Jenna Reid

Jenna Reid
Jenna Reid in 2016
Background information
BornQuarff, Shetland, Scotland
OriginShetland, Scotland
GenresTraditional
InstrumentFiddle
WebsiteJenna Reid

Jenna Reid is a Scottish fiddle player who has been described as "...the finest fiddler in Scotland of her generation."[1] She was born and brought up in the village of Quarff, in the Shetland Islands of Scotland[2][3] and found a fiddle in her grandmother's attic when she was nine years old and started to play it.[4] She was taught by Tom Anderson and Willie Hunter[2] and also studied the classical piano.[5] She graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Scottish traditional music[4] where she also sang and played the piano accordion and the piano[5] (which she learnt from her teacher Walter Blair[6]).

In addition to performing with her own Jenna Reid Band,[3] she played with the Scottish traditional music group Filska (which originally consisted of Jenna, her sister Bethany and her mother Joyce Reid[7] but later included her friend Gemma Wilson[8]) which performed in France, Canada, the US, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Italy and Ireland.[8] She and Filska represented Scotland by playing at the Walt Disney World Millennium Celebrations at the Epcot Centre, Florida and they also played at Scotland's Millennium celebrationss.[5]

She also played with Blazin' Fiddles[3][9] RANT,[3][10] the Highland Fiddle Band,[11] the Gaelic band Dòchas,[12][13] Deaf Shepherd,[4] Fiddler's Bid, Vital Signs, Celtic Feet[5][7] and McFalls Chamber.[14] At the request of Aly Bain and Jerry Douglas, she has featured as a guest artist on Transatlantic Sessions 3 & 4.[11] She played on the soundtrack of the film Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle.[11]

Jenna Reid (centre) with Filska band, Edinburgh Festival 2004

She was awarded the "Shetland Young Fiddler of the Year" prize in 1995 when she was 14 years old and was in the final of the "Young Scottish Traditional Musician of the Year" competition in 2004.[4] In 2005 Jenna won "Best Up and Coming Artist" at the Scots Trad Music Awards. In 2007 she was nominated for "Best Instrumentalist" and was awarded the "Dewar Arts Award."[4]

Jenna and her sister Bethany were curators for the Shetland Fiddle Frenzy festival in 2013, 2014 and 2015.[15]

In 2018 Jenna started working as a freelance broadcaster for the BBC One.[6]

In 2019 she won the PRS Traditional Composer of the Year Award at the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards and also her band Blazin Fiddles won the Folk Band of the Year award.[16]

Jenna is married to drummer Iain Sandilands who works at Big Noise (which supports children through music[17]) in Stirling. They have two children[6] a boy and a girl.[18]

Discography

  • With Silver And All (2005)
  • No. 1 Scottish Traditional Music from the RSAMD (2007)
  • The Laughing Girl (2008)
  • Escape - The Story of Jan Baalrud and the Shetland Bus (2010 - with Bethany Reid)
  • Morning Moon (2012)
  • Escape (2012)
  • The Quarff Collections (2014)
  • Live in Shetland (2015)
  • Working Hands (2019)
  • Songs from Jenna Reid (2020)

References

  1. ^ Adams, Rob (8 May 2008). "Jenna Reid - The sound of Shetland's bow belle". Rob Adams Journalist. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  2. ^ a b "About Jenna and Bethany Reid". Jenna and Bethany Reid. 2016. Archived from the original on 4 September 2012. Retrieved 26 May 2016.
  3. ^ a b c d "Fiddle Frenzy 2014 Opening Concert". Mareel. Shetland Arts Development Agency. 3 August 2014. Archived from the original on 17 June 2016. Retrieved 26 May 2016.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Dewar Awards - Jenna Reid 2007". Dewar Awards, Scottish Executive. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
  5. ^ a b c d "Jenna Reid". World Music Central. Archived from the original on 29 June 2016. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  6. ^ a b c "Jenna Reid: 10 Things That Changed My Life". The National. 22 December 2019. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  7. ^ a b "Filska - Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
  8. ^ a b Romero, Angel (25 June 2017). "Artist Profiles: Jenna Reid". World Music Central. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  9. ^ "Blazin' Fiddles - The Band". Blazin' Fiddles. 2016. Retrieved 26 May 2016.
  10. ^ "The Band - RANT". RANT - Scotland's chamber-folk quartet. Archived from the original on 18 October 2018. Retrieved 26 May 2016.
  11. ^ a b c "Jenna Reid". Perthshire Amber. Retrieved 25 May 2016.[permanent dead link‍]
  12. ^ "Filska biography of band members". The official web page of the Band Filska. Archived from the original on 4 May 2015. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
  13. ^ "Dòchas - biography of Jenna Reid". Dòchas - The Official Site of the band, traditional music from the highlands and Islands of Scotland and Ireland. Archived from the original on 8 April 2016. Retrieved 26 May 2016.
  14. ^ Adams, Rob (16 January 2019). "Jenna Reid on launching her debut album Working Hands at Celtic Connections". Herald Scotland. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  15. ^ Guest, Adam (3 August 2015). "Fiddle Frenzy under way". The Shetland Times. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  16. ^ Bemrose, Bekki (11 February 2020). "Interview: Jenna Reid". PRS For Music. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  17. ^ "Big Noise". Make a Big Noise. 2020. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  18. ^ Reid, Jenna (8 July 2020). "My Reflections on Lockdown". TRACS - Traditional Arts Culture Scotland. Retrieved 7 September 2020.