Full Biography and CV
JOHN PURSER was born in Glasgow of Irish parents in 1942. He was educated at Lathallan School and Fettes College, and in 1963 took diplomas in Composition, Singing and Violoncello at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, where his composition teacher was Dr Frank Spedding. With the aid of a Caird scholarship, he continued to study composition with Sir Michael Tippett and Dr Hans Gál. As a mature student he took a 1st in English Literature at Glasgow University (1980), followed by a PhD (1989), partly funded by the Carnegie Trust. In 2009 he was awarded the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Aberdeen.
He has been a free-lance composer, cellist, musicologist, critic, poet, playwright and broadcaster, as well as lecturing on classical music for many years for the Glasgow University Extra-Mural Department (as it was then called), and has lectured and broadcast on Scottish music world-wide. He was the first Manager of the Scottish Music Information Centre 1985-1987 and was joint editor with James MacMillan of Stretto magazine.
More recently, Purser studied Gaelic at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig (the Gaelic College on the Isle of Skye) where he has assisted in course development. In 2006 he was appointed as a Researcher and was Gaelic Music Course Director there from 2006-2008. He was one of the team of researchers for the research project, “Window to the West – towards a redefinition of the visual within Gaelic Scotland”, funded by the AHRC. In 2007 he completed an expanded and up-dated edition of his book, Scotland’s Music and a series of 50 radio programmes on the same subject, for BBC Radio Scotland. In 2009 he published a critical biography of Erik Chisholm.
Purser lives on the Island of Skye where he and his American wife, Barbara, are crofters. He was Chairman of the local Common Grazings Committee from 2003-2010 and Vice-Chairman of the Strathaird Community Association, 2004-. He was Secretary of the Elgol and Torrin Historical Society 1996-2002 and Secretary of the Strathaird Management Committee, 1995-2001. He was a Trustee of The John Muir Trust from 2001-2004.
The sections on WRITING and on MUSIC, with their sub-sections, list Purser's creative output along with related reviews and comments. According to Timothy Neat, he has been "Long regarded as an iconoclastic rogue,"
Awards
Drama
Works
Exhibitions/Audio-Visual/Videos/TV programmes/Films
Radio Programmes – Music - UK Unless otherwise stated, all the programmes below were researched, written and presented by John Purser. The main producers have been Robert Crawford (The Silver Chanter and A Change of Tune; Martin Dalby (Scotland’s Music 1991-92 and Composer of the Week) and David McGuinness (Scotland’s Music 2007).
BBC Radio Scotland
BBC Radio nan Gaidheal
BBC Radio 3
Radio Programmes – Music - Foreign
USA NPR The Thistle and the Shamrock
Radio Programmes – Burns Studies
BBC Radio Scotland
Radio Programmes – Spirituality
BBC Radio Scotland
Recordings as performer
Recordings as producer
Main Lectures, Speeches etc, chronologically Stirling – John MacFadyen Memorial Lecture 3.4.1992
Interviews
He has been a free-lance composer, cellist, musicologist, critic, poet, playwright and broadcaster, as well as lecturing on classical music for many years for the Glasgow University Extra-Mural Department (as it was then called), and has lectured and broadcast on Scottish music world-wide. He was the first Manager of the Scottish Music Information Centre 1985-1987 and was joint editor with James MacMillan of Stretto magazine.
More recently, Purser studied Gaelic at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig (the Gaelic College on the Isle of Skye) where he has assisted in course development. In 2006 he was appointed as a Researcher and was Gaelic Music Course Director there from 2006-2008. He was one of the team of researchers for the research project, “Window to the West – towards a redefinition of the visual within Gaelic Scotland”, funded by the AHRC. In 2007 he completed an expanded and up-dated edition of his book, Scotland’s Music and a series of 50 radio programmes on the same subject, for BBC Radio Scotland. In 2009 he published a critical biography of Erik Chisholm.
Purser lives on the Island of Skye where he and his American wife, Barbara, are crofters. He was Chairman of the local Common Grazings Committee from 2003-2010 and Vice-Chairman of the Strathaird Community Association, 2004-. He was Secretary of the Elgol and Torrin Historical Society 1996-2002 and Secretary of the Strathaird Management Committee, 1995-2001. He was a Trustee of The John Muir Trust from 2001-2004.
