Music
Finalists named in shinty music contest
THREE musicians have been selected as the finalists in a unqiue composition competition. Ewen Henderson, Chris Gray, and Mary Ann Kennedy will compete for the top prize. The contest has been organised by the Royal Celtic Society (RCS), the Glasgow Celtic Society, and the Camanachd Association, shinty’s governing body, to mark the absense of the…
Read MoreScottish Opera’s outdoor performances begin
GREENOCK plays host to Scottish Opera this afternoon as its series of autumn pop-up operas begins. The programme shifts to East Lothian on Sunday, followed by Ayr, Stirling, Easterhouse, Glasgow, Inverness, Dundee, Edinburgh and St Andrews during the rest of the month. This season’s pop-up operas feature extracts from The Gondoliers and Don Giovanni, along with The…
Read MorePupil hears her rap recorded by the army
A RAP written by a 12-year-old school pupil and inspired by the Windrush generation has been recorded by army musicians. Leila McPhate, from Larbert High School in Stenhousemuir, wrote The World Is A Dark Place as her entry for Never Such Innocence, an international arts competition to give children and young people a voice on conflict.…
Read MoreBenedetti hits No 1 with Elgar
SCOTTISH violinist Nicola Benedetti has taken the number one slot in the official classical artist chart with her Edward Elgar record. The physical disc was launched on 7 August, following its online release back on 15 May. The album features Elgar’s vast Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61, alongside three short works for violin…
Read MoreFolk musician Karen Tweed publishes sketchbook
PIANO accordionist Karen Tweed has published her first book of sketches. Tweed trained as a graphic artist in the early 1980s before focusing on music for 30 years. Moving to Orkney in January 2018 rekindled her interest in sketching. Her pictures include Papa Westray, North Ronaldsay and South Ronaldsay. Tweed described the sketchbook as a…
Read MoreOnline concert for ‘Folk In Crisis’
ACCORDIONIST and shinty star Gary Innes will perform in an online concert tomorrow night to raise money for Folk In Crisis, a fund that supports traditional musicians affected by the coronavirus lockdown. Innes will be joined by Lochaber violinist Ewen Henderson, and will answer the audience’s questions at the end of the performance. The gig…
Read MoreTwo pupils share St Mary’s Music School prize
TWO pupils from St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh have been awarded the Directors’ Recital Prize jointly for the first time in the award’s 20-year history. The judges said that flautist Cliodhna Scott (16) and accordionist Sophia Ros (17) had “achieved an exceptional quality of musicianship, communicating the character of the performance and capturing the…
Read MoreSwedish musician’s search for Scottish Heritage
Who do you think you are? A question many of us like to ask, but few really know the answer to. While tall tales from distant relatives may tell of our distant royal connections, or indeed of our ties to foreign lands, it isn’t until we peel back the layers of the family tree that…
Read MoreOnline gigs from stunning locations
SOME of Scotland’s best-known locations will form the backdrop for a series of performances on the new “Music Is The Answer” Youtube channel. The Forth Bridge, the Glenfinnan Viaduct and McCaig’s Tower at Oban are just some of the sites that will play host to artists including Be Charlotte, Luke La Volpe, and Oakzy B…
Read MoreScottish Opera’s emerging artists’ online recital
FOUR young singers will perform an online recital to mark the end of their season as Scottish Opera’s emerging artists. Arthur Bruce, Charlie Drummond, Heather Ireson and Mark Nathan have put together a short, light-hearted programme of operatic highlights, which will be streamed live at 6pm on 23 July. The season marks the tenth anniversary…
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