- St Andrews Day Ceilidh - Friday 10 November
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Date Posted: Wed, 8 Nov 2023
The Melbourne Scottish Fiddlers will be performing at Collingwood Town Hall on Friday 10 November 7.30pm
Click on the following link for tickets
https//www.trybooking.com/CLAPH
- Cresfest 1 April - 3 April
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Date Posted: Sun, 13 Mar 2022
We have a few gigs over the weekend - visit the festival website to see what else is on - https://www.cresfest.com.au/
WHAT: Saturday Gala
WHERE: Creswick Town Hall, 70 Albert St, Creswick, VIC 3363
WHEN: Saturday 02 April 2022 at 8:00pm - 10:00pm
PRICE: $40 (adult) / $35 (Concession) / $30 (Youth)
WHAT: Scottish Tunes Jam Session
WHERE: The American Hotel, 90 Albert St, Creswick VIC 3363
WHEN": Saturday 02 April 22 at 4:00pm
PRICE: Free
WHAT: Beginner Fiddle Workshop
WHERE: The American Hotel, 90 Albert St, Creswick VIC 3363
WHEN": Saturday 02 April 22 at 2:00pm
WHAT: Live outdoor performance!
WHERE: The Cresfest Market Stage
When: Sunday 3 April at 2pm
FULL PROGRAM
- No Monthly Meeting on Sunday 20 June 2021
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Date Posted: Wed, 16 Jun 2021
Unfortunately, we will not be holding a monthly meeting in June. Normally, our monthly meeting would fall on Sunday 20 June - the third Sunday this month. However, due to COVID restrictions and the evolving situation, we will not be holding a meeting either in-person or online. We look forward to seeing you at our monthly meetings from July onwards (fingers crossed!)
- UNTAMED CEILIDH at NORTHCOTE CHALICE!!
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Date Posted: Sun, 1 Mar 2020
photo credit: Adam Purcell Photography
Get your dancing feet on and come and join the famous Melbourne Scottish Fiddlers for a great night of dance, music and fun. It's our 25th anniversary year so let's have a dance - but not just any old dance! This is one of our Untamed Ceilidh series - and that means easy, energetic, upbeat, and a wee bit of chaos mixed in.
Held in Northcote at the Chalice, our dance caller Kirsty Greenwood will get you in the groove with easy to follow, non-gendered dance instructions. No partner or experience necessary, just an appetite for good times.
Doors open 7.30, dance starts at 8pm
$20 Adult full price
$15 Senior / full-time student / concession card holder
$12 students aged 13 -17
Under 13 - freeFor more information, see: www.melbournescottishfiddlers.com/dbpage.php?pg=view&dbase=events&id=108298
- Notice of Annual General Meeting
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Date Posted: Tue, 5 Nov 2019
You are warmly invited to attend the
Melbourne Scottish Fiddle Club Inc.
Annual General Meeting
to be held at 3pm during our monthly meeting on
Sunday, 17th November 2019
at
St. Aidan’s Church Hall, Duggan St, Balwyn NorthAgenda
3:00 pm Meeting opens1. Welcome
2. Apologies
3. Confirmation of minutes of 2018 AGM
4. President’s report: Jack Wilson
5. Treasurer’s report: Shirley Hunter
6. Approval of reports and financial statements
7. Election of committee members for 2019-2020
8. General business- Stringmania Camp – past, present and future
- Any other business
9. Thanks/closing remarks
Followed by afternoon tea
RSVP (optional – all welcome) and apologies to:
MSFC Secretary Kirsty Greenwood
email secretary@melbournescottishfiddlers.com / ph. 0434 354 948
- Scottish Jam Session with the MSFC
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Date Posted: Wed, 25 Sep 2019
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Come and join us for a session! We're happy to have Margaret Robertson, fiddler and pianist extraordinaire from the Sheltand Islands, joining us for a jam session of traditional Scottish music at the Clyde Hotel from 8pm.
NB The Melbourne Scottish Fiddlers will be there for dinner from 7ish, and we’ll start playing at 8ish. Downstairs in the lounge.For more information, see: www.facebook.com/events/506251613255481/
- Melbourne Scottish Fiddlers live in concert with specail guest Margaret Robertson
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Date Posted: Wed, 25 Sep 2019
The famous Melbourne Scottish Fiddle Club will be performing songs from their new album 'Sea to Sky' in a rare home-town concert. The Club will be joined by the fiddler, pianist and composer extraordinaire, Margaret Robertson, all the way from the Shetland Islands off the north coast of Scotland.