The sections on WRITING and on MUSIC, with their sub-sections, list Purser's creative output along with related reviews and comments. According to Timothy Neat, he has been "Long regarded as an iconoclastic rogue,"
Awards
Drama
- 1991 Gold Medal, Drama Special category, New York International Radio Festival, for Carver
- 1991 Giles Cooper Award for the best radio plays for 1991 for Carver.
- 1976 Scottish Arts Council New Writing Award for The Counting Stick.
- 1962 Royal Philharmonic Society composition Award.
- 1963 Radio Eireann Carolan Prize for Variations on Amhran Dochais.
- 1966 Irish Government Prize for Epitaph 1916.
- 1985 Sony Certificate of Commendation for A Change of Tune. (BBC Radio Scotland)
- 1993 McVitie’s Scottish Writer of the Year Award for 1992-1993 for Scotland’s Music, (Mainstream 1992).
- 1993 Sony Gold Medal for Specialist Music Programme on radio for The Temple Of Apollo.
- 1991Glenfiddich Living Scotland Award for reconstruction of the Carnyx.
- 2001 SciArt Award as Coordinator of Kilmartin House Museum archaeo-musicological studies and reconstructions.
- 2010 Scotland’s Fiddle Piobaireachd Vol.1 nominated for a Grammy award, 2010.
- 2011 Winner of “Folk – traditional recording” category, the Wammies, 2011.
- 1993 Honorary Life Member, Saltire Society
- 1993 Oliver Brown Award
- 1993 Scottish Heritage Society Award
- 2007 Scottish Traditional Music Awards, Award for Services to Industry
- 2009 Degree of Doctor Honoris Causa conferred by the University of Aberdeen
- 2011 Honorary Fellow, Association of Scottish Literary Studies
Works
- 1997 ‘The Wee Apollo’: Burns and Oswald. In: K.Simpson (Ed.) Love & Liberty, Robert Burns: A Bicentenary Celebration Tuckwell Press, East Linton 1997, pp326-333
Exhibitions/Audio-Visual/Videos/TV programmes/Films
- 1977 Carrier Strike (with Ian Hamilton Finlay)
- 1992 Scotland’s Music, Edinburgh International Festival
- 1993 Highland Music Balnain House 1993 - ?
- 1994 A Cry of Prayer/Eigh Urnaigh Sabhal Mòr Ostaig Lecture (video).
- 1997 Kilmartin House Museum
- Loch Lomond Visitor Centre
- 2005 The Storr Unfolding Landscape, consultant and performer.
- 2011 Ancient music advisor, Film Eagle, music by Atli Örvarsson
Radio Programmes – Music - UK Unless otherwise stated, all the programmes below were researched, written and presented by John Purser. The main producers have been Robert Crawford (The Silver Chanter and A Change of Tune; Martin Dalby (Scotland’s Music 1991-92 and Composer of the Week) and David McGuinness (Scotland’s Music 2007).
BBC Radio Scotland
- 1976 The Silver Chanter 4 x 30’
- 1980s A Change of Tune Series 1 6 x 30’; Series 2 Travelling Trades and Work in its Place, 6 x 30’; 3 Creatures and Plants,11 x 30’ 10.4.1983; Series 4 Food 6 x 30’; Series 5 The Cross and The Ring 13 x 30’
- 1991-1992 Scotland’s Music 29.9.1991- 19.4.1992 (30 x 90’)
- 1992 Music from the Wild 1 x 30’ 21.12.1992
- 1993 Music of Homage and Love 21.3.1993
- 1995 Mozart and the Scots 1995 1994 On the Trail of the Spies 7 x 10’ 20.3.1994 – 1.5.1994
- 1995 St Andrews Day on Travelling Folk 30.11.1995
- 2004 Erik Chisholm on Grace Notes 01.02.04
- 2005 John Thomson on Grace Notes 23.10.05
- 2006-2007 Scotland’s Music 51 x 26’30”, 31.12.06 – 23.12.07: 1 x 60’ 30.12.07
BBC Radio nan Gaidheal
- 2007 Ceol Alba 6 x 26’30”, 11.7.07-
BBC Radio 3
- 1982 Mainly For Pleasure 30.11.1982
- 1993 Scotland’s Music from the Edinburgh International Festival 5 x 90’? 6.2.1993 – 6.3.1993
- 1996 Composer of the Week - The Scottish Romantics 5 x 60’ 19-23.2.1996
- Composer of the Week – Robert Carver 5 x 60’
- 1996 Music from the Edge of the Known World 2 x 30’ Sept-Oct? 1996
- 1997 Choral Evensong from Iona (To mark the 1400th Anniversary of Columcille) 11.6.1997
- 2003 Music Restored – The Earl of Kellie with David McGuinness and Lucy Skeaping 13.3.2003
- 2009 Music Matters – Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture BBC Radio 3 9.5.09
Radio Programmes – Music - Foreign
- Radio Telefis Eireann 1983 Plough Whistles and Dainty Davie for The Long Note 1983
- New Zealand Radio – Classic FM 1993 Scotland’s Music 5 x 50’ 1993
- RUV Iceland 1993 Music of Scotland, 4 x 60’ February 1993
- Radio Suisse Romande – Espace 2 2000 Les Horizons Perdus – Écosse I-VI, 6 x 120’ Consultant and Interviewee, John Purser: Producer/Presenter Jean-Pierre Amann 24th January – 28th February 2000
USA NPR The Thistle and the Shamrock
- 2010 Bonnie and John, April 15, Week 15.
