Music
Folk 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…
Read MoreAboyne Highland Games stages online piping contest
THREE of the piping competitions held by Aboyne Highland Games will shift online this summer. The open competitions for the piobaireachd, march, and strathspey and reel categories will be held virtually on 1 August. Two-thirds of the 32 competitors come from the UK, with the remainder from North America. Recordings of their performances will be…
Read MoreHalfway stage for Gaelic music project
MORE than 40,000 people have accessed resources about Gaelic songs connected to coasts and waters on Facebook and Youtube as the Cladaichean is Uisgeachan project reaches its halfway point. Arts organisation Fèisean nan Gàidheal is putting together a collection of 52 songs to mark Scotland’s “Year of Coasts & Waters“. As well as new recordings,…
Read MoreAlexander McCall Smith song raises cash for Covid research
WORDS by Alexander McCall Smith have been set to music to raise money for the University of Oxford’s research into coronavirus treatments. Hand of Hope was arranged by Piers Schmidt and Nigel Short, founder of the Tenebrae choir, members of which recorded their contributions remotely during lockdown. The lyrics were set to Gustav Holt’s tune…
Read MoreTrailer lands for Scottish Opera’s fishy tale
SCOTTISH Opera will next week unveil its latest work online – and it’s released a trailer to whet your appetite. The Narcissistic Fish is set in the kitchen of a seafood restaurant in Leith. The 12-minute film is a collaboration between Scottish Opera composer in residence Samuel Bordoli, The Panopticon author Jenni Fagan and the company’s…
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