Friday, January 14, 2022

Composing music theatre works during the pandemic

I've been composing the music for a new musical theater piece about a small island in the Hebrides over the last couple of years and the pandemic was not going to stop me. It's amazing that we live in a time where we can regularly meet with people who are sometimes thousands of miles away using the internet.


It was important for me to capture the nuances of Scottish Ceilidh music, so I started working with several professional accordionists on Skype during the Pandemic. Mike Aman owns Monarch Accordions and we work on my repertoire and technique. His accordion orchestras are legendary and his daughter is a national accordion champion. Sandy Brechin is in Edinburgh and he's one of Scotland's best known Ceilidh accordionists.