Cameron Nixon is performing at Celtic Connection festival’s The New Tradition: Rejuvenation concert on Saturday 22nd January at 1pm in Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
We asked Cameron about the music they will perform in the concert.
I am a twenty three year old Scots singer and fiddle player born in Aberdeen. I started singing and playing the fiddle when in primary school. Growing up in a family surrounded by folk and classical music, I decided to embrace both genres.
I began my life as a classical singer attending the National Youth Choir of Scotland from the age of 9. Progressing through the NYCoS programme led me to performing at several prestigious events such as the BBC proms 2016, the Independence Day Celebrations as part of the Grand Teton Music Festival in Chicago, and the BBC songs of Praise. We have gone on to perform several times with Sir John Eliot Gardiner in Carnegie Hall, La Côte Saint-André and Proms 2017. I also featured in Scottish Opera’s production of ‘The Magic Flute’ in 2012 as one of the three spirits performing in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Belfast.
In addition to my singing, I am also a keen fiddle player. I joined a band called the North East Folk Collective in 2010 led by Sharon Hassan and we went on to perform in The Royal Albert Hall as part of the Music for Youth’s school proms event and at the BBC Trad Awards in 2012.
Inspired by my love for folk music, I accepted a place at the National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music in Plockton to study Scots song and fiddle for my final year of secondary school. I toured with the music school around the Western Isles at the end of my academic year. I also toured with Iona Fyfe in September 2018, in Bromyard, Birmingham, London and Brighton. In October 2019, I performed in Cape Breton with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland as part of Celtic Colours International Festival. In February 2020 I was a finalist in the BBC Young Traditional Musician of the Year award as part of the Celtic Connections festival. I have also recently joined a new band called ‘Harbour Road’. I graduated in Summer 2020 with a First Class Honours Degree from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and I have recently completed a Media and Communications course. My love for presenting on stage has led me to explore the world of radio presenting. In December 2021, I was a shortlisted finalist for Scots singer of the year at the MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards.
The Rejuvenation project felt like an opportunity to compose new music where folk music had a new lease of life. The music I have written for Rejuvenation features newly composed songs inspired by events from the past year.
Lockdown wasn’t a time to see family and friends, it was very much a solitude living situation. When you’re brought back together it really was a momentous occasion. Even more so when you could travel and move about. October 2021 not too long ago, my family and my girlfriend’s family travelled down to the fishing town of Eyemouth. The only song I know about Eyemouth was that of the Eyemouth fishing disaster of 1881. I thought I would rejuvenate the town and write another song. It’s Days Like These with family and friends that you most remember and it was just lovely to be out visiting a new place and exploring. It gave me two feelings – Don’t take me back to the start of lockdown and don’t take me back to Glasgow came to mind when writing this song
2021 was also a year of the big COP26 coming to Glasgow to supposedly have talks about how nations around the world can do their part in rapidly slowing the rate of Climate Change. Storm Arwen and Storm Barra are just two examples of recent storms to hit the UK’s shores causing some devastation across the country. The song I’ve written is not only about reflecting on what we have done but it’s also about thinking how best we progress and change the way we live our lives. We should certainly cherish the ground we live on and not let that slip away.
Once we embrace our world, the world most certainly gives back and we can certainly see that in our day to day lives. There have been two occasions now where I have been out walking on both the River Kelvin and the River Clyde here in Glasgow and spotted a Kingfisher (admittedly not in the heart of the city by the Finnieston crane but further upstream). The Kingfisher is a beautiful bird, one of my favourites in fact, and just seeing one in Glasgow felt amazing. This rewarding feeling led me to writing a wee song for the bird.
Find out more about Cameron at their website.
Thanks for Celtic Connections and Stonehaven Folk Club’s Folk In Crisis Fund for supporting this concert.
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