I’m Seonaid Aitken - a violinist, vocalist, composer, orchestrator and broadcaster from Fife. As one of the rare, few, female improvising violinists in the UK, I perform with my Scottish Jazz Award-winning Gypsy Jazz band Rose Room as well as a guest with the Tim Kliphuis Sextet and Swing 2024 and am a regular tutor at the Grappelli-Django Camp in The Netherlands. Following my highly acclaimed Ella Fitzgerald big band show marking her centenary in 2017, I was also awarded ‘Best Vocalist’ twice at the Scottish Jazz Awards. I now perform my ‘Grappelli Night’ show across Scotland celebrating my other musical hero - the great French jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli - and this year I launched a duo with guitarist Conor Smith paying homage to Grappelli & Ella. 

Classically trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, I also have a Scottish traditional music background and play in Country/Bluegrass styles, but jazz is my biggest ‘love’. Being a versatile musician has taken me around the world performing in the dancing violin show Barrage, completing an 18-month residency at Tokyo DisneySEA in Japan and headlining on cruise ships. I’ve also played with the orchestras of Scottish Opera and Scottish Ballet, in the UK touring production of Disney’s ‘The Lion King’ and have been lucky enough to perform/record with acts such as Michael Bublé, Burt Bacharach, Deacon Blue, Martin Taylor MBE, Eddi Reader, Carol Kidd MBE, Georgia Cécile, and Mercury nominees Fergus McCreadie and corto.alto.

As a Musical Director, recent projects include kitti’s Great Caledonian Songbook (Islay Jazz Festival), Rhapsody in Blue with Brian Kellock (Aberdeen Jazz Festival), NYOS Camerata/Ceòl Is Craic Gaelic/Classical/Jazz show ‘Seòmarata’ (Glasgow CCA), and NYOS Camerata Scottish showcase (Young Euro Classic Festival - Berlin). 

As an arranger, I’ve been commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Red Hot Chilli Pipers and featured on BBC, ITV and Starz TV series’ including the BBC/Richard Curtis film Roald Dahl’s ‘Esio Trot’ (starring Dame Judi Dench and Dustin Hoffman!). My composition ‘Chasing Sakura’, which was commissioned by and premiered at the 2021 Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival, was released as an album in Spring 2022 and was longlisted for the Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award. 

Having been to Islay Jazz Festival before, I know this will be a special performance in a remote setting. Due to the small, intimate venues, the audience will be up close to the musicians and will almost feel part of the show themselves as they’ll hear every breath and witness every nuance throughout the performance.