Sherlock violin to be played at special Dunkeld concert

Sep 14 2010 by Alison Anderson, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

A SPECIAL feature of a concert in Dunkeld Cathedral tomorrow will be the playing of the ‘Sherlock’ violin, which was officially accepted into Edinburgh University's Collection of Historic Musical Instruments last week.

Outstanding Perthshire-based fiddler Pete Clark played the instrument in a concert to mark the occasion, and Pete and the violin will be making guest appearances in tomorrow’s Dunkeld Cathedral concert.

The violin was made last year by Edinburgh instrument maker Steve Burnett from the wood of a 175-year old sycamore which grew in the garden of a cottage in south Edinburgh where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle spent part of his childhood. The violin was completed in time to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the author’s birth in May 2009.

Musicians Feargus Hetherington and Will Pickvance will be giving a chat about the violin and playing some music from their concert programme to pupils of Royal School Dunkeld tomorrow afternoon, and surplus funds from their evening concert will be given to support local music-making by young people in the area.

The Dunkeld concert (tickets available from The Birnam Institute) is the first stop on a concert tour of the Highlands which will take violinist Feargus Hetherington, piano accompanist Will Pickvance and the ‘Sherlock’ violin to Elgin, Fortrose and Dornoch.

The programme for the Dunkeld concert is Praeludium and Allegro, Fritz Kreisler; Sonata on ‘Bonny Jean of Aberdeen’, Alexander Munro; Rondo in C KV 373, Mozart; Air, Miss Grace Stewart’s Minuet, Gavotta (with Pete Clark, fiddle), Robert Mackintosh; Setting of ‘Through the Wood, Laddie’, William McGibbon; solo fiddle music played by Pete Clark; and A Highland Ballad, Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie.