Jenny Gilbertson: 'A Real Illuminator'

In today's episode we revisit our 2024 pre-festival programme of illustrated talks to share a rich conversation between Dr Shona Main and Professor Sarah Neely, on the fascinating life and work of Jenny Gilbertson. The original recording was inspired by the HippFest 2024 Opening Night Commission for a new musical accompaniment for Jenny Gilbertson's The Rugged Island: a Shetland Lyric (1933), on March 20th earlier this year. We are delighted that The Rugged Island will be reprised at the ⁠Soundhouse Winter Festival⁠ at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh on Thursday 28th November, complete with the HippFest commissioned music by Shetland-born musicians Inge Thomson and Catriona Macdonald.⁠ You can book your tickets here⁠! If you're new to HippCast, it's worth noting that ⁠Episode 12 ⁠of our output features Inge and Catriona discussing their approach to working together to craft their music for Gilbertson's beautiful film. If you are planning on attending the reprisal at #SoundhouseWinterFest, we recommend you tune in to that episode too. But for now we return to a fascinating discussion about Jenny Gilbertson herself. Enjoy! Relevant links Read a full English transcript of this episode ⁠via the HippFest Blog⁠. Browse ⁠the Soundhouse Winter Festival programme here⁠. ⁠The Rugged Island: A Shetland Lyric (1933) programme notes⁠, written by Dr Shona Main. ⁠Watch the illustrated presentation⁠ featuring a variety of archival images.