Trad music sessions are starting in the Pipers’ Tryst at The National Piping Centre this coming weekend. Fiddle and pipes duo, Ellie McLaren and Ciar Milne, will host the session with a 4pm start on Saturday, March 12. Future session dates will be announced on bagpipe.news when available. It’s an open house, so bring along your instruments for a tune with Ellie and Ciar.
The session coincides with the Duncan Johnstone Competition in The National Piping Centre, so why not pop-in for a refreshment and a listen after taking in some of the C Grade Jig competition which starts at 2pm in TNPC Auditorium.
Ellie and Ciar have been playing together since November 2019. They met in Glasgow whilst Ellie was studying on the Applied Music degree at the University of the Highlands and Islands, and Ciar was beginning his studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Ellie McLaren is from Braemar, in the heart of the Cairngorms and has been playing the fiddle since she was eight years old. First taught by brother and sister, Heather and Paul Anderson, Ellie developed a predominantly North East style, before moving to Plockton for her final year at school. There, she received lessons from Iain MacFarlane at the National Centre for Excellence in Traditional Music, where she was able to experiment with Gaelic melodies and the west coast style of fiddling. Following this, she headed south to Glasgow for her four years at university, tutored by Marie Fielding and Laura Wilkie. During her studies, Ellie began learning about the Irish and Cape Breton traditions, as well as delving into her passion for pipe music.