- 2011 Harlaw Scotland 1411, October 06, Week 40.
Radio Programmes – Burns Studies
BBC Radio Scotland
- 1993 Immortal Memory – Hot Entrails 25.1.93
- 1996 Immortal Memory – 25.1.96 BBC Radio 3
- 1996 The Tree of Life - 22.5.96
- BBC Radio 2 1996 Address To A Haggis 26.1.96
Radio Programmes – Spirituality
BBC Radio Scotland
- 1995 In Search of Eden 4 x 30’ Written/presented by John Purser: Recorded and Produced by Susan MacKay 25.6.1995 - ?
- 1996 Between Two Worlds 7 x 30’ Written/presented by John Purser: Recorded and Produced by Susan MacKay 18.8.1996 – 29.9.1996.
- 199? Heart and Land Written/presented by John Purser: Produced by Alison Cherry
Recordings as performer
- 1997 (bronze age horns and vocals), The Kilmartin Sessions, www.kht.org.uk
- 2000 (cello) Dàimh, Moidart to Mabou, daimh@fsmail.net GIMCD001
- 2002 (bronze age horns and vocals) Old to New, prehistoricmusic.com.
- 2002 (bronze age horn and cello) RTE award-winning programme of Michael Holohan’s and Paul Durkan’s A Snail in my Prime. 22.3.2002 First broadcast 25.12.2000.
- 2010-2011 Window to the West, music for Norman Shaw installation, City Art Gallery, Edinburgh. 2011 (bone whistles, bronze age horns and vocals) Film Eagle, music by Atli Örvarsson
- 2011 (bronze age horns, vocals etc) Music for Gillian Russell’s Uamh, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh January 2011
- 2011 (narrator) Bonnie Rideout and Friends, Harlaw Scotland 1411 TM 505
Recordings as producer
- 1992 (With Martin Dalby and Philip Hobbs) Scotland’s Music, Linn Records CD 008
- 1997 The Kilmartin Sessions, www.kht.org.uk
- 2005 I’mpulse Gol, Asia-Europe Foundation, as co-facilitator with Tran Quang Hai
- 2010 Bonnie Rideout, Scotland’s Fiddle Pìobaireachd Vol.1 TM 504
- 2011 Bonnie Rideout and Friends, Harlaw Scotland 1411 TM 505
Main Lectures, Speeches etc, chronologically Stirling – John MacFadyen Memorial Lecture 3.4.1992
- Edinburgh International Festival – Scotland’s Music 1992
- Iceland – January-February 1992, February 1993
- New Zealand - University Music and Literature Departments in Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, Waikato, Auckland 1993
- Poland -Poznan Museum of Musical Instruments, 14.5.1993 and 8.5.1994
- Glasgow, Scottish Television - Sabhal Mor Ostaig Annual lecture 1994 (Available on video)
- USA - Harvard University to combined Music and Celtic studies departments (1994?)
