Martyn Bennett

Martyn Bennett (17 February 1971 – 30 January 2005) was a Canadian-Scottish musician who was influential in the evolution of modern Celtic fusion, a blending of traditional Celtic and modern music.

He was a piper, violinist, composer and producer.

Diagnosis of serious illness at the age of thirty curtailed his live performances, although he completed a further two albums in the studio.

In 1990 he began violin and piano studies at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) in Glasgow where he met Kirsten Thomson, a piano student in the year above him, who joined him as a band-member and later became his wife.

Bennett was influenced by the early 1990s dance music scene and regularly attended clubs.

He worked with Martin Swan’s Mouth Music project, combining traditional Gaelic songs and music with contemporary instruments.

During the final year of his studies, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer, although he recovered from the illness after six months of treatment, and graduated in 1993.

He made his debut at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on 14 January 1994 supporting them.

Bennett was a teenager when Swan had first spotted him playing.

He released his first album, the eponymous Martyn Bennett, in 1995 on Eclectic, a small Edinburgh-based independent label.

He had recorded the album in just seven days at Castle Sound studios in Pencaitland.

Floret Silva Undique uses a poem by Hamish Henderson, who commented "What brave new music".

The album had a "dramatic" impact on Scottish music.

He provided the live musical score for David Harrower’s play Knives in Hens.

He performed at the party held at Stirling Castle for the European premier of the movie Braveheart on 3 September 1995.

He played at Edinburgh Hogmanay events in 1995 and 1996.

He was back performing in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in January 1996.

After writing scores for stage and television, he went on tour to America, supporting Wolfstone.

He released Bothy Culture in 1998 on the Rykodisc label.

One composition Hallaig takes its name from the poem by the Gaelic bard Sorley MacLean, incorporating a sample of MacLean reading the poem.

Bothy culture topped the US college radio charts.

The album came close to winning a Mercury Music Prize nomination.

He sported dreadlocks, an image that fitted with the musical and cultural boundaries that he was crossing.

At times he was characterised as "the techno piper".

He played at T in the Park in 1998.

Scottish celebrities attended his performance at the Buddha Bar in Paris, ahead of Scotland playing Brazil in the opening match of the 1998 World Cup.

He was awarded the 1998 Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award in the music category.

He died from cancer in 2005, fifteen months after release of his fifth album Grit.

He was born Martyn Bennett-Knight in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

His father Ian Knight was a Welsh geologist and musician.

His mother was Margaret Bennett, singer and folklorist who was born on Skye.

His grandfather, George Bennett, was also an enthusiastic piper.

For his first five years, he lived in the Codroy Valley, where Gaelic and traditional music were part of the culture.

He was five years old when the family moved to Quebec.

His parents separated when he was six and his mother moved back to Scotland, taking him with her.

They stayed briefly on Mull, before moving to Kingussie, where he had his first lessons on playing the Great Highland bagpipe from David Taylor, also his history teacher.

By the age of twelve, he was winning junior piping competitions.

At the age of fifteen he moved to Edinburgh with his mother.

He won a place at the City of Edinburgh Music School, the first traditional musician to do so.

During the three years that he studied there he also learned piano and violin.