Margaret is formidable woman and fiddler, and the club is very excited to be joined by her in between her committments across the globe as part of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. She will showcase the Shetland fiddle style (and accent!), and lead the club with new repertoire drawing from the Shetland fiddle tradition - tunes both new and old.
Hosted by the Boite at the Box Hill Community Arts Centre, this will be an exciting concert for fans and friends of the fiddle, and celtic music in general. Don't miss out!For more information, see: www.trybooking.com/BFLTL
- Get your tix for the all-star Stringmania concert in Healesville Oct 5
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Date Posted: Wed, 25 Sep 2019
An all-star cast of national and international artists will be performing world-class traditional and contemporary folk music in Healseville on the 5th of October. The main stars of the concert though are the musicians of all ages and stages taking part in Stringmania Camp 2019, a week-long immersive camp in the Yarra Valley, celebrating traditional music, dance, language and song.
The Memo, Healesville
Sat 5 Oct 7.30pmTickets
Get your tickets online now, as this concert will sell out quickly.
$20 Full
$18 Concession
This concert showcases their musicianship and what they've been learning and creating during Stringmania, as well as the talents of the camp's fantastic tutors. The lineup includes: Alasdair Fraser (Scotland, fiddle), Natalie Haas (US, cello), Margaret Robertson (Shetland, fiddle), Parvyn and Josh (Northern Indian dance and Song, Sitar), Greg Sheehan (percussion), Chris Stone (fiddle) and Holly Downes (cello) of the String Contingent, and Monique Claire (cello, voice).
For more information, see: ach.yarraranges.vic.gov.au/Whats_On/Stringmania_Camp_Finale_Concert
- The Evergreen Ensemble : Curious by Nature @Mungo Park
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Date Posted: Sun, 15 Sep 2019
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Shane Lestideau and team are excited to bring their next exquisite production to you, here at Mungo Park!
Hi all
We are back from our 2 months of travels, touring with our show to the Edinburgh Fringe and then to Samoa, and keen now to bring your more great music to Mungo Park.
While away we saw some fantastic shows and great musicians, but have to report that of all the marvellous music we've seen this year, some of the most inspiring has been by Shane Lestideau and her Evergreen Ensemble - both earlier in the year at Daylesford Convent and over Easter at the National Folk Festival, where Shane was Folk Fellow of the Year. She brings together worlds best musicians to present beautiful music from the space between folk and baroque.
Trained in Sydney and with 10 years professional playing in France and across Europe, Shane is the embodiment of musical virtuosity and curiosity. Read about her unique journey here https://www.cutcommonmag.com/how-my-dual-musical- identity-shaped-me/
Join us on 13 October for the concert of the year and an afternoon tea to match - dress up in your finery and make it a classy afternoon in the Great Hall of the People!
Bookings as ever are at TryBooking - book during September to take advantage of our Earlybird discounts :
Adult - Book in September for earlybird, $25; Book in October $30
Concession - Book in September $25; Book in October $20
Seeyou there for a wonderful afternoon!
Judy and NeilFor more information, see: www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=527119
- Melbourne Scottish Fiddlers at St George's Travancore
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Date Posted: Wed, 11 Sep 2019
On Sunday 1 September MSFC gave lively, light-hearted concert at St George's Anglican Church in Travancore (Flemington) as part of the annual Friends of Music Series (FOMS) there.
FOMS was started by Leonie Thompson in 2016 with a series to showcase the work of young emerging musicians and music students living locally. The aim was fourfold:
1. To give emerging musicians the opportunity to play in front of live audiences, something needed for exam preparation.
2. To be able to pay the musicians something for their efforts (rather than them having to pay for the use of a venue).
3. To offer live music to the local community.
4. Initially, to raise money for the purchase of a concert piano, something that would be needed for the series to continue. The piano was borrowed for the first year, and - with the help of a generous grant from the City of Moonee Valley - paid off by the end of the year, and the series has continued, with Natasha Lin taking over the organisation for the following two years while Leonie was living overseas, and now once again with Leonie in charge.
