Congratulations to Patsy Reid who has been nominated in Musician of the Year sponsored by University of the Highlands and Islands in the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards 2024. Vote for Patsy Reid now!. It’s going to be another great night at the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards on Saturday 30th November in Inverness Leisure. Why not join us for a brilliant night of music and awards. Buy a ticket here.
We asked Patsy of Patsy Reid the following questions.
Tell us about yourself
I’m a fiddle and viola player and I love playing music with people! I’m very fortunate to get to play and teach full time, which involves a bit of travel, lots of recording, collaborating, arranging and writing – both notes and even words, more recently. Having grown up near Dundee, I’ve lived in Perth for 15 years, which has been a fantastic base.
Why are you involved in Scottish music?
Having already learned how to play, thanks to Sue Jarvis – I joined the Tayside Young Fiddlers at about 11 years old and that led me to the competition circuit, which culminated in me winning the Glenfiddich Fiddle Championship at the (youngest ever) ages of 15 and 16 (shout out to Gill Simpson for coaching and accompanying me).
Simultaneously, I was very fortunate to go to both Alasdair Fraser and Catriona Macdonald’s summer fiddle courses for years and was exposed to so many amazing teachers and styles of fiddle playing there. I suppose these experiences showed me about the amazing community aspect of Scottish traditional music – something that couldn’t be matched in the other non-trad musical activities and groups I was exposed to. It was fun, inclusive, interesting and I suppose I was good at it.
The BA Applied Music degree at Strathclyde University was the obvious choice for studying music, allowing me to keep my scope wide and continue to learn to play the violin/fiddle as well as I could, through classical lessons with Liza Webb. That course was such a fabulous melting pot of styles and of course, we had access to Celtic Connections, which was an amazing way to see the potential further progression in playing my instrument.
I met fellow Breabach bandmates in Glasgow at that time and we had so much fun making music and learning the ropes of performing and touring together. I’m not sure if that answers the question. Sometimes, I wonder myself – it just kind of happened that way! I do love other styles of music too and dream of playing bass guitar in a pop band!
Any particular career highlights?
Most recently, I was literally pinching myself daily whilst on tour with my folkie, musical heroes, Flook. We toured Ireland in May for 10 days or so and it was brilliant – such amazing musicians and company to boot!
Working with Mark Knopfler and his band at his amazing London studio, British Grove for the Local Hero musical is another career highlight (thanks to Dave Milligan for the shout), and again – he is such a nice person.
Another superstar that I feel so lucky to have gotten to know and perform with extensively, is the incredible, Zakir Hussain. Now nearly 10 years ago, I knew at the time, that touring America for a month with Zakir was going to be hard to beat!
Apart from the obvious musical stuff, something these people all have in common is their humility and kindness and I’ll always be inspired by them and never forget their generosity.
What are your plans for the future?
Well, having entered my 40s, I have learnt the art of saying no and so am beginning to reap the rewards in terms of headspace, time and strategy. To be honest, there wasn’t a strategy until recently and I was happy to be asked to play a lot, which kept me employed and busy, doing what I love. But these days, I realise that it’s more important to channel my energies and time into projects and people that are important to me, and working towards my own goals.
These include releasing much more music, both under my own name and as part of Strathspey Queens, with Alice Allen. We’ve soon to release a suite of music by Eddie McGuire, (including his amazing, solo violin piece, RANT) and we’re booked in to record the music of Robert Mackintosh next. My skillset lends itself to all of this music and for some reason, it feels important to make these recordings because, well, perhaps no-one else will.
Talking of Alice, we’ve recently given our ‘string thing’ with Seonaid Aitken, a name – V3RSUS Strings and we’re excited to make it official, having played on countless recordings and gigs together – I’m very lucky to work with them both.
Other ongoing projects include further developing Mull Music Makers, for which I’m honoured to be Lead Tutor. Education has always been a large part of what I do and I’m also excited to have recently been appointed to teach a technique class to all of the fiddlers at both RCS and Plockton Music School. This coincides with a book I’m currently in the process of writing, which is all about pedagogy and technique in the context of fiddle playing. As a tutor, I’ve always spent more time teaching the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ than anything else and this concept was evident and well received at the inaugural (and sold out) Mull Fiddle Week, which I was very proud to launch in the summer of 2024. Yes, that’s a plug – check it out!
Patsy Reid Social Media
Website: https://www.patsyreid.com
Facebook: @patsy.reid.3
The 2024 MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards are on the 30th November 2024 in Inverness Leisure Centre! You will be able to watch it live in person (buy a ticket here). Watch it live in the UK at 9pm (GMT) on BBC ALBA and and around the world here. Bands performing on Saturday 30th November include Julie Fowlis, Skipinnish, Laura Wilkie and Ian Carr, Highland Young Musicians and Arc Fiddlers, An Dannsa Dub, BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician Award winner 2024 Calum McIlroy and more!
If you would like to support Hands Up for Trad in their work with Scottish trad music and musicians why not become a friend of Hands Up for Trad. In addition to our high profile events like the Scots Trad Music Awards, we also deliver a less well known, education programme for young people from 8yrs right through to young adults at the start of their careers. Read more here.
