Neil 
Sutcliffe

with Neil Sutcliffe on accordion Paul MacAlindin conductor commissioned by The Glasgow Barons, the first of Four Seasons in One Day, describing Glasgow's year supported by Creative Scotland and the William Grant Foundation. Awarded New Music Scotland's 2023 award for best large scale composition Three Celtic winter holidays 1st movement - Samhain 31st October 2nd movement - Yule 21st December 3rd movement - Imbolc 1st February This piece explores three of the major winter festivals once celebrated by the Ancient Celts. I - Samhain - The Celtic New Year - 31st October Samhain was the most important festival of the year for the Ancient Celts. Places which were between worlds or between times were of special spiritual importance to the Celts. Samhain marked the divide in the year between the light and dark, signalling the end of summer and the beginning of winter as well as being the night between one year and the next. The Celts believed that the doors to the afterlife opened on this one night of the year and therefore souls and spirits of the dead could return to this world. Many used divination to predict what the coming winter would hold for them while others would try to mock the darkness and fear by singing songs or create bonfires to protect themselves from the spirits. II - Yule - The Winter Solstice - 21st December The Winter Solstice marks the shortest day and the longest night of the year, when the sun is at its lowest point on the horizon. This was seen as a time of rebirth and renewal as it signified the return of light. “Solstice” comes from the Latin solstitum meaning “sun stands still” and the Celts believed that the sun stood still for 12 days in the middle of winter. Here began the tradition of burning a yule log in order to conquer the darkness and banish evil spirits. III - Imbolc - The Beginning of Spring - 1st February Imbolc marked the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. The beginning of spring brought stirrings of new life and the beginning of lambing season. It is “Feile Brighde”, the “quickening of the year” where they celebrated the gradual return to growth and light. Neil Sutcliffe - Neil Sutcliffe is an accordionist from Stirling who performs in a wide variety of contexts and styles. He graduated in 2021 from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland where he studied classical accordion with Djordje Gajic, but also has a strong musical background in traditional music and jazz. Alongside his solo classical career Neil is regularly involved in collaborative artistic projects with storytellers, singers and other musicians and ensembles. He is passionate about promoting the classical accordion in Scotland through performing, teaching, research and collaborating with composers. Aileen Sweeney (b.1994) is a Scottish composer, accordionist and arranger based in Glasgow and enjoys a varied career as a freelance musician. Her music is cross-genre, infused with the ornamentation, energy and colours of the Scottish folk music she grew up playing learning the accordion. Her music is often influenced by nature and folklore, as well as finding inspiration in current social and political affairs she is passionate about such as climate change, equality and politics. In 2021, Aileen's piece, Above the Stars, performed by The London Philharmonic Orchestra won the award for 'Large Scale New Work' sponsored by PRS at The Scottish Awards for New Music.

solo accordion Neil Sutcliffe acting/movement coach Ewan Miller videography Hamish MacLeod, Elly Lucas sound engineer Tim Cooper producer Paul MacAlindin filmed in the Billiard Room, Pearce Institute, Govan reproduced with kind permission from the Ronald Stevenson Society supported by Creative Scotland https://www.ronaldstevensonsociety.org.uk/

Four beautiful tracks from our 2023 Special Commission 'Two for Joy'. Curated and arranged by Ailie Robertson, also featured here on the harp. Left to right the rest of the band are: Heather Cartwright (guitar/vocals), Kathleen Macinnes (vocals), Alastair Savage (fiddle), Neil Sutcliffe (accordion/vocals) and Alice Allen ('cello). The tunes and songs are: Fàilt’ Ort Fhein a Chuthag Ghorm (Welcome to the Cuckoo) – Trad Fjellvåk (Mountain Bird) – Olav Luksengård Mjelva Lon-Dubh (The Blackbird) – Méabh Ní Bheaglaoich Pililiù (The Call of the Red Shank) - Trad Two for Joy was performed as part of Edinburgh Tradfest 23 on Monday 1 May at the Traverse Theatre. Sound recording is by Nora Winstanley, sound mix by Dave Keay, camera and direction by Sandy Butler, production by Jane-Ann Purdy and Douglas Robertson of The Soundhouse Organisation.

Neil Sutcliffe: Accordion and Voice Juliette Lemoine: Cello A song by Jim and Jean Brown, "Out by the Isle" challenges us to reflect on our role in climate change and environmental change on earth. Filmed for the 2021 RCS ETCH Festival, focused around COP26 in Glasgow. Out by the isle, I watched for a while As the seals swam in the water clear. And we sang to them too, the way we always do For the joy of seeing them draw near. They were part of the world that we knew Never thought that their days would be through Now the seals share our song no more Slowly dying by the shore. In a tropical land where the tall trees stand Giving shelter to all who live below As the great forest sighs, its breath fills the skies And drifts with the winds that blow. Now the trees are cut down in their prime Sacrificed to the needs of the time Soon the world will breathe only despair Through the poisoned air. As we watch on the screen a world fair and green Ravaged by man’s careless greed If life is our choice, we must be the voice For the earth in her time of need. Or the seals and the forests must die While spaceships are searching the sky. If they find there a world that is new Will we leave that dying too?

This was a wonderful collaboration with composer Zakia Fawcett, created for the RCS Not-too-distant-now concert in Dec 2020. This was a concert organised and directed by Graeme McNaught, based around the theme of distance and communication, particularly during the Covid pandemic. This multi-media piece explores touch, intimacy, and relationships, using film and a tape-track by Zakia Fawcett, with the accordion improvising over the top of this and acting as a canvas for the projection.

Charybdis, for 2 accordions (2010) Neil Sutcliffe Zach Ronan This piece, Charybdis, was written for the accordion duo MYTHOS (Bjarke Mogensen and Rasmus Kjøller) and is named after the great sea-monster in Greek mythology that lives under a rock in the narrow Strait of Messina between Sicily and Calabria. In the Odyssey, Odysseus must sail between Charybdis, who sucks the sea into her mouth and spits it back to create a whirlpool, and the six-headed monster Scylla on the Calabrian mainland. I discovered the original compositions of Kasper Rofelt, a contemporary Danish composer, for accordion in the summer of 2020. He has worked extensively with Bjarke Mogensen, one of the world’s leading classical accordionists, and I would highly recommend exploring the album “The Song I’ll never Sing”, a collection of his chamber and solo works for the instrument. Rofelt’s own notes on the piece focus on the natural power of the whirlpool, an “awesome, devouring, natural force that nothing can escape”. The piece blends the two accordion sounds together, with musical ideas drifting from one instrument to the other like currents twisting and swirling.

Presented in a partnership between the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the Scottish Government, the Hope Springs Eternal performances focus on the themes of climate, nature and resilience as Scotland prepares to host the world's largest climate conference, COP 26, in November. Neil Sutcliffe performs music and spoken word by Jackie Kay, Jenna Reid and Andy Hornby.

Composer Zakia Fawcett invited me to collaborate with several other musicians on this project. The brief was to respond to their sculpture "Recovery: I am the sum of the parts". My reaction to this piece focussed on addiction and the feeling of inescapability that comes from it.