Seylan Baxter

Scottish Folk Cellist, Actress and Folk SInger

Hello and welcome! The site is divided into two sections: actress and musician. You'll find a CV, videos etc. in each.

Hillwalkers, Long Distance Melodeon Players and Gangrels

I made this radio broadcast in 2007 as part of my Scottish Music Degree course at the RSAMD (now RCS) having made a written project on the same subject and with the same title a year earlier. I'd lost the recording when an old computer crashed without backup several years ago. The death of Jimmy Jennet, who was my main, and very entertaining!, informant for projects, in late January 2018 encouraged me to seek out the recording. Have a listen below and when I have a digital copy of the written project I'll post that too.

https://soundcloud.com/tattie-jam/hillwalkers-long-distance-melodeon-players-and-gangrels

 

Spring!

Already... it always seems that winter will go on forever then suddenly, without warning (or so it seems) the clocks change, the days are long, the daffodils and primroses are out and Spring has beautifully and undeniably arrived.

I'm working on a bit of a spring cleaning generally and specifically I'm doing some new cello arrangements with a view to recording an album later in the year, probably in the winter, and acting wise I'm brushing up on accents. Because I didn't have drama school training it wasn't something I'd ever tried but with my background in languages it's something I love and, fortunately, it comes quite easily. I'm not happy with ok though - I want to make the accents I tackle near native so there's always a lot to learn and practice to do.

I'm still having fun with my lovely camera (a Canon 70D) which I bought about a year ago, and which I've shot two short films and two showreel scenes on, plus my own headshots and lots of behind the scenes photos of film sets I've been on. I might even get round to uploading some one day! 

Cello teaching wise, I've just had a great Scottish Cello Workshops Weekend at Balnaboth House in Glenprosen, Angus. We had a full house and a fantastic group of cellists and partners and Trish Strain (cello) and Ruaridh Pringle (fretted things and singer/songwriter) assisted me with the teaching. The following weekend I taught at Mairi Voinot's inaugural String Schools weekend. We were a bit lacking in cellists because of the proximity to my own teaching weekend but there's already a plan in place to separate out the two events next year. My monthly workshops continue in Glasgow and, for the ninth time in ten years, I'll be teaching at Alasdair Fraser's Fiddle (and Cello) camp at Sabhal Mor Ostaig in Skye towards the end of July. I'm also still planning some cello teaching DVDs - they were delayed by the damage to my cello last year but I'll be on it again soon.

Have a lovely Spring and early Summer!

Acting - New Agent

I'm really thrilled to have joined the team of Felix de Wolfe, a wonderful agency based in Soho, working with the lovely Wendy Scozzaro. I met up with Wendy when I was in London filming a short film directed by the wonderful Rob Savage. It's half short, half music video featuring tracks by Dear Reader and should be out in February. I'm very sad to be leaving Stiven Chrisitie in Edinburgh - Dougie Stiven has been a great agent - but I'm excited for the future.

Music - Broken Cello

Very bad news about my cello. Leaving the teaching premises I answered a phone call and a gust of wind blew the cello over. The case didn't protect it and the neck snapped. Although I'd been insuring it every year since I bought it I'd accidentally let the insurance lapsed in the upheaval with house removals. 

So my cello is currently with its maker (!)... Eric Jackson - nobody better to a perfect repair job. 

I composed two tunes - Windblown, a gentle march and Hard Case, a reel full of cross rhythms and best played at breakneck speed, and recorded three, including Wullie Baxter, written for my dad a couple of Christmases ago. You'll find some clips in the music and video pages and can buy the track in the shop. All proceeds will be going towards paying for the rapairs.

So I finally have a website...

It's been a while coming - I paid somebody to design a website for me back in January but they took the money and ran. Maybe that was a good thing though as it made me think, what the heck, I'll do one myself...

Come in and have a look around. I plan to add a gallery soon and more links. And I might even write something in this blog from time to time!

I'll also change the background photos from time to time. Currently the home page is a photo by Anna Wiraska, taken while I was recording for Gerda Stevenson's album, Night Touches Day, and the image on the rest of the site is by Ruaridh Pringle.

What's new? Well I'm delighted to say that Best Man, the short film that I produced and wrote the screenplay for is complete. I ended up editing it too (respect for film editors - I had no idea how important their job is!) and also composing and playing the score for it, which was recorded by my Tattie Jam partner in musical crime, Ruaridh Pringle. Ru also had a massive creative input into the music and was my co-producer on the film as well as taking the lovely stills.

I've now got an idea brewing for a comedy short - more on that if it comes to fruition.