Christine Kydd
Christine Kydd is one of Scotland's most highly respected singers and workshop leaders in Scots song and has been singing folk and traditional songs since she was a child, playing her first concerts at the age of 11 with her guitar and her great friends in Glasgow. Since then, she has performed and recorded, with some of Scotlands most highly respected musicians, as well as receiving a number of awards for her work. From an Edinburgh base, over a number of years, working solo, and in many combinations including extensively in a duo with Janet Russell, supertrio Chantan (Corrina Hewat, Elspeth Cowie), Miro (Ian McLeod, James Mackintosh, Simon Bradley, Chick MacAuley , Rebecca Knorr) Calluna (Anna Wendy Stevenson, Rebecca Knorr, Charlotte Peterson), Christine has also featured in occasional duos with many top musicians including Norman Chalmers, Andy Thorburn, Lorraine Jordan, and most recently with Ellefish (Kit Watson, Frances Wilkins) and Sinsheen (Barbara Dymock) She has featured on TV, radio, in theatre, and at numerous festivals in the UK, in Europe, North America, and Russia, and has supported many artistes including Richard Thompson and Christy Moore.
In 1992 she gained a postgraduate teaching Advanced Diploma in Voice Studies at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London (ADVS), accepting a post as Voice Tutor at Guildford School of Acting in 1992/3. Returning to Scotland, she pursued a performing and teaching career until 1999/2000 when she moved to the rural North East as jobshare Traditional Music Resident in Aberdeenshire with lorna McLaren, then Music Development Officer for Stirling Council on Sound Tracks!, a community- based project on music making in traditions and technology for Scottish Arts Council National Lottery. While continuing performing and teaching, and consultancy on Traditional Arts with Local Authorities, this was followed by fulfilling a two -year Cultural Co-ordinator Post (also funded by Scottish Arts Council) for Traditional Arts, in The Mearns Academy Cluster from 2004-2006, and from 2001 as Scots Song Tutor at Scotlands Centre for Excellence in Traditional Music.
Christine is highly experienced in working with adults, and in intergenerational projects, forming community based singing groups with a focus on Scots song and Culture. She has extensive experience of working in community settings towards performance and celebration. Community choirs JustSingin and recently Burns Quoir (Christine's family roots are in the North East) are projects she has initiated and developed with community members as Musical Director and arranger; she also works as workshop leader in Scots Song, voice and singing. Her work in schools and community consistently forms part of her varied schedule and includes, more recently, songmaking projects for The New Makars Trust with Primary age children, for local authorities in Secondary schools.
Christine is currently completing an M.Litt in Ethnology and Folklore at the University of Aberdeen's Elphinstone Institute. Christine feels a special connection with Aberdeen, where, as Musician in Residence at Aberdeen Alternative Festival for a number of years, as well as performing solo, she collaborated with master fiddler Alasdair Fraser, supported Capercaille, and later Marra and Paterson, Jean Redpath as well as Ladysmith Black Mambazo. She has a long-standing connection with Aberdeen Folk Club and The Lemon Tree, tutored at SCAT in 2000, and this season she is delighted to return to tutor the Level 3 Song class at SCAT.
At present Christine works as freelance singer, songwriter, solo, in vocal duo Sinsheen and in instrumental and vocal trio Ellefish, in concert, schools and community. The recent CD release "LIFT" in duo Sinsheen has received critical acclaim, and features Michael Marra as musician and producer.
Contact: scotsvoice@christinekydd.com PO box 23163 Angus DD8 4YL