Friday 18-09-2020 - 14:45

 

One of the stars of the HISA Trad Fest, Ellen Grieve, originally from Coatbridge, has been a part-time student on the #ThinkUHI Applied Music degree for 8 years, which has given her many opportunities to explore music, including conducting one of her own compositions, written for 61 musicians, at the Glasgow Mitchell Theatre as part of Celtic Connections. As part of HISA's online celebration of female musicians from across the Highlands and Islands, Ellen spoke to HISA President, Florence Jansen, about her experience studying at the University of the Highlands and Islands and the meaning being her songs.

 

 

Flo: Thanks so much for making the time! Super excited to have you, and just to start off really, if you could tell me a little bit more about why you chose to study with UHI?

 

 

Ellen: Well it was a long while ago I started, it was 2012, because I’m doing the degree part time and it was a kind of spur of the moment decision. I saw there was a new course being advertised in the local newspaper and I stay in one of the remote Islands on Orkney, so there was no way that I could ever have thought about going to uni or anything from there. So, a couple of weeks past and it was readvertised and I thought well what’s the worst that can happen, I’ll try it and see. It was the accessibility thing as well, and the chance to study something that I was teaching, a wee bit of accordion, but I had never studied music at all. All my studying had been in sciences, so it was a bit of a spur of the moment decision to go on an adventure.

 

 

Flo: No absolutely, and it’s really the great thing about UHI, that it’s so accessible from all over. So, how have you found connecting to the course from Orkney, with the course being based in Uist? And, how’s your student experience been so far?

 

 

Ellen: The college in Uist and Benbecula and Stornoway have been great. It’s great communication and all the staff have been really really good, and Orkney College has been really helpful any time I need a space to work in, like last week's residency, they just gave me a room to myself and I worked away on my own in this room. It’s worked fine, it’s a lot of collaboration between all the colleges and the people involved.

 

 

Flo: That’s great to hear absolutely, and your residencies in the music programme are always very special, like I was there two years ago I think to go to one to just have a bit of a nosey and it was definitely really really great to see you guys all coming together. So, can you just tell us a little bit more about your set that you’ve put together for our trad festival?

 

 

Ellen: I’ve put a couple of tunes that have both kind of got Orkney connections. They’re both about people from Orkney. That I’ve known in my lifetime, so there's that personal connection and I also wanted to do something that was more sort of homely and informal rather than a technical recital piece. I wanted to just do it for fun really, so the two tunes mean quite a bit to me personally and I just wanted to get the chance to play them.

 

 

Flo: No absolutely, and we’re so happy to give you a platform to do that as well and we’re definitely super excited for your set and for everything else that’s to come in your music degree as well. Is there anything else that you would like to share with us about the course or your music that you would like people to know?

 

 

Ellen: Not really, because at the moment I work full time, I just sort of teach accordion and I’m doing the course - that’s kind of all I’ve got time for at the moment. I don’t do a lot of performing, there’s not that many opportunities at the moment in Orkney, but I’ve been enjoying the sort of lockdown music on the internet and joining in with some of that, and collaborations - so it’s been a good chance to do that. But, I would recommend the course to anybody.

 

 

Flo: Very exciting. Yeah, thank you so much for making the time and yes we’re super excited to be hosting this as well and for you to be a part of it. And, I think you’re definitely one of those people that we go show the world and be like, it’s never too late to kind of get into music and make the dream come true so really really excited for that one, and thank you so much for making the time.

 

 

Ellen: You’re very welcome. See you later.

 

Flo: See you later, thank you!

 

#HISATradFest