Hall of fame awaits fiddle great Hunter

The late Willie Hunter will be inducted into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Aberdeen.

His addition to the list of greats will take place at the Scottish Traditional Music Awards ceremony in the city’s Music Hall on Saturday, 7th December. The ceremony and its accompanying concert will be televised live on BBC Alba.

Hunter will be one of 11 new members added to the hall of fame for his contribution to the fiddle tradition.

To mark the occasion, in what would have been Willie’s 80th year, Shetland Musical Heritage Trust (SMHT) is bringing out a new book of Willie’s tunes, The Music of Willie Hunter, which will be launched in Lerwick on Friday, 13th December.

It contains all 31 of Willie’s compositions plus three by his father, Willie Hunter Senior.

Fiddler Bryan Gear and accompanist Violet Tulloch have been invited to Aberdeen to perform in the induction concert.

Violet is chairwoman of SMHT and Bryan one of its nine trustees.

Willie Hunter will be the fifth Shetland member of the hall of fame, following Tom Anderson, Peerie Willie Johnson, Aly Bain and Jim Halcrow.

As well as Hunter’s hall of fame induction there is a strong Shetland contingent among the nominees for this year’s Scots Trad Music Awards.

There are three nominees across the 16 categories. Christ Stout, now based in Glasgow, is in the running for instrumentalist of the year, Margaret Scollay is nominated in the music tutor of the year category and Mareel is forward for venue of the year.