Hands Up for Trad’s Women in Music and Culture 2026 list has been announced to celebrate just some of the women working in Scotland.
Launched as part of International Women’s Day 2026, we shine the spotlight on 12 women who all contribute towards Scotland’s cultural landscape through their work. Read the 2026 list here.
We asked Patsy Reid to tell us more about their work, influences and ambitions for the future.
How did you first get involved in the arts and who were your early influences?
Music was always kind of a priority, even when I was at school.
Ditching Guides for the Tayside Young Fiddlers was a bit of a catalyst for learning traditional music, and through competitions and summer schools at Stirling University and Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, I was exposed to a wide range of musical communities and fiddle styles. Studying on the popular (but no longer running) BA Applied Music degree at Strathclyde University meant I was thrust into the very much thriving Glasgow trad scene and thus Breabach was born.
Clearly the fiddle was the vehicle for all of this and my earliest influences were Natalie MacMaster, Catriona Macdonald and Alasdair Fraser. My mum took me to Natalie’s first gig in Scotland and remembers me saying “I want to do that!”. Well, I’ve so far failed on the simultaneous dancing/playing part, but apart from that I’m happy and content with my musical decisions and my version of a female fiddle-playing career!
In a time when many artists and creative professionals are facing significant challenges, how have you developed and evolved your creative practice over the past few years?
When I chose to do music instead of something more conventional and secure, it was always drilled into me by my parents to keep my options wide open. I suppose I’ve always done that and both enjoyed and benefitted from that approach at the same time. If I was just a performer I think I’d have so much less control and choice over how I live and enjoy my life today.
I’m grateful for the opportunities that flexibility has opened up, and the time it’s meant I’ve been able to spend developing as an educator. This wasn’t a fallback option but an intentional choice way back when to pursue another angle of music that I was so passionate about. Teaching makes made me think and hone my craft to a far superior level than if was just thinking about my own playing.
We also can’t afford to outsource every job that needs doing and so we become part time un-paid arts administrators, accountants, home recording engineers, video editors, marketers, website makers and much more! The Strathclyde degree prepared me for a versatile career and I know I wouldn’t have the range of skills I have today if I had just studied classical violin, or fiddle music. As much as all of those skills help you to hang onto some cash in the short-term, they don’t however leave you any time to actually be creative in your ACTUAL SKILL, and you end up like a hamster in a wheel, actually achieving very little! So in order to make money, the session player also puts an enormous amount of time and energy into other peoples’ projects and then what?!
More recently and with my portfolio career having been established for sometime now, my biggest career hack has been to actually learn how to “say no” to the work that is not relevant to what I’m trying to achieve. It can be incredibly hard to say no to work, and often feels like something difficult to justify to others, but the more time I have to say yes to the projects that serve me and my goals, the more of an impact I feel that I have made.
Although I’ve been less ‘busy’ in many ways, I think I’ve actually been more visible. I find myself asking the question “does it need to be me playing fiddle or viola in that project?” a lot, and it helps me to navigate this. A lot of the time the answer is of course “no” and that frees me up to do something I’m really well suited to and will therefore feel seen, needed and valued, actually attracting more work that is “me”.
Who or what interests you creatively?
Being creative in an individual composing and writing sense has not really ever been at the fore for me, so I rarely make time to just create in a musical/artistic way on my own. Give me a commission about something I’m interested in and I’m there, but we’re not all creative in the romantic sense! I love making new music with people, and so working with great musicians that I connect with on all levels is always a very fruitful time.
As an individual, I think I’m actually at my most creative as a teacher. I find my teaching projects are the areas in my career that I put the most thought into, like a giant puzzle that is always changing and requiring deep thought and new ideas. Adult learners are fascinating conundrums a lot of the time. I’m inspired by every 1:1 fiddle lesson, reacting to that student in those circumstances, coming up with new ways of explaining concepts, and almost always having breakthroughs that I wasn’t expecting. It’s all percolating in my mind on dog walks, when driving and the like.
I also love being part of a team/project where you aren’t just firefighting but have the capacity to make improvements for all involved – participants, staff and audiences. Both of my Mull projects come to mind. Both Mull Music Makers and Mull Fiddle Week have me doing a lot of creative thinking and I’d say the actual music is the very least of it!
What are your plans for the next year or so and/or what are your longer term creative ambitions?
I plan to continue with my very intentional and selective performing and recording, which will mean thinning out some more, as I now know this is entirely the right approach. I’m excited that my trio with Alice Allen and Marit Fält, Lyre, is back in business, and we have the amazing British Grove studio in London booked for September to record our second album! I will also be doing more recording with Alice under our Strathspey Queens banner, and I have another couple of solo projects that I want to get around to finishing.
As I write, I realise that that’s a lot of music making and possibly still not leaving enough room for what I’m also really wanting/needing to get around to, which is writing a book!
The ‘fiddle technique’ book (working title) is a culmination of my experience as a fiddle/violin pedagog and player and I’m so far from finishing it that’s it’s actually still very difficult to describe – so i’ll leave it there!
Find out more about Patsy Reid here.
Read the Hands Up for Trad’s Women in Music and Culture 2026 List
Hands Up for Trad are an organisation who work with Scottish traditional music, language and culture. If you would like to support our work you can donate here.