shona

Bio:

SHONA DONALDSON Singer and fiddler Shona Donaldson is one of Scotland's leading young tradition bearers, having appeared in the Young Scottish Traditional Musician of the Year final in 2003 and 2004. The twenty year old from Huntly grew up surrounded by music and dancing in the heart of North-east Scotland's bothy ballad country. Shonas mother was always singing to her as she was growing up. Her father plays the bagpipes, her sister plays the piano and even before she could walk, Shona was danced around the living room to BBC Radio Scotlands veteran Scottish Music presenter, Robbie Shepherds programme on a Saturday evening. It was through her grandmother, a pianist, however, that Shona became interested in Scottish music. She began playing at school, gave it up in favour of classical violin lessons and became hooked. Under her grandmothers influence she joined the Strathbogie Junior Fiddlers, with whom she made her first recording and took part in fiddle competitions at local traditional festivals including Keith and Strichen. Hearing the great bothy ballad singers Jock Duncan and Geordie Murison at these festivals inspired Shona to start singing. Both men offered her encouragement and at sixteen she won her first singing competition, the Womens at Strichen Festival. Since then, Shona has been a regular supporter of the various TMSA Festivals throughout Scotland, being their Young Singer of Merit in 2004. From there Shona joined the Strathspey Fiddlers, a group of young fiddlers, pipers and dancers from the North-east, recording a CD, appearing at festivals in Cornwall, the Isle of Man, Wales and Bavaria, and opening the headquarters of Chivas Whisky in London. In her fourth year at school Shona won a place at the national centre of excellence in traditional music in Plockton, spending a hugely influential year studying singing with Christine Kydd and fiddle with Iain MacFarlane, of Blazin Fiddles. The main highlights of Shonas career so far came in January 2003 and 2004 when she appeared in the Young Scottish Traditional Musician of the Year finals at Celtic Connections. In 2005 she was also a finalist in the Radio 2 Young Folk Musician of the Year in Gateshead, Newcastle and has appeared at the Tonder International Folk Festival in Denmark, Toronto, London, Edinburgh Castle and at Holyrood for Charles and Camilla. In January 2006 she has appeared in three concerts at the Celtic Connections Festival, Glasgow and has broadcast for the BBC Reel Blend programme. She is guesting at various festivals as far afield as Orkney and Fylde. As well as giving live performances Shona has also taken bothy ballad workshops for the National Trust of Scotland at Leith Hall, teaching primary school children traditional singing and underlining the importance of keeping our traditions alive. Shona is currently in her second year of the Scottish music course at the RSAMD in Glasgow as a first study Scots Singer. Instruments played: Voice, fiddle and Piano.

Member Since:

August 19, 2005