- Glasgow – ISM Annual Conference April 1995
- Aberdeen, Moray, Inverness, Aberdeen, Edinburgh –Robert Gordon University Heritage Conventions, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999
- Stornoway – Feis Nan Òran 1995
- Thurso – Northlands Festival September 1995
- USA - Iowa State University – several to Music Department, also to College of Design, January-February 1998
- Glasgow - Celtic Connections January 1994 et al
- Glasgow – University of Strathclyde Burns Bi-Centenary Conference, January 1996
- Largs – Hakon Hakonnson Lecture, September 1996
- Norway – Thor Heyerdahl Institute, Sandefjord 2001 (published 2002)
- Brittany – University of Brittany, 31.7.2001
- Inverness - Gaelic Society of Inverness, December 2002 (published 2006)
- Poland - Warsaw – Department of Ethnology, December 2002
- Germany – International Study Group of Music Archaeology, Michaelstein May 1998, September 2000, June 2002, September 2004, (all published) Berlin September 2006
- New Zealand - Rotorua: Kei Kona Te Ha, Maori-Celtic music events, March 2004, March 2005
- Kelso – John Thomson Bicentennial Festival lecture, October 2005
- Portobello – Helen Hopekirk 150th Anniversary lecture, 19.5.2006
- USA, Chestertown NY, ‘A New Theory of Vision? – William McTaggart and Jack Yeats and the Gaelic Environment’ at the Third International John Butler Yeats Seminar, 22-23.9,2007
- USA, Laurinburg, North Carolina, Scottish Heritage Symposium March 28-30 2008
- Isle of Skye, Aos Dàna Book Festival, 12-15.7.2008
- Edinburgh, “Scotland’s Music and the Medical Profession” The Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh Senior Fellows Club 17.2.2009
- Pitlochry, “Visualising Piobaireachd - Landscape, Form and Image” - Studies in a beautiful economy. Piping Times Annual Lecture, Pitlochry 20.3.2009
- Stirling, “Modernism and Music in Scotland between the Wars” Scottish and International Modernism, Association of Scottish Literary Studies Conference 7.6.2009
- Edinburgh “Emblems and Totems of the Clans” State of the Art Conference, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh 25.6.2010
- Edinburgh International Festival, Music and the Enlightenment, public discussion with Dr. Marjorie Rycroft and Sir Roger Norrington, 23.8.09
- Cape Town, Chasing A Restless Muse, lecture-recital for South African College of Music, 20.7.2010.
- Dublin, Yeatses, Pursers and Jelletts, Fourth International John Butler Yeats Seminar, 10.9.2010.
- Edinburgh, Scottish Literature and Music: A Bardic Inheritance, the 2nd Tannahill Lecture, National Library of Scotland, 10.2.2011.
- Glasgow, “Scotland’s Landscape as Music – an aesthetic fantasy or a present reality?”, Lecture to the Royal Glasgow Philosophical Society, 9.3.2011
- USA, Laurinburg, North Carolina, Scottish Heritage Symposium March 17-20 2011
- Aberdeen, “Harlaw – Half a Millenium of Musical Legacy” at Harlaw Remembered Conference, Elphinstone Institute at Trinity Hall, Aberdeen 9.6.2011
- Isle of Skye, “Sorley and the Music of the Bards” Ainmeal Thar Cheudan Conference, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, 16.6.2011
- Inverness, "An Uamh Binn - The Sweet-sounding Cave: a musical artefact in context" Underworld Seminar, Highland Council Chambers, Inverness, 27.4.2013 - with Dr. Graeme Lawson.
- Glasgow, The Philosopher’s Opera, paper read in absentia at Musica Scotica Conference, 27.4.2013.
Interviews
- 1969 John Purser talks to John Currie, Scottish Opera Magazine Autumn 1969, pp.4-8.
- 1970 John Purser talks to Robin Fulton, New Edinburgh Review No.8 August 1970, pp28-31
- 1992 Interview/Profile with Jim Gilchrist “No Injury To The Ear”, In: Cencrastus No.43 Autumn 1992, pp13-14.
- 1993 John Purser talks to Elizabeth Alley, The Arts Interview, Radio New Zealand Concert FM, 9.00-9.30, a.m., 9.10.1993, repeated 6.10.1994. Published in The Music of Scotland University of Waikato Scottish Studies Association, Avizandum Editions, No.2. pp1-6.
- 1993 John Purser talks to Mike Hight, The Radio Waikato Interview, Radio Waikato, 10.00-11.00 a.m., 11.10.1993. Published in The Music of Scotland University of Waikato Scottish Studies Association, Avizandum Editions, No.2. pp6-16.
- 2006 RTÉ lyric Fieldwork, John Purser interviewed by Michaél O’Suilleabhan, broadcast 27.8.06.
- 2007 Lynne Kennedy “Profile – Music runs through his veins”, In:, West Highland Free Press, 27.6.08, p.5.
- 2009 “Scotland’s Music” (Interview with “Iain Gunn” = Bruce Stannard) Scots Number 46, pp.64-69.
