2007 Awardee: Jenna Reid
Biography
Shetland-born Jenna Reid began playing the fiddle when she was nine. Together with her brother, sister and pianist mother she formed the family band Filska. The band has recorded three albums and toured the world.
In 1995 Jenna, then 14 years old, won the ‘Shetlands Young Fiddler of the Year’ competition and 9 years’ later was a finalist in the ‘Young Scottish Traditional Musician of the Year’. In between she gained a good degree in Scottish traditional music at the RSAMD, Glasgow and became a professional musician.
In 2005 Jenna released her first solo album and won the award for ‘Best Up and Coming Artist’ at the Scots Traditional Music Awards. Jenna also performed with bands, including the Gaelic band Dochas and Scottish band Deaf Shepherd. As a member of Dochas she recorded two albums and won the award for ‘Best Up and Coming Band’ at the 2003 Scots Traditional Music Awards. All of this was achieved playing a fiddle found in her grandmother’s attic when she was 9 years old.
Not surprisingly, Jenna is regarded as one of the most talented and musical young fiddlers to have emerged in Scotland in the last few years. For more information about Jenna, please see www.jennareid.co.uk.
How the Award Helped
The Dewar Arts Award will enable Jenna to purchase a professional standard fiddle, in time to use when recording her second solo album.
Since the Award
After recording her second CD ‘Laughing Girl’ was finished, Jenna writes that her new fiddle “was a joy to record with” and that now she has “more confidence in my instrument and what it can do and how it will sound at a concert or in a recording studio.” In her new violin, a Southern-German Klotz violin, Jenna has the sound that she wants as a professional fiddle player.