Scottish Tenor Kenneth McKellar dies in Tahoe
By BBC
Scottish tenor Kenneth McKellar has died at the age of 82 after a very short illness.
Mr. McKellar passed away at the home of his daughter Jane, in Lake Tahoe in the United States.
The singer was known for his recordings of Scots songs, particularly those of Robert Burns, and appeared in musicals, on television and on radio.
Kenneth McKellar
Jane McKellar, 46, said her father had died just one week after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
As a wee boy back in the fifties/sixties Kenneth McKellar was a tv favourite with my family. My mother thought him so handsome she adored him, my father would wish he were able to sing like him, myself and brothers would be mesmerised by his beautiful Scottish brogue and his swirl ‘o’ the kilt as he sang such songs as “Westering Home” on the “White Heather Club” with regulars Andy Steward and Moira Anderson. Kenneth McKellar never did lose sense of his Scottish identity as his kilt wearing and many recordings prove. Such a sad loss to his family, and for our nation of Bonnie Scotland.
I recently sent a CD of Kenneth McKellar recordings to a friend in Madison, Georgia. He had heard a McKellar recording of Handel’s Largo and thought it was the most beautiful music he had ever heard. He wondered if it were on CD. I included the following note:
I first found Kenneth McKellar on an LP of Scottish folk songs at a truck stop gift shop in Louisville, Kentucky in 1958. I had recently moved from Tennessee to Wisconsin and was on my way home to Nashville for a vacation. What a delightful surprise to discover this beautiful voice! I began collecting his LPs and have nearly all of his recordings. In my opinion, he was the ultimate tenor – the closest to perfection I’ve ever heard…including Pavarotti. When I was asked to do the tenor solos for the Messiah with the Wisconsin State University (Eau Claire) chorus & orchestra in 1961, I set up my stereo player (state of the art!) in the basement fellowship hall of the Alma Center Methodist Church (I was pastor) and for weeks, I went every night about 11 P.M. and sang the solos at the top of my lungs with Kenneth McKellar. That’s how I learned the Messiah solos. I later did them at Middle Tennessee State University, practicing with McKellar.
Late, the night before last, to check your CD before sending it, I listened to “Comfort Ye,” “Ombra Mai Fu” (Largo), and “Sound an Alarm” (I once heard Richard Tucker sing this Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus aria with the Minneapolis Symphony and went home and ordered the sheet music and learned it – singing with McKellar). McKellar’s perfection, coupled with some real nostalgia, made me real weepy. You are about to be invaded with my favorite music.
The latest of McKellar’s tapes which I have, I bought at the gift shop at the Bonnie Prince Charlie monument on the “Road to the Isles” returning from Skye, several years ago. He had recorded it recently, and it is delightful – Scottish songs. We played it in our van all across Scotland and England, the rest of our trip.
-Richard Shriver
Richard V. Shriver, B.A., M.Div., D.Min.
Author, Professor of Philosophy & Religion
United Methodist Minister
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