Neil Sutcliffe

Neil Sutcliffe is an accordionist, pianist, and singer from Stirling. He grew up in a family of musicians, and from a young age was surrounded by a variety of musical influences from boogie-woogie to zydeco, Schubert to Scott Skinner. At the age of 14 he began studying at the Junior Department of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and went on to complete a BMus degree in classical performance, graduating in 2021 with First Class Honours. During his studies, Neil became passionate about promoting the classical accordion in Scotland, through performing, research, and in particular working with Scottish-based composers to create new repertoire for the instrument. In 2021 he recorded an album of previously un-recorded accordion works by Ronald Stevenson, which was released by Toccata Classics in 2022.

As well as his classical work, Neil is still very engaged in the traditional music scene in Scotland. Alongside his work in the duo Roo and Neil, Neil has given solo performances for festivals and private events in the UK and abroad. As a singer, his repertoire of folksongs and ballads in Scots, Gàidhlig and French covers everything from political protest songs to Glasgow bairnsangs.

Neil regularly works on collaborative projects with dancers, BSL artists and most notably, storytellers. He has developed and performed in several storytelling shows with Danish storyteller Svend-Erik Engh – Walk the Oars, Wolves Within, Three Rivers Rising. In his musical work, he uses storytelling to connect with audiences and create accessible, participatory performances.