Fabulous opportunity for a young musician to compose new work
This summer we’ve teamed up with an organisation that promotes traditional arts across Scotland to provide a fantastic opportunity for a young musician to compose new music, to be performed at this year’s Blas Festival < https://www.blas-festival.com/ > which celebrates the Year of Young People 2018.
Fèisean nan Gàidheal < http://www.feisean.org/en/ > supports 47 local Fèisean across Scotland which, collectively, offer tuition in traditional music and Gaelic song to over 6,000 young people annually. Last year, Fèisean nan Gàidheal won the ‘Gaelic as an Economic Asset’ category at the Daily Record/Bòrd na Gàidhlig annual Gaelic Awards, a prize we were proud to sponsor for a second year.
Fèisean nan Gàidheal also runs the annual Blas Festival in partnership with The Highland Council and its Chief Executive, Arthur Cormack, explains: “We welcome financial support from Thorntons Investments and commend the company on its further collaboration following its sponsorship of the category we won at last year’s Gaelic Awards. Working together, we were delighted to offer a new commission for a young musician which will guarantee performances of the new music at Blas, as well as the opportunity to record the work after the festival to bring it to a wider audience. We were delighted when Mischa Macpherson was announced early last month as the winner and we look forward to seeing her perform at the festival.
“The Blas Festival has always involved young people as performers at events, mainly from the Fèisean that we support but also from the other music groups. This year, Blas is organising a number of special events with financial support from the Year of Young People 2018 event fund, managed by EventScotland, part of VisitScotland’s Events Directorate.”
Our Chief Executive, Stephen Webster, said: “We appreciate the enormous contribution of Gaelic culture, and music in particular, in today’s Scottish society and are delighted to support this inspirational composition prize. Competitions like this can be a useful stepping stone for composers and our aim is that Thorntons Investments’ contribution will boost recognition of the talent that exists in our communities.”