About Us
bubbly-jock, n. Scots for a male turkey
The Bubblyjock Collective, formed in 2023, is an ensemble dedicated to promoting and performing music by composers born or based in Scotland. The collective has three main aims:
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to revive forgotten and neglected works from archives
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to commission new works from Scottish composers
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to tell the story of art music in Scotland: the composers, the pieces, and the performers!
We focus on music from the 19th century to the present day - click here to read about our repertoire and the composers we're interested in.
Meet the Collective!
Founding Members:
Neil Sutcliffe
Neil Sutcliffe is a classical accordionist from Stirling, and is passionate about promoting his instrument in the music scene in Scotland. Since completing his Bachelors degree at the Royal Conservatoire of Glasgow in 2021 with Djordje Gajic, he has been regularly performing, teaching and working with with composers, storytellers and dancers.
Research and activism are central to Neil's approach to music - telling the stories of neglected Scottish composers and collaborating with contemporary composers to commision new works. In 2023, with Rosie Lavery and Michael O'Rourke, he released an album with Toccata Classics of previously unrecorded works for accordion by Ronald Stevenson.
Rosie Lavery
Rosie Lavery, sometimes known as ‘The Ginger Soprano”, is an opera singer and conductor born and raised in Glasgow. She is about to graduate from the Alexander Gibson Opera Studio at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and is a regular soloist and recital singer, performing across the UK and Europe.
She has a passion for performing unknown and occasionally wacky repertoire from across the world and is a keen linguist. She speaks French, German, Italian and has been learning Scottish Gaelic for two years now.
Anna Michels
Anna Michels is a Scottish-Dutch pianist currently based in Glasgow. After graduating from an Artist Diploma at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland last year, she has started working there as an accompanist and improvisation teacher.
Anna is happiest playing chamber music, improvising or digging through old manuscripts. Her passion for unearthing the hidden gems of Scottish classical repertoire has culminated in her giving lecture recitals across Europe.
Shared questions
Neil, Rosie and Anna have known each other for years, as friends and colleagues in music-making. All three studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, in Glasgow, and it was here they began to ask questions about Scottish composers and classical music in Scotland. Composers are often known and celebrated for their nationalities, and grouped by the styles associated with their countries and periods. So why did we know so little about Scottish compositional styles or celebrate great Scots composers of the 18th, 19th, or 20th centuries?
Individually, we were all on our own journeys into Scotland's rich heritage of art music - discovering repertoire, composers, and recordings of which we'd previously been unaware. Now, by no means are we the first people to champion Scottish classical music, there are many performers, academics, and teachers who have been working to promote this music for years.
And yet, much of it still goes un-talked about, un-performed, under-appreciated.
That's where The Bubblyjock Collective comes in.
The Bubblyjocks begin
In 2023, we began talking about a new ensemble which would focus on performing works by Scottish composers. It would present instrumental music alongside the wealth of Scottish art songs, and in particular celebrate settings of poetry in Scots and Gaelic.
Alongside existing repertoire, we would work with contemporary composers based in Scotland, established and upcoming, to commission pieces and provide regular performance opportunities for new works.
It sounded like a good idea, so here we are.
Our Name:
Our name is a nod to a 1966 setting of a Hugh MacDiarmid poem, 'Bubblyjock', by the composer Ronald Stevenson. It is a comic, dramatic poem describing the absurd appearance (and call) of a turkey - and to us, seemed to strike the right tone for this ensemble. Playful and serious, comic and daring, absurd and precise, and not least, it's full of great Scots vocabulary!
We are a 'Collective' because we want to provide a platform to celebrate all Scottish music, not only our own instrument and interest. We look forward to collaborating with other artists on future projects exploring this wonderful repertoire.