BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician finals
I really enjoyed the Awards this weekend. The concert was a great mix of instruments and styles (surprisingly no fiddle for a change) and all the musicians played really well. All the musicians played to a very high standard and presented theirselves on the stage very well. It is great to see the professionalism rising within traditional music and levels of presentation increasing all the time. The Award was won by Ewan Robertson, a singer guitarist who wowed the audience with his technique and stage presence.
Ewan receives the opportunity to make a CD with Greentrax Recordings and Watercolour Music, an international festival appearance with the British Council Scotland, and with the other finalists to take part in the TMSA Young Trad Tour, one year’s membership of the Traditional Music and Song Association and a session on BBC Radio Scotland’s Travelling Folk programme.
The concert was opened by Jeff Zycinski, Controller of BBC Radio Scotland who talked about RS's commitment to traditional music and mentioned the extra video and webcasts that will soon be going online in the next few months. Linda Fabiani MSP, Minister for Culture also talked highly of our traditional music and its place in society.
The concert ran very well to time which was great as it was on live radio (!). The staff at the BBC were excellent to work with and made the day go very smoothly.
Issues to look at for next year are rehearsals. Saturday ended up quite stressful due to other commitments by the accompanists and we ended rehearsing very early and very late to fit the finalists in. Sunday is not much good for rehearsals as we are soundchecking all day and the gig starts at 5pm. I'm not blaming anyone for this apart from myself as I should have realised this would happen well in advance and fixed it then. This won't happen again*
Another small issue was Celtic Connections getting rid of the catering for the artists. This year they were giving out tokens for food to be used in restaurants around the city which on the face of it is good fun and high quality but it did make things quite expensive as the £10 voucher especially for evening meals didn't really cover it. Also when we were busy rehearsing there is no time to go out and a provided bowl of soup would have made the starving musicians very happy. Maybe though I'm just a pig...
We are so lucky to have Celtic Connections on board though. They bring a real professionalism to the event as well as being part of a large team of events complete with press office, marketing etc. It looks like the festival has been another hit this year so hats off to Donald, Jade and crew and here's to 2009.
On the Foot Stompin' forum thread (http://www.footstompin.com/public/forum?threadid=106366) the issue was raised by Shona:
"I enjoyed the comp alot, however, I do have one small niggle.... it's a solo comp and fair enough competitors want a bit of backing support but I find that every year its beginning to sound like bands playing rather than soloists. Don't get me wrong the accompanists do a great job but does anyone think that it should be limited to a competitor + 1?"
Shona's point is interesting. I think the use of accompanists has changed over the years and for the first time this final everybody used piano and most of them used guitar. It is usually the other way around unless the musician is playing solo. I'm not sure what the answer is and whether cutting down the accompanists is the way to go. I remember a few years back we applauded the maturity of the musicians who decided to use both accompanists at once as it was new then. Someone else said to me at the weekend that they really liked the musicians using all the backers as it was then they could compare all the performers easier.
Anyway the application closing date for the 2009 event is Friday 4th July. The application forms will be ready in March.
*unless we have an emergency...
