Pàdruig Morrison has joined as Research Assistant, and will be liaising with composers, cataloguing scores, and working on a composer survey.
It was at the University of Edinburgh that Pàdruig studied music and Scottish Ethnology before going on to postgraduate studies at Maynooth University (Ireland) where he completed a PhD in Composition earlier this year entitled ‘Finding a Contemporary Voice for Gaelic Art Music in Scotland’. His doctoral research looked at the synthesis of traditional music and contemporary ‘classical’ composition, considering the crossover present in Scottish works over the past half-century, and submitting a creative output of a 2-hour long portfolio consisting of 11 original works which explore a unified synthesis of traditional music and contemporary composition, drawing deeply on Pàdruig’s knowledge of traditional music and the Gaelic tradition.
In 2020, Pàdruig was a finalist in the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year, and also received a New Voices commission at Celtic Connections. In 2019 Pàdruig was the winner of the Peter Rosser Composition Competition and has since then had works performed by the Rednote Ensemble, Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble, and the Hebrides Ensemble. He is also a band member of Beinn Lee, performing at Scottish and European festivals, as well as performing often as a soloist.
He began composing traditional tunes as a teenager, and his interest in innovating within traditional composition led to his doctoral compositional research. It also makes him deeply interested in the compositional innovation that constitutes the New Traditional School. Pàdruig is delighted to help the project as a Research Assistant working with Dr Lori Watson, the Department of Celtic and Scottish Studies, and the Scottish Music Centre to develop the next stage of this exciting project.
Traditional Music Research 