{"id":2555,"date":"2016-11-01T11:00:12","date_gmt":"2016-11-01T11:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/?p=2555"},"modified":"2016-10-31T21:49:44","modified_gmt":"2016-10-31T21:49:44","slug":"mg-alba-scots-trad-music-awards-2016-graham-mackenzie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/mg-alba-scots-trad-music-awards-2016-graham-mackenzie\/","title":{"rendered":"MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards 2016: Graham Mackenzie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"front\"Congratulations to Graham Mackenzie who have been nominated in Composer of the Year sponsored by PRS for Music in the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards 2016. Vote now!<\/a><\/p>\n

We asked Graham Mackenzie of Graham Mackenzie the following questions.<\/p>\n

Tell us about yourself<\/strong>
\nHighland fiddler, Graham Mackenzie from Inverness, graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and completed a Masters in Scottish Music at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in June 2015. In the same year, Graham received a Celtic Connections commission to write music for the New Voices series. His commission titled \u2018Crossing Borders\u2019 represents his musical journey to date, reflecting on places and people,\u00a0bringing together a fusion of traditional and classical styles\u00a0that have influenced Graham and his music. These influences are drawn from Scotland, the Irish community in Manchester, and Cape Breton which represent Graham\u2019s development as a musician.\u00a0
\nHis debut album has been well received since its release in September. Mark Radcliffe\u2019s BBC Radio 2 Folk Show, Ian Anderson on BBC Radio Scotland have featured tracks from the album and on\u00a0BBC Radio nan G\u00e0idheal\u2019s \u2018Caithream Ciuil\u2019 Crossing Borders was album of the week.<\/p>\n

As a soloist, Graham has appeared at many folk festivals including the Fiddle Festival in Edinburgh, Celtic Connections, Piping Live, the Shetland Accordion and Fiddle Festival, International Eisteddfod in Llangollen and Blas. He has had the privilege of working and playing alongside some of the top traditional musicians including Aidan O\u2019Rourke, Donald Shaw, John Doyle and Julie Fowlis.<\/p>\n

Why are you involved in Scottish music?<\/strong>
\nGraham\u2019s early love of Scottish music comes from his family roots and hearing the wealth of traditional musicians in the Highlands. \u00a0He performed with Blazin\u2019 Fiddles at their first Blazin\u2019 in Beauty fiddle school in 2001 which was inspirational for him. His fiddle style is influenced by many genres but remains rooted in the Scottish tradition. Graham enjoys composing in a similar way – a strong influence of Scottish music, developing the style and incorporating different musical genres. His involvement in traditional Scottish music is purely down to Graham\u2019s enjoyment and love of the style of music.<\/p>\n

Any particular career highlights?<\/strong>
\nGraham\u2019s career highlights include the release of his debut album \u2018Crossing Borders\u2019 in September 2016, performing with the \u2018Grit\u2019 orchestra, (Greg Lawson\u2019s orchestration of Martyn Bennett\u2019s album Grit, at both Celtic Connections and the Edinburgh International Festival), performing in \u2018The Undivided\u2019, (a folk\/jazz fusion project fronted by Mike McGoldrick and Neil Yates) and performing at the Royal Albert Hall with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. Graham was the inaugural winner of the Highland Young Musician of the Year and remains the youngest winner of a Danny Kyle Open Stage in 2004.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What are your plans for the future?<\/strong>
\nGraham will be touring his debut album \u2018Crossing Borders\u2019 in 2017 and his newly formed Scottish-Irish band \u2018Aizle\u2019 are set to release their debut EP. Graham is continuing to write new tunes and will release his first tune book in 2017.<\/p>\n

Read more about Graham Mackenzie<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.grahammackenziemusic.com<\/a>
\nFacebook: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/grahammackenziemusic\/<\/a>
\nTwitter: https:\/\/twitter.com\/Grahamfiddle<\/a><\/p>\n

If you would like to come along to the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards in Dundee’s Caird Hall call the Caird Hall box office on (01382) 434940 or buy online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congratulations to Graham Mackenzie who have been nominated in Composer of the Year sponsored by PRS for Music in the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards 2016. Vote now! We asked Graham Mackenzie of Graham Mackenzie the following questions. Tell us about yourself Highland fiddler, Graham Mackenzie from Inverness, graduated from the Royal Northern College […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","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":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2555","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nominee-2016","8":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/files\/2016\/10\/front.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2555"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2557,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2555\/revisions\/2557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}