Biography

Inverness-born Donald Grant was brought up in Lochaber. He learned Gaelic songs from his father and regularly attended Feisean nan Gaidheal. He won numerous prizes at the National Mod and Pan-Celtic festival.
At the age of 11, Donald went to St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh, and while there played as part of the folk group Ho Ro Gheallaidh.  He studied music at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester as a major scholar and student of Christopher Rowland. During his time there he won the Eleanor Warren Salon Prize, the John Webster String Prize, a Major Scholarship and a Concerto Award. He graduated with a degree and the PPRNCM with distinction, the college’s highest accolade.

Donald won further scholarships to support a 2-year Junior Fellowship also at the RNCM and a year of study at the Hochschule in Cologne, Germany. He has performed with many prestigious Chamber orchestras, including the Scottish Bach Consort and Camerata Scotland. He is also a gifted composer.

Donald is now a member of two of the most respected young chamber ensembles in the country, The Elias Quartet and Ensemble 360, and is gaining a reputation as a top-class classical musician. He is also a popular Scottish fiddler. At the Music in the Round concerts in the Crucible Studio Theatre, Sheffield, he regularly performs both classical and traditional Scottish, introducing classical enthusiasts to the energy and joy of traditional music. Donald is a ‘true advocate as the passion he feels for the traditional music of his homeland radiates through all that he does.’

Donald’s debut solo CD is due to be released in late 2007.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will help Donald to purchase his own violin and bow.

Biography

Graham started to play the violin at six and won his first trophy at the age of nine. He has gone on to win many prizes and accolades, the most notable to date being in 2004 as the youngest ever winner at the Danny Kyle Open Stage.

Graham, from Inverness, is considered to be one of Scotland’s finest up-and-coming musicians who will become a leading player of his generation. Already he is an accomplished and exciting performer full of style and grace. In 2004 he was part of the band selected to support Blazin’ Fiddles on their Scottish tour. In 2005 he performed on the BBC Hogmanay Live show. He has performed on a number of occasions with fellow Dewar Arts Award winner, Aidan O’Rourke.

Graham has been a member of the National Children’s Orchestra of Scotland and is currently part of NYOS Strings. His ambition is to study classical music at one of the leading conservatoires in the country and to become a professional musician.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award enabled Graham to buy a Ewen Thomson fiddle. He says of it: “it is already a great instrument but will be even better once it has been fully played in.”

Since the Award

Graham writes that the violin he had made by Ewen Thomson is one which “I would have dreamt of playing when I began playing the fiddle at 6 years of age.” Since getting his new violin, Graham has won numerous prestigious prizes, including the inaugural Highland Young Musician of the Year in 2007.

In 2012 Graham was a finalist of the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Musician of the Year, and in 2013 he graduated with a BMus (Hons) from the Royal Northern College of Music. He went on to study a Masters in Scottish Traditional Music at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He attended Cape Breton University, Canada, as an exchange student, and in 2015 performed at the Celtic Connections festival with a New Voices commission.

Biography

Shetland-born Jenna Reid began playing the fiddle when she was nine. Together with her brother, sister and pianist mother she formed the family band Filska. The band has recorded three albums and toured the world.

In 1995 Jenna, then 14 years old, won the ‘Shetlands Young Fiddler of the Year’ competition and 9 years’ later was a finalist in the ‘Young Scottish Traditional Musician of the Year’. In between she gained a good degree in Scottish traditional music at the RSAMD, Glasgow and became a professional musician.

In 2005 Jenna released her first solo album and won the award for ‘Best Up and Coming Artist’ at the Scots Traditional Music Awards. Jenna also performed with bands, including the Gaelic band Dochas and Scottish band Deaf Shepherd. As a member of Dochas she recorded two albums and won the award for ‘Best Up and Coming Band’ at the 2003 Scots Traditional Music Awards. All of this was achieved playing a fiddle found in her grandmother’s attic when she was 9 years old.

Not surprisingly, Jenna is regarded as one of the most talented and musical young fiddlers to have emerged in Scotland in the last few years. For more information about Jenna, please see www.jennareid.co.uk.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will enable Jenna to purchase a professional standard fiddle, in time to use when recording her second solo album.

Since the Award