From Taransay to Scottish Opera, Caitlin is hitting the high notes

​Caitlin Mackenzie, 24, from Back, has secured two different contracts to join the chorus of the national opera company. She will be performing in Orfeo and Euridice at the Edinburgh International Festival this summer and touring later in the year with La Boheme.

For Caitlin, a former head girl at the Nicolson Institute, it has been a musical odyssey that started with the famous Taransay Fiddlers group when she was just eight before she switched her focus to voice and went through all the levels of the National Youth Choir of Scotland programme.

Her early days with the NYCOS area choir in Lewis opened the door to the main national youth choir which in turn opened up a world of opportunities including performances in Europe and America. Caitlin even sang in Carnegie Hall in New York as a teenager.

She also spent two years taking part in the junior school of the Royal Conservatoire, with one of those years coinciding with her sixth year at school. Participating in the junior conservatoire meant that most weekends were spent travelling to Glasgow for tuition or performances, but this helped Caitlin to secure a coveted place on the Conservatoire’s Bachelor of Music degree course.

Following that, Caitlin went on to a two-year Masters in Music Performance.

At this stage, many of Caitlin’s singing peers would be looking to sign up to further studies to gain the valuable experience they need but Caitlin is happy to be able to get that experience while also picking up a wage.

There are only a few weeks to go until she finishes her Masters. “I haven’t got long left at all. I’ve got something in London first and then thankfully back to Glasgow and start the first couple of concerts, so it’s very exciting.”

Before Caitlin starts with Scottish Opera, she has a contract with British Youth Opera to perform in Peter Grimes in Cadogan Hall in London in June.

Orfeo and Euridice at the Edinburgh International Festival comes after that and will be on at the Edinburgh Playhouse from 13 to 16 August.

Looking ahead, La Boheme will be almost a home show, with the production calling at Eden Court in Inverness during its Scottish tour from 11 October to 22 November.

Caitlin said family, including mum Emma and dad Willie, had been “very supportive” as she worked on developing her career and she now felt “very relieved” and “very grateful” to have work lined up as she prepares to leave the Conservatoire.

And when she joins Scottish Opera, she will be working with the singing teacher who taught her so much during her time at the junior conservatoire – the Welsh baritone Phil Gault. “It will be a weird full circle moment,” said Caitlin.

Looking back on her time at the junior conservatoire, Caitlin revealed just how much commitment it had required.

“I would leave school on a Friday afternoon, get the afternoon flight and stay with family in Glasgow, go to juniors on the Saturday and then come back on the Sunday and go back to school on the Monday.”

That amount of travelling was obviously an expensive business but some help came from The Agar Trust, which supports young musicians living in rural Scotland.

Caitlin would not have been at the junior conservatoire, though, if she had not been at NYCOS, and she joined that locally at the age of eight, staying involved all the way through to 18.

When she started singing with the national NYCOS choir, Caitlin said “it really helped me come out of my shell and be a little bit braver”, adding it was “a brilliant experience.”

Progressing through the various choirs at NYCOS, from the younger regional ones through to the most senior, with which she performed at Carnegie Hall, had proved a “massive” training ground for Caitlin and she said: “I definitely wouldn’t be singing without it.”

Locally, Caitlin was taught by Avril Allen at first and then Cath Fish, who supported her during the big steps she was making from the age of 14 to 18. “I absolutely love Cath. She was there through all of those formative years so it’s so funny to be able to talk about all of these fun things that I’m getting to do now because of all of the work we put in then. It’s so nice.”

When Caitlin was doing NYCOS, there was only one other youngster from the island taking part alongside her, but now there are bigger numbers of young singers coming through and regularly participating in the choirs on the mainland.

She said this increased participation was “brilliant”, adding: “It’s so nice to see now, because of that area choir being there, that so many kids are getting to do it.”

There were early signs of Caitlin having musical talent and ability to perform. She was in primary two when she made her debut performance at the Mod, reciting a poem. The singing came later.

Then, a couple of years after she had started learning the fiddle, her dad took her over to Taransay where he was working as a plumber when the Taransay Fiddlers camp was on.

That sparked the big love of music and Caitlin was part of the Taransay Fiddlers group for four years, benefitting from tuition from the likes of the Session A9 and Blazin Fiddles players.

Caitlin said “that was where it all began” and recalled the “absolutely amazing” camps, where there were lessons through the day and ceilidhs at night. And all of it off grid.

“I still look back on that, even though I was so young, with such happy memories. It was such a formative experience in terms of me figuring out how much I enjoyed music and seeing other people who were making a living out of it who were also enjoying it. It was really inspiring. If I hadn’t found singing I would probably have gone down the trad route anyways.

“It was the most incredible experience to get to go there.”

As she was developing musically in secondary school, Caitlin made the conscious decision to keep trad music for the fiddle and leave trad singing aside, concentrating instead on classical.

And while the Taransay Fiddlers showed Caitlin the joy of music, another significant formative moment came through NYCOS when she was introduced to opera and Karen Cargill.

At this point, Caitlin was about 14, and working on recording an album with the choir, when she encountered the famed mezzo-soprano.

“She came and sang and we were all absolutely blown away. Hearing her sing, I’d never heard anything like that and quite a lot of other people in that choir had. I couldn’t believe it was actually possible that that noise could come out of a person. It was amazing. It was very inspiring. She has a massive voice.”

It might be hard to believe now, but Caitlin did not actually see her first opera until she was 16, going to a production of The Magic Flute at Glasgow’s Theatre Royal with a friend from NYCOS.

While barriers do still exist in terms of participation in this kind of music – with some youngsters undeniably being more privileged than others in accessing it – Caitlin urged any island musicians coming after her to follow their dream.

Simply, do not be put off. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. And where there’s a funding gap, there are sources of support to tap into.

“I was basically away every single weekend for the whole of sixth year. There were definitely things I missed out on socially but I was enjoying it so much that I didn’t care too much.

“Any other kids who are at home and are thinking about doing music, go and look into The Agar Trust, go and look into doing NYCOS. If you’re a musician, look into doing the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, because all these things are out there and there is help to get you there.”

These opportunities should not be limited to “people who’ve had that extra level of privilege”.

She said: “If you’ve found something that you love doing, there will be paths for you to get there. It is possible. I’m so glad that I had people behind me, pushing me, because I wouldn’t be doing it without them. That’s not just mum and dad. That’s Cath, that’s Calum (Watt), that’s everybody from NYCOS, everybody from Taransay. All of those people.”