enjoyed for so long. Also drama has become a large part of my school work, writing and directing plays, pantomimes and action songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, F\u00e8is an Earraich had been established by the local community education office with strings tutor Christine Martin. Kirsteen soon joined the committee and has been involved ever since, as the number of participants rose from 50 in the early years to some 130 every year. Over and above that, Kirsteen is involved in running other weekly classes as well as organising Ceilear, the F\u00e8is C\u00e8lidh Trail band and generally helping with the Trail.<\/p>\n

She emphasises than in all these activities she is assisted by many other indispensable volunteers, and like others involved in the F\u00e8is movement, she compares it to a big family: \u201cAll of our children grew up with the F\u00e8is as one of the highlights of the year, and they went on to tutor for F\u00e8is an Earraich and other F\u00e8isean throughout Scotland. Our youngest son, Ruairidh, is now chairman of F\u00e8is an Earraich \u2013 my boss!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs well as our own family carrying on traditional music, it\u2019s lovely to see so many young people that were part of F\u00e8is an Earraich, or were local school pupils, doing so well in traditional music and keep Gaelic alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

She stresses that she\u2019s never trained as a singing teacher \u2013 \u201cI don\u2019t do technique; I\u2019m a song tutor.\u201d And, one suspects, a motivator and instiller of enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

Arthur Cormack pays tribute to her work over the years: \u201cShe has run the F\u00e8is an Earraich, alternating between Portree and Plockton, for around 18 years on a completely voluntary basis, including the week-long Easter F\u00e8is as well as a range of classes all year round.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has organised visits to Germany for young Skye musicians, and established and maintained a regular exchange with the Armagh Pipers\u2019 Club, who have visited Skye on a number of occasions, while our young people have reciprocated with trips to Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cKirsteen has also always been willing to organise F\u00e8is an Earraich\u2019s involvement in national showcases organised by F\u00e8isean nan G\u00e0idheal, giving the young people of Skye the opportunity to perform on a stage with their peers in a high-quality performance environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

By running the annual C\u00e8ilidh Trail, Cormack adds, Kirsteen gives local youngsters the chance to train in performance and promotion skills and put them into practice, touring round Skye and Lochalsh and earning money through summer employment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many events, concerts and c\u00e8ilidhs, where young people have performed, which will have had Kirsteen in the background, preparing them,\u201d says Cormack. \u201cSkye\u2019s cultural activities would be much worse off without her input.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kirsteen Graham, Gaelic singing & drama teacher FOR THE past 24 years Kirsteen Graham\u2019s \u201cday job\u201d has been Gaelic singing tutor for Gaelic Medium units in schools on Skye, but her influence has reached much further in permeating the area\u2019s cultural activities. Not only has she imbued her pupils with a love of their native […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1512,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-1511","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1511"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1513,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1511\/revisions\/1513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}