The Inveresk Fiddle – National Trust for Scotland Concerts

The National Trust for Scotland is delighted to announce two concerts are the latest in a series of charity concerts featuring instruments made by Edinburgh violin maker Steve Burnett, which have included concerts for a range of local and international environmental charities.

These 2 autumn concerts will be the first public airing of an instrument made from the limb of a willow pollarded from a tree in Inveresk Lodge Garden. From this wood, Steve has created a violin with a full-bodied mellowness and sweetness, giving an authentic tone nearer to the violins used in the 18th century.As an established, well-respected Edinburgh-based maker of violins, violas and cellos, Steve Burnett finds inspiration for his work and craft in the long-forgotten art of instrument making practices of the golden age of 18th century Italian makers. After many years of research and detective work, he sees his making skills and products as an honest interpretation of the work seen and heard in these early Italian workshops.

Inveresk Fiddle Concerts Join us for two wonderful celebrations of 18th century Scottish music performed this autumn by renowned Scottish fiddle player and Niel Gow authority, Pete Clark with Ron Shaw on cello and Katharine Wake on flute.

St Michael’s Kirk in Inveresk and Dunkeld Cathedral are the venues chosen for the concerts and are the perfect settings to enjoy the chamber sound which will be created for the Inveresk and Dunkeld concerts, with violin, cello and flute.

The repertoire chosen for the concerts includes musical gems from 18th century Scotland. Many of the great Scottish musicians of the 18th century were leading players and teachers of European art music as well. The Inveresk and Dunkeld concerts will introduce some of the amazing characters behind this evolution, from Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, the only Scot to learn composition from Corelli in Italy through to Niel Gow, and his son Nathaniel.