Thomas Erskine, 6th Earl of Kellie

Thomas Alexander Erskine, 6th Earl of Kellie (1 September 1732 – 9 October 1781), styled Viscount Fentoun and Lord Pittenweem until 1756, was a Scottish musician and composer whose considerable talent brought him international fame and his rakish habits notoriety, but nowadays is little known. Recent recordings of his surviving compositions have led to him being re-evaluated as one of the most important British composers of the 18th century, as well as a leading exponent of Scotland’s music. Life His father Alexander Erskine, 5th Earl of Kellie, was incarcerated at Edinburgh Castle for supporting the Jacobites in the Jacobite rising of 1745. His mother, Janet Pitcairn, was the daughter of a celebrated physician and poet. Born in Edinburgh, Thomas attended the Royal High School before leaving around 1752 for Mannheim in Germany to study under the elder Johann Stamitz. After his father’s death in 1756, Alexander returned to Scotland as a virtuoso violinist and composer, nicknamed “Fiddler Tam”. He began propagating the modern Mannheim style, of which he was to become widely acknowledged as the leading British exponent. Six of his three-movement “Overtures” (Symphonies) were published