Katherine McGillivray (1970-2006) is the inspiration for the fund.

Katherine grew up playing the violin but in her late teens discovered the viola. This led to a change of career away from primary school teaching and child psychology and towards the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and a 1st class Honours BA in Music. She was drawn to the baroque viola and viola d'amore during her studies and spent a year playing with the European Union Baroque Orchestra. In 1993 Katherine moved from Glasgow to London for a postgraduate course at the Royal Academy of Music, studying baroque and modern viola. On graduating, she quickly became a part of the Early Music scene; not only by way of her musical skills but also through her unique and much-valued ability to knit a group of players together in a quietly ego-free and always humorous way. In the following years she came to play principal viola with many groups including The King's Consort, The Purcell Quartet, Sonnerie, the English Baroque Soloists, The Gabrieli Consort and Players, The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Concerto Caledonian. Her love of teaching reamined, and she took up posts at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal Academy of Music as baroque viola professor, and was increasingly being called upon to teach at summer schools and on the EUBO courses.

In 2004, after ten years in the business, Katherine realised that she was in danger of becoming a jaded professional. She needed a break to refresh herself and her music making and also wanted to investigate more deeply the musical learning process and expand her teaching skills. She decided to take a year out, and chose to spend it in Sweden learning Sweden’s national instrument the nyckelharpa and studying Swedish folk music. This choice had its roots in the occasion of a post-concert reception in Northern Sweden with the group Sonnerie where a well known nyckelharpa player had performed for the audience and players, and after chatting with him Katherine had asked to try it herself. Now, several years later, she took up this thread, found herself an instrument, rapidly learnt some tunes and applied for the one year course at the Eric Sahlström Institute, Tobo, Sweden. She was awarded a research grant from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama to concurrently investigate the learning process in the folk music tradition and look into the ways the classical conservatoire system might benefit from some aspects of it. The Scottish Educational Trust assisted with funding too, but told Katherine that it was unusual for the trust to make awards to someone at her stage of career. This proved a wider problem, and she was left with a significant shortfall. The year only became a viable undertaking with an unexpected private donation of £10,000.

Katherine spent her sabbatical year at full stretch learning a new instrument, a new language, dancing, singing and thinking hard about the learning process. She was also writing her own tunes. She returned to the UK in summer 2006, full of inspiration and music, and ready to revolutionise the way she taught. Katherine died suddenly and unexpectedly of a brain tumor on August 1st 2006. She was surrounded by good friends and colleagues, playing the music of Bach which was very close to her heart.

The fund has been set up in her memory out of the loss felt by her friends, family, fellow musicians, neighbours, teachers and students, and their determination to carry on the process she had embarked upon. The awards the fund will make, of £10,000, reflect the donation Katherine herself was given which made her year of ‘getting a life’ possible.

Click here for details of the Memorial Grove for Katherine in the Caledonian Forest