Shetland-Music.com

Margaret Scollay was born into one of Yell's most musical families. Her maternal family tree is directly descendant of Brucie Danielson the fore-father of the Cullivoe traditional style. Brucie taught local players among them Margaret's Grandfather Simpson Henderson, his brother Willie Barclay Henderson and their brother in law Bobby Jamieson.

Margaret Scollay on stage with Linda Irvine (right) and youngest son Ryan

On her father's side she is at least the third generation of fiddlers and in turn both her son's are fiddlers and her daughter a piano accompanist.

Margaret began lessons at school when the late Dr Tom Anderson convinced the local education service they should introduce traditional fiddle tuition into the local curriculum.

She continued to study with Tom for 3 yrs and then went on to study under another acclaimed Shetland fiddle player Trevor Hunter. Under Trevor's guidance she received the school trophy for musical achievement for three consecutive years.

Also during her time with Trevor she won the inaugural 'Shetland Young Fiddler of the Year' competition in 1982 (her son Ryan went on to win the same trophy 25 years later).

Trevor also encouraged Margaret to join the Shetland Fiddlers Society to learn more of the older traditional tunes, where she ultimately progressed to be deputy leader.

Upon leaving school, Margaret was approached by Shetland Island Councils Education Department to teach fiddle in some of the outlying island schools. Through this post she created a number of out-of-school fiddle groups, the most successful of which was 'High Strings', formed largely from students at Lerwick's Anderson High School.

This group toured regularly both in and outwith Shetland and went on to release three albums. Many of Shetland's most celebrated fiddlers passed through the ranks of this group, Andrew Gifford of Fiddlers Bid and Jenna Reid, Bethany Reid and Gemma Wilson all of Filksa, to name a few.

A healthy number of her students also went on to win the Shetland Young Fiddler of the Year competition, by now firmly established as Shetland's most important music competition.

More recently Margaret developed the syllabus for grade exams in Traditional Fiddle in conjunction with Trinity Guildhall in London. Grades are now available at 9 levels and have proved very popular with students.

Shortly after beginning fiddle lessons Margaret developed an interest in piano accompaniment. This has proved to be an invaluable skill not only for her work with students but also in local bands. Margaret began playing for dancing at 14 with the 'Scollay Band' then moved onto the 'Cullivoe Band' and is currently part of the 'Alan Nicolson Band' - all very popular bands for local ceilidh dancing as well as festivals in Shetland and on the Mainland. Her time with the Cullivoe band brought her in direct contact with the late great Shetland fiddle exponent Willie Hunter.

In 1998 Margaret and her husband Alan toured in Norway as part of a school concert program. This project teamed them with two leading Norwegian musicians to present a concert highlighting the similarities of Traditional Shetland music and Traditional Norwegian music and the differences of more modern approaches.

In April 2006 Margaret's teaching and directing skill were put to the test when she was asked to work with 8 young musicians and to mould them into a performing group and write a production titled Shetlands Music - Past and Present. The group called 'Gaddery' (a gathering in Shetland dialect) went on to undertake a tour in the USA and present an educational programme in a number of American schools and colleges.

Margaret Scollay (left) on stage with members of Gaddery

Margaret has constantly performed as a fiddler in various guises over the years, from solo to the Margaret Couper and Friends Band who released the album 'Laurie Davies Fiddle' in 1992. This was followed by 'Strings n' Things' who performed in a more contemporary style and more recently 'Maddrim'.

Her fiddle career has now reverted to a more solo path, and has recently seen the release of a book, 'The Wilderness Collection Vol 1', and corresponding CD, 'The Wilderness' of self compositions.