The fiddle club concert, which was the sixth in the FOMS series for 2019, featured sets from the recent 'Sea to Sky' CD with tunes new and old from as far afield as Scotland, the Shetland Islands, Sweden, and North America. It began with the rousing Munlochy Bridge set, included the two songs, and several recent pieces by club members and friends. Two pieces by the club's founder, Judy Turner, were supported by the fiddle club's impressive brass section. The concert finished with the Québécois set as an encore, and was followed, of course, with afternoon tea.
Duncan Reid
- Stringmania finale concert
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Date Posted: Tue, 10 Sep 2019
STRINGMANIA CAMP PRESENTS
A Finale Concert
Featuring world-class performers:
Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas (Scot/USA)
Margaret Robertson (Shetland)
Monique Clare
Joe D’Esposito (USA)
Emily-Rose Sarkova
Parvyn Kaur Singh
Josh Bennett
Greg Sheehan
The String ContingentDATE
Saturday 5th October, 7.30pm
LOCATION
The Memo Healesville
235 Maroondah Hwy
Healesville, 3777BOOKINGS
Click here to book online
1300 368 333
PRICES
$20 FULL / $18 CONC
WWW.STRINGMANIACAMP.COM
ENQUIRIESAttachment: 
- What the famous MSFC owes to Bill Sides (and Diane of course)
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Date Posted: Fri, 19 Jul 2019
by Judy Turner, Founder and former Director of the MSFC
The association with Bill and Diane Sides goes back a long way in fiddle club history – so long it is almost shrouded in the mists of time! For MSFC, the partnership has brought huge benefit over the years, and for the Sides it’s provided a sense of connection to their Scottish heritage, and a new love, Scottish Country Dancing, which they came to through former MSFC President (2000-2011) Matt Robertson.
We first connected with the immensely talented and passionate Bill Sides in 2004, when one of his cousins called from Hobart to ask if we would be involved in playing for his mother’s 80th birthday. No ordinary gig, he wanted us in a sense to resurrect a fiddle made for his mother (Bill’s aunt) by her father (Bill’s grandfather) the late John Anderson.
A friendship was germinated that day, and led to a grand project of collecting all the Anderson fiddles that could be found in order for the Club to bring them back to playing condition (thanks to Jim Vizard – former member) and use them for the recording of the Shetland Jigs on A Long Way from Home*. The Anderson descendants came in droves to the Hawthorn Town Hall and sat proudly in the front two rows, tears streaming down many faces. It was a great moment for all of us.
A trapezoid Anderson fiddle made in 1957.
Some time later, we decided to ask Bill if he would be prepared to support a travelling scholarship, so that MSFC members could learn more about the music of Shetland, his ancestral home. Bill was up for it and the ‘Travelling Fiddlership’ was born, enabling MSFC members to travel to Shetland and soak up the music and history. The idea we all liked was that on alternate years a leading fiddler would come from Shetland to work with our group. Recipients have included our immediate past President Gus Downing [2010] Chris Stout and Catriona McKay [2011] Matt Robertson [2012] Ross Couper and Tom Oakes [2013] Louise Godwin, Judy Oleinikov, Claire Alleway and Declan Simpson [2014], and culminating in the entire MSFC touring party visiting with Bill and Diane in our 21st anniversary tour in 2015. Magic memories and deep friendships were formed. You can learn more in this lovely little video made by former member Ronald McCoy:
This year, we will welcome as our Travelling Fiddler the splendid Margaret Robertson. In many people’s minds the successor to the legendary Tom Anderson, Margaret has been teaching fiddle to generations of school children in Shetland, and now runs the mighty Hjaltibonhoga and masterminds the contribution of fiddlers from around the world to the mighty Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. Many of our members have played in Melbourne, Edinburgh, Shanghai and this year will join Margaret in Sydney.
For all of this and much, much more we owe a debt of gratitude to the wonderful Bill and Diane Sides. If you want to see just how much fun Shetland fiddlers can be – check out this clip from our concert with Ross and Tom back in December 2013.
*Here’s the text of a letter that appeared in the local paper (Boroondara Leader) after our packed launch concert on 14th August 2005:
“A crowd of more than 700 packed sardine-like into the newly refurbished splendour of Hawthorn Town Hall on Sunday afternoon for one of the best afternoon’s entertainment the grand old hall can remember. The balcony was full and the standing area too, and it’s many years since that was last the case, so locals say.
