Artist of the month: Shona Mooney
Biography
Recent projects
Future performances
Borders fiddler Shona Mooney performed live at the Scots Trad Music Awards in December 2006.
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Shona Mooney’s first instrument was a tiny second-hand fiddle bought in a junk-shop in Peebles. Moving around the Scottish Borders during her childhood, she began playing music in her parents’ band O’er the Border. |
Shona studied classical violin and traditional fiddle styles with Borders fiddler Lucy Cowan before going on to join the vibrant traditional music scene fostered by Harris Playfair and John Mabon at Kelso High School.
Shona was one of the first students on the BMus in Folk and Traditional Music at Newcastle University, a degree she began in 2001. She studied with Catriona Macdonald, Chris Wood and Aidan O’Rourke, and spent a great deal of time researching Borders music, an interest which was fuelled by her father Gordon's research into Borders piping. Much of her repertoire comes from her and her father’s research, and Shona intends to build upon this by seeking out more Borders melodies and integrating them with contemporary influences.
In 2005, Shona graduated from Newcastle University with first-class honours. In the same year, she toured Scotland with The Unusual Suspects. She is a founder member of Sirens, an all-female band performing original compositions and a wealth of traditional and contemporary music, from Gaelic song to American Bluegrass. Shona’s fellow band-members are Shona Kipling (accordion), Olivia Ross (vocals, fiddle, viola), Rachel Newton (clarsach, vocals, fiddle), Lillias Kinsman Blake (flute, fiddle) and Laura Salter (mandolin, vocals).
Shona won the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year award in 2006.
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As a result of this award, she had the opportunity to record her debut album, Heartsease, for Foot Stompin’ Records, which combines traditional borders material with contemporary original tunes inspired by the Borders landscape, people and culture. |
This year she also performed alongside Capercaillie stars Donald Shaw and Karen Matheson at BBC Proms in the Park, and was chosen to appear on Howard Goodall’s How Music Works for Channel 4. In December, Shona performed at the Scots Trad Music Awards in Fort William, with the Shona Mooney Band.
Shona will be making three appearances at Celtic Connections 2007. On Friday 26 January, she will join Simon Thoumire for Iain Anderson In Conversation. On Wednesday 31 January, she performs in the Ceolraidh programme alongside Norrie McIver, Julie Fowlis and John McCusker at the National Piping Centre. She will also perform at the finals of the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year on 28 January as part of Celtic Connections, alongside finalists Darren MacLean (Gaelic song), Mike Vass (fiddle), Calum Stewart (wooden flute), Catriona Watt (Gaelic song), Calum MacCrimmon (pipes/whistles) and Martin Hunter (accordion).
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For more information, including live performance dates, visit the Shona Mooney website. | |