Cover of Aly BainInternational folk music stars and academics are putting pressure on Shetland Islands Council not to scrap traditional fiddle teaching in the islands and to reverse recent cuts.A petition sent to council convener Malcolm Bell is signed by 44 people including such luminaries as US-based Scots fiddler Alasdair Fraser, the former Battlefield Band multi-instrumentalist Brian McNeill, Canadian fiddler Pierre Schryer, Irish fiddlers Liz Carroll and Liz Doherty and Shetland’s own Chris Stout and Catriona MacDonald. Many of the signatories have played at or attended the Shetland Folk Festival down the years.
The petition is led by US instructor Pamela Swing – once an assistant to the pioneering fiddle archivist and teacher, Dr Tom Anderson, and co-author of his book Haand Me Doon da Fiddle. She was prompted into action when concerns were expressed during the recent 2012 North Atlantic Fiddle Convention held in Derry, Northern Ireland, attended by most of those who signed the petition.