As part of an occasional series of free concerts being put on by Boroondara Council, the Melbourne Scottish Fiddle Club put on a show to be proud of. The afternoon started with a queue reaching down Burwood Road long before the doors opened, to the sound of bagpipers sound checking. Crowds poured out of packed trams onto the wintery street outside the front door.
The theme of the concert – A Long Way from Home: Scots Music in the Antipodes- saw the inclusion of a couple of songs by Robert Burns from the songbook of Georgiana McRae, who came to Melbourne from Scotland in the 1830s. Her hand written song books still exist. Jenny Thomas, one of Melbourne’s most beautiful singers, interpreted the songs with great warmth and subtlety and the arrangements lent great poignancy to the songs. I’d never seen someone sing and play fiddle at the same time before. How she does it, and sings so beautifully too, is a source of some wonder.
Alex Legg, a Scottish singer-songwriter recently moved to Melbourne, joined the Club for a rollicking version of ‘The Barnyards of Delgaty’, a Bothy ballad from North Eastern Scotland, and another beautiful arrangement of one of his own songs, Oh What A Day It’s Been. We’re told the Fiddle Club starts recording its third CD soon, and if the club is able to carry it off as beautifully as it did in this concert, this song will be a big hit.
In between, the 30 fiddle players brought us medleys of fast Scottish dance tunes and heart-breaking slow airs. Joined by The Hawthorn Pipe Band, rousing sets of jigs and reels almost took the roof off the building, and what a spectacle, aural and visual, to see the pipers, drummers and the fiddle players and rhythm section playing up a storm!
Slightly tenuously, some might say, Neil Adam sang Paul Kelly’s beautiful ode to Melbourne “From St Kilda to King’s Cross”, and again there was hardly a dry eye in the house as his high clear voice filled the room, accompanied by beautiful harmony singing and fiddlers getting stuck into the tune.
The Pipe Band and dancers started off the second half after cups of tea and sandwiches all round, and we heard about Robert Louis Stevenson and poems he wrote in Samoa, and then the marvellous tale of the John Anderson fiddles. John Anderson was a local man who came from Shetland in 1912 and made a violin each year till the 1970s. To cut a long story short, club leader and inspiration Judy Turner has got together more than a dozen of these fiddles, some still in use, others stored in cupboards or on display as family heirlooms, had them restored by one of the fiddle maker members of the group, Jim Vizard, and here they were being played by some of Melbourne’s finest fiddle players. As Jim led the group through a tune from Shetland by Tom Anderson, called ‘The Slockitt Light’ (The dying light, composed for his wife’s funeral) the hair stood up on the back on my neck.
The raffle was drawn, and prizes won. CDs and Fiddle Club T shirts, jumpers and scarves were sold. There were more tunes from Shetland, and elsewhere in the Scottish diaspora. The pipe band drummers and dancers joined for the fiddlers again, the biggest finale the hall would have seen in years, the band marching out through the crowd into the street beyond. The session continued in the foyer and on the road outside, as the audience, loathe to leave, hung around wanting to take in more of the spirit. Tunes with names like Spootiskerry and Da Old Road to Da Oub still rang through the rafters and in our memories. Voices were heard saying it was the best concert they’d seen in years or ever been to. That the variety was so great, that the fun was so massive, that the playing and singing was so wonderful!
Boroondara Council, and Judy Turner and Melbourne Scottish Fiddle Club, should be proud of themselves, and we should be proud of them! This was home grown entertainment of the highest professional level.”
Picture: Bill Sides, Chris Stout and Judy Turner in one of Bill's many vintage cars.Attachment:
- Stringmania Music Lovers' Trivia Night - THIS SUNDAY!
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Date Posted: Wed, 12 Jun 2019
Have you got your tickets yet??
Our music trivia fundraiser is on this Sunday after the monthly meeting - kicking off at 6:30pm, so there's plenty of time for you to make your way there in between. Tickets are available on the door, but pre-bookings would be appreciated so we can help the pub organise the layout of tables and be better prepared on the night. We have a great range of prizes from a number of local businesses and talented artists (including new-release albums from Evergreen Ensemble, Lucy Wise and The String Contingent!) so come and get in on the action!
WHEN: Sunday 16 June, 6:00 for a 6:30pm start
WHERE: The Moreland Hotel, Cnr Moreland Rd and Sydney Rd, Brunswick. Easy access on public transport, plus parking around the back and a playground for the kids.
