alistair mcculloch, celtic fiddler

Three times former Natinal Fiddle Champion, Alistair McCulloch is one of the busiest and best-known fiddlers in Scotland and is in constant demand as a performer, teacher, adjudicator and composer. He studied music at the University of Strathclyde where he graduated with first class honours in 1998.

As well as having a highly successful solo career, Alistair is lead fiddler in the band ‘Coila' and recently produced the band's third album. His annual tour of the Scottish Highlands has become an eagerly awaited event in the Scottish Music calendar with his high energy concert performances and infectious humour. The past year has also seen Alistair perform at the Shetland Festival, Fiddle 2006, the Niel Gow Festival and Speyfest and in August 2006 he was asked to perform for Her Majesty the Queen at Balmoral. For several years he was a soloist with the renowned Scottish Fiddle Orchestra, with whom he performed in some of the UK 's major concert halls, including the Royal Albert Hall and Barbican, London ; Birmingham Town Hall ; the Ulster Hall, Belfast ; Glasgow Royal Concert Hall; and the Usher Hall, Edinburgh . He also works widely as a session musician having performed, toured and recorded with many Scottish artists. To date, Alistair has appeared on over thirty commercial albums and regularly broadcasts for the BBC. For those of you who have wondered, yes, Alistair is the fiddler on the soundtrack of the hit BBC children's programme, Balamory.

Alistair has toured extensively and in recent years has been to Spain, Switzerland, Germany, France, Hungary, Greece, Bulgaria, Iceland, Norway, Canada, America, Australia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Venezuela, Dubai and Qatar.

Alistair's talents also lie in composition and commissions have included a piece premiered at the Edinburgh Festival celebrating the life and times of the Orkney writer, George Mackay Brown, and a suite for William Grant & Sons of Glenfiddich Whisky. His first book of compositions was recently released to widespread acclaim to follow his two solo albums, ‘Highly Strung' and ‘Wired Up'.

Alistair's teaching roles include being musical director of the Ayrshire Fiddle Orchestra, which toured in the USA in July 2005, principal tutor at Glasgow Fiddle Workshop and external fiddler examiner at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

 

Download Alistair's biography as a printable page.

 

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