The Banchory Strathspey and Reel Society was formed in 1932 and has had 6 conductors since then. Since its inception, the Society has maintained a high standard of playing the traditional music of Scotland. It is only natural that because Banchory was the birthplace of the legendary James Scott Skinner the Society should have a leaning towards the music of its most famous son.

The first conductor was the local Station Master William Cruickshank, whose period as conductor is not known. An Aberdionian, James Forbes, who conducted for eleven years, followed him. Sandy Milne was the third conductor of the Society and a great enthusiast who did much to keep the society going and to put the society in the public eye. He will be long remembered for his television programmes on the ‘Mainly Magnusson Show’ and the programme from Blair Castle in which the Angus Strathspey & Reel Society and Banchory were united under the batons of Yehudi Menuhin, Angus Cameron and Sandy Milne. Banchory Festival of Scottish Music was inaugurated in 1951 and was organised by Sandy Milne in conjunction with a local bank manager Henry W. Auchinachie and these festivals have gone from strength to strength over the years. The festival is always held on the second Saturday in May, comprising of fiddle, accordion and piano sections. Sandy Milne did great things with limited resources at his hand, with Banchory having half of the population it has today (population 6160 today). Sandy was honoured by the Town and presented with a silver mounted baton after he had served the society for 35 years.

Sandy Milne was succeeded by his daughter Mary Milne who had worked hand in hand with her father for many years, so it was only natural that the Society would continue in the same style of playing. Mary was, and still is, a fine Accordion player and a gifted accompanist on the piano and has played for many of Scotland’s top Fiddlers such as the late Ron Gonnella, the late Willie Hunter and Aly Bain. Mary retired in 1979 having served the Orchestra well for many years. Mary was the mentor of Yla Steven who was the first ‘Daily Record Golden Fiddle’ award winner. Yla was at that time playing with Banchory Strathspey & Reel Society.

Conductor number five was Alexander Cooper or Sandy, as he is better known, who held the baton from 1980 to 1996. During Sandy’s time as conductor, the Banchory Strathspey & Reel Society had a very successful period of change with several unforeseen benefits. The population of Banchory doubled and many talented youngsters and indeed senior players joined. Some of these seniors being professional music teachers at schools in the area and not only added their own expertise but encouraged young players to take part in the Orchestra, which raised the membership to over eighty players on the register. At the same time as Mr Cooper became Senior Conductor, Mrs Jane Davidson (nee Smith) took charge of the ever increasing Junior Section and we have a highly successful blend of youth and experience, winning at Festivals the length and breadth of Scotland. Sandy was in charge during the period when the Orchestra won Grampian T.V. series Ceol Na Fidhle (Gaelic for Music of the Fiddle) competitions in 1993 and again in 1994, competing against seven Orchestras in 1993 and nine in 1994, with Strathspey & Reel Societies from as far apart as Glasgow to Shetland taking part. Sandy retired in 1996 with Jane Davidson taking charge of both the Senior and Junior Sections.

Jane Davidson took over the reins in 1996 after Mr Cooper decided to take a back seat and Mr Cooper still regularly attends all practices and concerts. Jane, a pupil of the late Hector McAndrew and a past winner of the Ian Powrie Championship Trophy for the North of Scotland Fiddle Players on two occasions and Championship classed at Festivals throughout Scotland. Jane only ‘conducts’ the orchestra occasionally at festival competitions, and prefers to lead from the front, playing the violin. Jane has a willing assistant in Tracey Webster, a fellow violin teacher, who assists with the Junior Section. Jane’s children all play the fiddle with three of them members of the Society; the exception is Neil, the youngest who is not quite ready yet aged only seven.

The backbone of the Society has been the fine nucleus of traditional type players from earlier days, combined with those of a newer and vastly different generation, who work hard to keep alive the unique style of Scottish playing. One of the best of the older players was the late Duncan Strachan of Potarch with many glowing reports of his playing ability from such as the late Sandy Milne. Modern day players such as Judy Nicholson (nee Davidson), Angela MacEachern (nee Smith), past junior and senior Golden Fiddle award winners. Jane Davidson (nee Smith), Neil Dawson, Paul and David Anderson, Stuart Robertson and Brian Cruickshank who is equally at home on the double bass as he is on the fiddle, to name but a few who have and are still serving the Society well. The society can also boast to having three members who have graduated to higher climbs, Emily Kostulin who attends the Royal College of Music in London, Claire Gullan who attends the Scottish School of Music Glasgow and Claire Telford who now teaches at the Yehudi Menuhin School of Music.

The Orchestra has produced tapes, records and CD’s, made radio and television broadcasts and been guests at the Inter Celtic Festival in Lorient, France and performed in Schwabisch Gmund in Germany, also Frankfurt and Munich. Travelling and performing in Eire and in Toronto Canada, three times and also to venues throughout Britain, have kept the Society busy throughout the years. Much of the credit for these trips, recording tapes etc must go to the late William Smith or Bill, as he was known. A member and later secretary of the society from 1974 till his death in 1999. Bill was the father of the now conductor, Jane Davidson, and Scottish music was his first love, whether playing the fiddle or listening to the music. He would do anything to promote the younger fiddlers and would be very proud to see his grandchildren playing in the Society and know he was proud of his daughter as conductor.

The Orchestra has a membership of around seventy Seniors and forty Juniors in number, with an age group from eight years old to its senior member, Julia Fyfe, aged eighty-three. There is a good team of back up workers consisting of parents, husbands and wives. The Society draws its members from a wide area Banchory, Ballater, Aboyne, Tarland, Huntly, Aberdeen, Culter and Kintore and I am sure that by their efforts all that is best in Scottish music is kept to the fore. Below is an extract from Michael Mulford, producer and director of Grampian Television’s prestige music series Ceol Na Fidhle won by the Banchory Strathspey and Reel Society in 1993 says:
‘If I ever needed to calibrate a metronome, I shall simply switch on when the Banchory Strathspey and Reel Society are in concert. Such is the precision, the consistency and purity of their music. With James Scott Skinner looking down and listening to their every note, they have much to live up to. I’ll bet the Strathspey King himself would be proud that his legacy is in such brilliant hands. The swing, the lilt, the emotion and the sheer breathtaking flamboyance of the music flows from their fiddles like water of a clear, crystal fountain. Across their huge repertoire, Banchory play for each other and absolutely with each other. And when you consider how young many of the fiddlers are, that is all the more remarkable.’

Scott Skinner
The focal point of traditional fiddle music lies in the North East of Scotland. It was here that it reached its peak of popularity, mainly through the career of one man who was to make it commercially successful – James Scott Skinner. Born on 5th August 1843 in Banchory into a fiddling family, he was first taught to play the violin and cello by his elder brother Sandy. At the age of ten he set off to Manchester where he had lessons with the French violinist Charles Rougier who was a member of the Halle Orchestra. At nineteen, Skinner won a big fiddle competition in Inverness, competing against the great fiddlers of the day. This was the first of many competitions that Skinner won.

Scott Skinner made a comfortable living as a teacher and dancing master around Scotland, and one patronage he especially prized was that of teaching the children of Queen Victorias tenantry at Balmoral. He toured extensively, even to America, and his concerts were enthusiastically acclaimed. Skinner is the only one of the legendary fiddlers of the past to record his music for posterity and some of these recordings have recently been re-issued. He was the most prolific of all the fiddler composers with over six hundred pieces in print including virtuosic showpieces. He died on 17th March 1927, the last of the really great fiddle composers.