COST: $12.00 adult, $10.00 conc/U16 OR $80.00 per table of eight
BOOK: www.trybooking.com/BROU.
Single tickets available at the door but pre-booking is encouraged (and essential for full-table discount).
More info and RSVP on our Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/391826154746420/
Ruth WiseAttachment:
- Recording with the MSFC – through time
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Date Posted: Wed, 12 Jun 2019
This new regular series tracks the history of the famous Melbourne Scottish Fiddle Club through time, by Judy Turner, the club’s founder and former leader.
Listening to the wonderful collection on Sea to Sky, I thought back to earlier, less polished, recordings, where the skills were less, but the spirit was the same.
Our first album was Red Hot Scots, recorded in 1999 by the late, great Hugh McDonald. We could afford him because we all ate a lot of chocolate after former member Michael Kilpatrick organised a chocolate bar sale fundraiser. PLC music building was the site (we also returned there for our second recording).
The album was memorable for many reasons – for making people get serious about practice, for being our first, for being launched at The Boite in Mark Street, Fitzroy, to a doting crowd of about 100 people, and for the astonishing feat of hitting the heights of the mp3.com charts.
Scottish expat John McAuslan – former Director of Brunswick Music Festival was persuaded to recite the epic ballad Tam Lin while the club played the reel of the same name, first in D minor then in A minor, with harmonies arranged by former member Hamish Davidson. We thought we were fabulous, and this track actually made us a lot of money from online sales – over $2k, enough to record the second album Reel Cool, in 2002.
Both the albums were recorded by Hugh whose hilarity gave recording weekends a special flavour. As did the food, then provided by Louise Schwall-Kearney, mother of Pria, who organised the first outing of the cool young people, on the second album. That track, called ‘Teenagers Go Nuts’, was led by Pria and featured some great French-Canadian tunes which are very worth tracking down.
Also on Reel Cool we featured Sarah Davies (Canberra fiddler) and Chris Stone (now director of Stringmania) as young hotshot players. They would have been 16 or so when we made the record in 2002. Cover art for the first two records was done by the incredibly talented former member Lisa Christensen, who at the time was a stamp designer for Australia Post. Used to working in confined spaces, Lisa was able to pack in everything we needed for the covers. She also designed the logo still in use today, the tartan and the fiddle.
We decided early on to produce tune books to accompany each of the CDs – lots of work by lots of people, especially Sue Darby O’Leary. You can still buy them from our website or find them online at the MSFC member resources pages. It was the tune books as well as the gigs at festivals around Australia that led to MSFC becoming known as ‘the mother-ship’ of Scottish fiddling in Australia.
For more on the history of the famous MSFC, watch this space!
Photos courtesy Sue Darby-O'Leary.
Above: We used to rehearse at a church hall in Heidelberg and the festival was around the corner in Heidelberg Park. Judy Turner is towards the left of the photo, Pria Schwall-Kearney nearby then Shannon O'Leary, Ailsa Davidson (sister to Hamish and Lachlan Davidson), Kate O'Leary in front, behind her is Michael Kilpatrick, then one of the Davidsons, then Athalie Brooks. Neil Adam was there too.
Below: The other photo was taken at the Nash in 2000 where the group was busking - left to right Pria Schwall-Kearney, Shannon O'Leary, Colleen Butler, Ailsa Davidson, Kate O'Leary, Neil Adam.
- Sea to Sky out now
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Date Posted: Tue, 11 Jun 2019
Our new album, Sea to Sky, is now available for purchase!
Sea to Sky is the Club's 7th album, recorded in December 2018 in Melbourne. With everything from classical North East Scotland stylings to contemporary American tunes and Scots songs, Sea to Sky roars with the fiddle club's trademark energy and enthusiasm.
The album showcases the best of traditional and contemporary Scottish music, featuring tunes and songs from the likes of J.S. Skinner, Robert Burns, Adam Sutherland, Hanneke Cassel, Catrional Mckay and Catherine Fraser, not to mention a couple of fiddle club originals.
Be transported across bushland and mountain valleys, lochs and crags, until you reach that mythical place where the sea meets the sky.
We had such an amazing time putting this music together last year and are absolutely thrilled to be able to share it.
SHOP NOW
