Tayside Young Fiddlers
Tayside Young Fiddlers is a dynamic and energetic organisation that nurtures young people from Dundee and the surrounding area’s interest in traditional Scottish fiddle music and offers superb tuition and opportunities to make new friends, learn performance skills and meet and learn from some of the best fiddle players and musicians on the Scottish scene.
Formed in 1992 as the junior wing of Dundee Strathspey and Reel Society, the group has continued since 2006 as an independent but complementary organisation with an interest in playing music by composers from more recent times. The late, great piper and tunesmith Gordon Duncan, his outstanding disciple Ross Ainslie, award winning fiddler-composer Adam Sutherland and California-based Scot Alasdair Fraser have all contributed to the Tayside Young Fiddlers repertoire and current musical director, Kevin Findlay keeps abreast of the latest tunes that his young musicians will enjoy playing.
Findlay took over as musical director in 2006, by which time, beginning under founder Bob Edwards, Tayside Young Fiddlers had become established as an encouraging and stimulating home for young musical talent. Among early members were Patsy Reid, who went on to form internationally popular trad band Breabach and is now a successful solo performer, and Laura McGhee, who is now working in Nashville. More recently, Eilidh Firth of the young band Barluath, winners of a prestigious Danny Kyle award at Celtic Connections in 2012, enjoyed her time with TYF.