Learning MaterialsGuest Tutors from Folkworks
The Big Hoopla! Saturday 17th December 2006
Three undergraduate and post-graduate students from the UK’s first folk music degree course at the Sage Gateshead visited us as guest tutors for a special day of tuition and events.
Rachel Newton
A born and bred Edinburgh girl, Rachel Newton is a fluent Gaelic speaker, has strong family ties to the Northwest Highlands. It was through the work of the Feis movement that she discovered her passion for traditional music. Rachel attended the prestigious City of Edinburgh Music School, where she studied a range of disciplines including clarsach harp, voice, fiddle, viola and piano. Since leaving school Rachel has gone on to study the BMus in Folk Music in Newcastle and this has broadened her horizons even further, and this has led her to form a duo with flautist 'Lillias Kinsman-Blake'. Rachel has performed constantly since she was young, and has played at various festivals including Celtic Connections (where she was a finalist in the Young Traditional Musician of the Year), the Tonder Festival in Denmark and at Sidmouth Festival England.
Ross Couper
Ross is a fiddle player and guitarist from Shetland. He started playing the fiddle at the age of 6 under the tuition of his mother Margaret Scollay, fiddler and piano player highly respected throughout Scotland. Ross plays in a number of bands both with the fiddle and guitar. He has appeared with fiddlers bid in both guises and plays with a group of musicians he met while studying at the National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music. This band has been lucky enough to get through to the final of the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award and gig regularly all round Britain. Last year he was lucky enough to get offered one of two international scholarships for the Alasdair Fraser Valley of the Moon fiddle school. He has toured often and is well experienced at doing gigs all over Britain and Scandinavia. He is also experienced at leading workshops and teaching any level of traditional fiddle players.
Lillias Kinsman-Blake
Originally from the Scottish Borders grew up playing flute and fiddle as part of the Small Hall Band. She has recently become one of the first graduates from the BMus in Folk and Traditional Music at Newcastle University and is a key member of the acclaimed traditional music group CrossCurrent. In 2003, Lillias was commissioned to write and perform the music for the Rowan Tree Theatre Company. In addition, she is an experienced teacher and is currently a core tutor for Folkworks and The Sage Gateshead.
