Concert: Fiona J. Mackenzine — “A Good Suit of Clothes”
by Shona Campbell
Fiona J. Mackenzine — “A Good Suit of Clothes”
As part of this year’s Highland Homecoming, Fiona Mackenzie will be holding a recital of emigrant songs that chronicle the tales — both happy and sad — of the thousands of Gaels who left for the New World over the last few centuries. The songs are taken from Fiona’s recent album A Good Suit of Clothes, and she will also be telling the stories that inspired the album. Accompanying her on grand piano is Scottish Musical Director Kennedy Aitchison, and contemporary dancer Gemma Giubarelli will be providing a unique interpretation of the music. Also on display will be photographs and artwork by local school pupils that illustrate the songs.
The concert is being held in the drawing room of Brodie Castle just outside Nairn on Sunday 25th October at 8pm. Tickets are £20 (£10 for under-16s), and bubbly and canapés will be served afterwards. Tickets are extremely limited , so you are advised to book early to ensure you don’t miss this very special event.
For further information, and to purchase you tickets, you can contact Fiona by email at fiona@fionamackenzie.org, phone on 07818 630 616, or alternatively buy direct from Brodie Castle by calling 0844 4932156.
A Little Bit More on Fiona J. Mackenzie
Fiona, a native of Morayshire, has lived in Dingwall for the last 20 years and after working in Gaelic Medium Education for 5 years, worked as the Màiri Mhòr Gaelic Song Fellow for Highland Council between 2002-09.
Although she was brought up in the Scots Folk Tradition (her artist father Duncan Macpherson, was a well known Scots folkie in Morayshire) and still sings in the Scots tongue also, particularly with the Songs of Robert Burns. She won the premier prize for Gaelic Learners at the National Mod in 1996, the Silver Pendant and subsequently won many other major prizes at National Mods and other singing competitions. She won the Premier award for Gaelic Singing in Scotland, the Ladies Gold Medal, for Fluent speakers, at the Royal National Mod in Stornoway in 2005.
In 2004 she won the coveted BBC Scotland Traditional Music Personality of the Year Award at the Scots Trad Music Awards. She has also been nominated as Gaelic Singer of the year in both 2005 and 2006.
Her work in the Fellowship took her abroad to teach, lecture and perform, to Cape Breton, Germany, Estonia, Brittany, Holland, Seattle, New York, Washington DC, North Carolina, Virginia, Ireland and Wales.
She continues to manage a vocal harmony group for young people called Fionnar who have performed in Wales at the International Eisteddfod where they took the Pavilion by storm with their traditional ‘waulking’ and also in Ireland where they won the premier group prize at The Pan Celtic Festival in April 2006. They also released an EP (June 2009) on Fiona’s own label, MacDug Music, entitled “Sgoil Roc”. (Reproduced from the biography page on Fiona’s website.)
Fiona also has a MySpace page where you can listen to some of her music, and tweets frequently as Gaelicsinger.