About Allan MacDonald

A leading figure in the Gaelic musical scene, Allan MacDonald is in demand internationally as a composer, musical director, piper, singer, workshop leader, and lecturer on Gaelic music.

One of his myriad gifts is to make pibroch accessible and lovable. His work as a scholar-performer reuniting seventeenth-century piping with its Gaelic roots is influencing a whole generation of pipers.

Allan has performed at many of the major Celtic and piping festivals around the world.  He lectured on the Scottish Music course at the RSAMD, (renamed the Scottish Conservatoire of Music) from its inception in 1995 until the end of 2013 to be free-lance for 2014 when he received a commission to write ‘The Bruce700’ He had previously been musical director for BBC television series eg. An Ataireachd Bhuan (1992), Éideadh nan Guth (1994) the first Gaelic Hogmanay show in1994-95, ‘Seudan a’Chuain’ (GrampianTV 1996) BBC eightpart series ‘Na h-Eilthirich’ (1998) as well as other commissions.

 In 2000 was music director for ‘The Well’ a ten-show series sponsored by River Dance in Dublin portraying the ‘roots’ of our common traditions of music and dance in Ireland and Scotland including song and poetry. In 1999, Allan directed a pioneering series for the Edinburgh International Festival, presenting every aspect of the piping tradition in 9 concerts, linking the music with different aspects of Scottish history and culture.

He then undertook another pioneering project for the Edinburgh Festival in 2004 with a series of 4 concerts called ‘From Battle Lines to Bar Lines’ that placed pibroch, the Gaelic court music called ‘Ceòl Mór’, into its functional historic context using an array of instruments in addition to bagpipes. This won the ‘Herald Angel Award’ voted by journalists. In 2005, he co-directed a six-part television series screened on RTE, BBC3 and ITV, ‘The Highland Sessions’encompassing the common language and musical traditions of Scotland and Ireland The series won the best documentary music award in Ireland.

In January 2007, The BBC made a documentary on Allan and his brothers, Dr Angus and Iain (also famed pipers). The three brothers were born in the tiny Gaelic-speaking township of Glenuig in Moidart.

Allan won one of the highest awards in piping, the Clasp at the Northern Meeting, two years running (1989 and 1990) and then followed a style of playing that was closer to his own Gaelic heritage.

His approach is infused with an insider’s ear for the fragile traces of historical continuity that survive within Gaelic-speaking communities, and he attempts to reverse the effects of post-Industrial sanitisation and cultural colonialism.

This freer, more varied, and historically informed approach to ceòl mór is too novel for many who are used to the style of today, but it has a clearer melodic line and rhythm and is therefore easier to learn. The players of this music, when it was at its zenith in the 17^th century, learned it by ear.

In 1995 he presented a thesis on ‘The Relationship between Pibroch and Gaelic Song: its Implications on the Performance Style of the Pibroch Urlar’ to the University of Edinburgh. In the same year, 1995, the John MacFadyen Trust who were sponsors for the research, asked him to give a lecture in the great hall of Stirling Castle.This can be accessed below: John MacFadyen Lecture 1^st and 2^nd half.

In 1997 his brother Iain produced a CD of songs and music for Allan and the Gaelic singer Margaret singer from the Island of Lewis entitled ‘Fhuair mi Pòg’(Greentrax Recordings) This was followed by another CD ‘Colla mo Rùn’ in 2001 each of which explored the relationship and relevance of Gaelic song and Pibroch. In 2007, he released another CD called ‘Dastirum’ comprising 12 examples of ceòl mór played in the older, unadulterated style of pibroch playing.