The Milnathort Maestro
by Keith Dickson
B&F January 2011
A visit to the Milnathort Folk Festival provided the catalyst for 9-year-old Craig Paton’s interest in accordion music. The young Kinross-shire boy, who had started attending piano lessons a year earlier, was so impressed with Alan Small’s performance at the Festival that he asked the Lomond Ceilidh Band leader if he could teach him to play the accordion. Nine years on – Craig is crowned ‘All Scotland Senior Accordion Champion’.
I caught up with the 18-year-old ‘Milnathort Maestro’ last month, when he had just returned from performing at a St Andrew’s Night Gala Ball in Uganda, to talk about his musical education, influences, recent success and future plans and ambitions.
Musical Education
Craig started accordion lessons, aged nine, with Alan Small and within a few weeks was performing at the nearby Glenfarg A&F Club. Within a few months, as Craig was now receiving piano lessons in Perth, it was decided that it was more practical to move Craig to Ian Anderson at Wilkie’s Music House for accordion tuition. Two years later Craig was awarded a place at the prestigious Aberdeen City Music School (attached to Dyce Academy) where he would study secondary education for the next six years.
Now playing a Fisitalia 96 bass accordion, it was agreed that he would receive two sixty-minute accordion lessons per week from the school’s specialist accordion tutor, John Bone, as well as a weekly thirty-minute piano lesson from Barbara Payne.
A brief attempt at learning to play the fiddle ended unsuccessfully, however Craig’s accordion technique continued to improve consistently – winning the All Scotland Junior Accordion Championship three times! With no recent musical family history, Craig’s parents were extremely proud when he performed as Guest Atriste (aged 14) at the local Glenfarg A&F Club. Tragically, in September 2009, Craig’s father died suddenly of a heart condition. He regularly encouraged and assisted Craig with many projects including the release and artwork of the CD ‘Moving Forward’.
In September 2008, Craig was invited by Claudio Beltrami (accordion manufacturer in Stradella, Italy) to perform at the European Accordion Festival in Milan. This was followed in January 2009, when Craig was one of seven finalists (chosen from 15,000 children in the World Burns Federation Schools Competition) selected to attend and perform at the official launch of the Royal Mint Burns Coin and the Royal Mail burns Stamp Collection. During his visit he was invited to No. 10 Downing Street where he met The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown and The Chancellor, Alistair Darling.
Influences
A concert in Aberdeen featuring accordionists Romano Viazzani and Mauro Carra encouraged Craig to work on some classical accordion repertoire. Pieces included Hungarian Rhapsody – F. Liszt and Flight of the Bumblebee – N. Rimsky-Korsakov, which sounded great on his new Bugari Gold 120 bass instrument.
It was during his time in Aberdeen that Craig discovered the jazz music of legends Kenny Drew Jnr, Jack Emblow, Oscar Peterson and Martin Taylor as well as the Scottish dance band music of Simon Howie, Alasdair MacCuish and Tom Orr.
All Scotland Senior Accordion Champion 2003, Liam Stewart, was a great source of inspiration to Craig, regularly offering valuable advice and encouragement, particularly regarding band tunes and arrangements.
Recent Success
It was fitting that it was one of these major influences – Alasdair MacCuish, along with Gordon Shand, who awarded the young Milnthort accordionist the ‘All Scotland Senior Accordion Champion’ at Perth in October 2010. This was without doubt Craig’s finest moment of many years spent competing at Music Festivals around Scotland.
Future Plans and Ambitions
Craig is looking forward to performing at this year’s Shetland A&F Club Festival in October and on a Baltic Cruise with fiddler Andy Kain during the next few months. As well as continuing to teach privately Craig hopes to enter a university education to study Business and Finance later this year.
I caught up with the 18-year-old ‘Milnathort Maestro’ last month, when he had just returned from performing at a St Andrew’s Night Gala Ball in Uganda, to talk about his musical education, influences, recent success and future plans and ambitions.
Musical Education
Craig started accordion lessons, aged nine, with Alan Small and within a few weeks was performing at the nearby Glenfarg A&F Club. Within a few months, as Craig was now receiving piano lessons in Perth, it was decided that it was more practical to move Craig to Ian Anderson at Wilkie’s Music House for accordion tuition. Two years later Craig was awarded a place at the prestigious Aberdeen City Music School (attached to Dyce Academy) where he would study secondary education for the next six years.
Now playing a Fisitalia 96 bass accordion, it was agreed that he would receive two sixty-minute accordion lessons per week from the school’s specialist accordion tutor, John Bone, as well as a weekly thirty-minute piano lesson from Barbara Payne.
A brief attempt at learning to play the fiddle ended unsuccessfully, however Craig’s accordion technique continued to improve consistently – winning the All Scotland Junior Accordion Championship three times! With no recent musical family history, Craig’s parents were extremely proud when he performed as Guest Atriste (aged 14) at the local Glenfarg A&F Club. Tragically, in September 2009, Craig’s father died suddenly of a heart condition. He regularly encouraged and assisted Craig with many projects including the release and artwork of the CD ‘Moving Forward’.
In September 2008, Craig was invited by Claudio Beltrami (accordion manufacturer in Stradella, Italy) to perform at the European Accordion Festival in Milan. This was followed in January 2009, when Craig was one of seven finalists (chosen from 15,000 children in the World Burns Federation Schools Competition) selected to attend and perform at the official launch of the Royal Mint Burns Coin and the Royal Mail burns Stamp Collection. During his visit he was invited to No. 10 Downing Street where he met The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown and The Chancellor, Alistair Darling.
Influences
A concert in Aberdeen featuring accordionists Romano Viazzani and Mauro Carra encouraged Craig to work on some classical accordion repertoire. Pieces included Hungarian Rhapsody – F. Liszt and Flight of the Bumblebee – N. Rimsky-Korsakov, which sounded great on his new Bugari Gold 120 bass instrument.
It was during his time in Aberdeen that Craig discovered the jazz music of legends Kenny Drew Jnr, Jack Emblow, Oscar Peterson and Martin Taylor as well as the Scottish dance band music of Simon Howie, Alasdair MacCuish and Tom Orr.
All Scotland Senior Accordion Champion 2003, Liam Stewart, was a great source of inspiration to Craig, regularly offering valuable advice and encouragement, particularly regarding band tunes and arrangements.
Recent Success
It was fitting that it was one of these major influences – Alasdair MacCuish, along with Gordon Shand, who awarded the young Milnthort accordionist the ‘All Scotland Senior Accordion Champion’ at Perth in October 2010. This was without doubt Craig’s finest moment of many years spent competing at Music Festivals around Scotland.
Future Plans and Ambitions
Craig is looking forward to performing at this year’s Shetland A&F Club Festival in October and on a Baltic Cruise with fiddler Andy Kain during the next few months. As well as continuing to teach privately Craig hopes to enter a university education to study Business and Finance later this year.