Scottish Culture Online

The 13th Tinto Summer School will take place from the 2nd – 7th July at Wiston Lodge, South Lanarkshire. For the first time we will be running 2 youth summer schools and 1 senior school in 2012. How exciting!

Demand for the Tinto summer schools is extremely high and they sell out very quickly. Registration is open now. The booking system is an on-line shop that requires you to sign up and activate an account before you can register. If you have any questions, please contact us. You can also join our mail list.

Tutors

Deirdre Graham

Brought up surrounded by the rich culture of the Isle of Skye, Deirdre’s first experience of music was through her mother, a gifted Gaelic singer. Tuition in clàrsach and piano followed and Deirdre pursued her study of song under highly regarded singer and Gaelic scholar Kenna Campbell on the Scottish Music course at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. In the past few years she has played to audiences throughout Europe, Canada and China. Deirdre has featured on several recordings, including the Niteworks EP ‘Obair Oidhche’, for whom she has also performed with on numerous occasions. Herself nurtured through the thriving Fèis movement, Deirdre is now a popular tutor of Gaelic song, clarsach, piano and step dance across Scotland for Fèisean nan Gaidheal. Most recently Deirdre spent a year living in China where she taught music to the Foundation Stage of the British School of Guangzhou.

Robert Menzies

As former member of the band Koda, Robert has been playing music since the age of eight. Under the tuition of Keith Dickson, Robert has achieved competition success both as an individual and with other musicians with notable wins including the UK Scottish Accordion Championship (twice), the UK Advanced Classical Duet Championship, the Open Band Section in Oban, the Bill Sharp Scholarship, the Highlands and Islands Accordion Masters Title and, is a former finalist in the BBC Radio Scotland Young Musician of the Year. In addition, Robert has also achieved considerable competition success playing both piano and fiddle. With his own band, Reel Rhythm, Robert has performed regularly at festivals and events locally, nationally and internationally. Over the past few years they have travelled to China, Belgium and Syria to accompany the Thornhill Scottish Country Dancers.

Findlay Napier

Findlay Napier is the singer and songwriter in Findlay Napier and the Bar Room Mountaineers. Nominated as Songwriter of the year in the 2010 ‘MG Alba Scottish Traditional Music Awards’ Napier has been emerging as a writer and performer of increasingly impressive stature. The first Bar Room Mountaineers album, ‘Out All Night’ was released in July 2009 at the Cambridge Folk Festival and received rave reviews. The album was followed by three single releases leading up to the launch of a new album, ‘File Under Fiction’, released in May 2011. Findlay and The Bar Room Mountaineers also run the Hazy Recollections mini-festival in Glasgow. Since January 2010 Hazy Recollections has celebrated and connected acts whose music meets at the boundaries of the indie, folk and roots scenes. Napier is a graduate of the BA Scottish Music Degree course at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama where he studied Scots song and guitar. On leaving the RSAMD he went onto form multi-award winning band Back of the Moon. The band released three critically albums and toured extensively in the UK, Europe and North America. In 2002 Findlay began writing with Nick Turner and the writing project called ‘Queen Anne’s Revenge’ was born. The pair have released two albums under the pseudonym ‘Queen Anne’s Revenge’ and continue to write together. He is also a member of the Northern Songs Collective led by Ronan Keating sideman Jimmy Docherty.

Kev O’Neill

Kevin O’Neill of Treacherous Orchestra is an enigma of Glasgow, a man often found fronting sessions in all manner of venues across the city. His style, born of a fusion between Scottish and Irish playing is as fluid and meticulously controlled, as it is exhilarating to listen to. Born in the Royal Burgh of Rutherglen, Kevin is a true Glaswegian character, blending his fondness for the city’s hidden depths with a cartoon-like outlook on life.

Jenna Reid

Hailing from Shetland, Jenna grew up immersed in the islands rich fiddle tradition. At the age of nine, she began to learn the fiddle, and was taught by Dr Tom Anderson. On leaving school, Jenna went on to study a BA in Traditional Scottish Music at the Royal Academy of Music & Drama in Glasgow. She has played with Filska, Dochas and Deaf Shepherd and released her first solo album last year.

Adam Sutherland

Adam has become a familiar face on the scene in recent years mainly as part of the Peatbog Faeries, and Session A9. He has been nominated six times in the Scots Trad Music Awards. With his own unique style of communication Adam is increasingly sought after as a teacher. In the past he has taught for South Lanarkshire Council, Glasgow Fiddle Workshop, Edinburgh Youth Gaitherin and Feis Rois amongst others. Adam has also recorded and performed with Croft no Five, Fire in the Bog, Scottish Stepdance Co, Salsa Celtica, Findlay Macdonald band and Avernish.

House Staff

During the evening and over night at Tinto Summer School, our highly experience, fully disclosure checked house staff are in charge. Their word is law, but they`re generally pretty nice about it.

Louise Hunter

Louise was a participant at Tinto for the first three years until she got too old! She has since worked as a member of the housestaff team and is delighted to have made it to Tinto 10! She is really looking forward this year and is hoping to be crowned Tinto Mental Maths Challenge Champion for the 5th year running. Louise grew up learning and playing fiddle on the Irish music scene in Glasgow and was taught by Frank McArdle and Liz Doherty. She went on to study fiddle at the RSAMD in Glasgow and the University of Limerick in Ireland. Louise now runs her own fiddle school in Glasgow called The Southside Fiddlers. Louise would like to say that having been a participant at Tinto many years ago she knows all the hiding places and secret passages, therefore nobody will get away with missing the morning warm ups!

Paul Murray

Paul has been a member of the house staff since the first Tinto in 2000. He was taught fiddle by Anna Dagg (now of the Whistlebinkies) and developed his playing and singing throughout his teens as a member of Penicuik Folk Club. He’s now immersed in the Edinburgh and Scottish folk scene as a session player and a member of several ceilidh bands. Paul is committed to encouraging young people to get interested in Folk and Traditional music and is a major player in the Edinburgh Youth Gaitherin, the Edinburgh University Folk Society (Folksoc). Paul is a recent addition to the Fresh Air student radio DJ team and has been presenting “Fresh Folk” since 2006. When he`s not doing all of these things, Paul takes Chemistry workshops and talks into Schools all over the country unde the guise of Chemical Connection. Paul is a big fan of lunchtime soup and cheese and would like you to be aware that the rules of Tinto state that he has first refusal on any leftovers at all times.

Simon Thoumire

Simon is a virtuoso concertina player, piper and composer and is a director of both Footstompin Records and Hands up for Trad. Simon is constantly encouraging young people to take an interest in their heritage through traditional music, Simon and has been involved with all of the major providers of workshops including The Edinburgh Youth Gaitherin, The Edinburgh Feis, Feis Rois, Folkworks, Comhaltas, Glasgow, Celtic Connections Education Programme and Yehudi Menuin’s Live Music Now. Through Hands Up for Trad, Simon funds and co-organises Tinto Summer School and his speciality is handing out life advice from the couch in the lobby