Margaret Robertson is an inspirational figure on the Shetland music scene as a fiddler, pianist, teacher and composer. She has also made an impact nationally and internationally with her own music and musicianship as well as in her capacity as organiser of the fiddle element in the Edinburgh Military Tattoo’s Pipers Trail, which has visited Australia, New Zealand, Germany and Norway.
Margaret grew up in Yell in a house where an evening without music, live or recorded, was a rare occurrence. Her dad, Lell, played fiddle and listened keenly to Irish fiddle master Sean McGuire and Ian Powrie’s Scottish Dance Band, two of Margaret’s own early influences.
Watching young players develop is, she says, a real joy and she particularly enjoys going to concerts given by former pupils. Among these are her sons, Ross and Ryan Couper, both now professional musicians who followed Margaret in winning the Shetland Young Fiddler of the Year title, Ryan winning twenty-five years after his mother before going on to play guitar.
As a composer Margaret is a self-confessed late starter, who was so annoyed that she couldn’t get into Lerwick to join Simon Thoumire in a session he’d put the word out about that she sat down and wrote her first tune at the age of twenty-eight. Many others have followed, some to order, some hummed or whistled while driving, and have featured on Margaret’s own two albums, and on her extensive discography.