{"id":2870,"date":"2018-04-09T11:19:41","date_gmt":"2018-04-09T10:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/?page_id=2870"},"modified":"2018-04-20T13:22:33","modified_gmt":"2018-04-20T12:22:33","slug":"rita-hunter","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/rita-hunter\/","title":{"rendered":"Rita Hunter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rita Hunter has been a driving force behind much of the growth in interest in traditional music in the Highlands particularly but also in Scotland generally with her tireless work and advocacy through the F\u00e8isean movement and the Highland Traditional Music Festival. As the guiding spirit of F\u00e8is Rois between 1988 and 2008, Rita introduced many projects and ideas that continue to act as her legacy, notably the Ceilidh Trail which gives young musicians performing and touring experience in preparation for professional careers.<\/p>\n

An interest in traditional music that would see her chair the Scottish Arts Council\u2019s influential working party in 1999 began in Rita\u2019s childhood home in Aultbea in Wester Ross. Her father played the pipes, which became her first love, and at primary school from the age of five, she learned Gaelic song, which with pipe music became her two particular passions.<\/p>\n

At Dingwall Academy Rita\u2019s musical interests were further encouraged by Chris Cameron, the local record shop owner who opened the minds of several generations of young music lovers to all styles of music. Most of Rita\u2019s \u2013 and her classmates\u2019 – pocket money was spent in the shop and Rita\u2019s interest in Scottish and Irish folk music especially was reinforced.<\/p>\n

Attending folk clubs and festivals, singing (she won the TMSA Women\u2019s singing competition at Keith) and BBC radio presenting all led to Rita co-organizing the Highland Traditional Music Festival with fellow enthusiast Rob Gibson from 1984. The festival became a magnet for musicians and was, Rita recalls, a major and harmonious gathering for twelve years, with highlights including a nine-year-old Martyn Bennett playing pipes with his mother, Margaret, and Cathy-Ann MacPhee being offered a Greentrax recording contract following her concert there.<\/p>\n

In 1987, Rita took her daughter along to F\u00e8is Rois, which had begun giving young musicians tuition the previous year. Having seen the benefits the f\u00e8is brought first-hand she was ideally suited when her job as an arts assistant with Ross & Cromarty District Council gave her responsibility for the organization\u2019s development. Her energy and vitality quickly made her an inspirational figure in the F\u00e8isean movement generally when she became, first, F\u00e8is Rois administrator and then manager.<\/p>\n

Among the many initiatives Rita introduced were the biennial Ce\u00f2lraidh concerts, in partnership with the Faculty of Advocates, which gave young musicians the opportunity to perform with top level mentors \u2013 fiddler Lauren MacColl with Aonghas Grant and singer Katie Mackenzie with Karen Matheson are early examples \u2013 and a three-year exchange with County Roscommon.<\/p>\n

Always a champion of developing career opportunities for musicians and arts workers, Rita also contributed to a number of boards such as F\u00e8isean Nan Gaidheal, Traditional Music Working Group, Blas Festival and Traditional Music Tutor Training.<\/p>\n

The pinnacle of her time with F\u00e8is Rois, she says, came with co-ordinating the participation of seventy-seven young musicians from all over Scotland in Donald Shaw\u2019s Harvest premiere at Celtic Connections in 2004. She could also point to her introduction of the Music in Schools programme, which exposed young people to live traditional music in the classroom and was eventually rolled out by her team of musicians to every local authority in Scotland. These, along with her expansion of tuition into three age groups \u2013 juniors, teenagers and adults \u2013 and taking young musicians from a five-day taster event to weekly classes, monthly master classes and eventual performance, teaching and career opportunities, are all part of Rita\u2019s twin watchwords of culture and fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rita Hunter has been a driving force behind much of the growth in interest in traditional music in the Highlands particularly but also in Scotland generally with her tireless work and advocacy through the F\u00e8isean movement and the Highland Traditional Music Festival. As the guiding spirit of F\u00e8is Rois between 1988 and 2008, Rita introduced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","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-2870","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","5":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2870","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=2870"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2893,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2870\/revisions\/2893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}