Iain and I spent a wonderful hour today in the Strathclyde Suite of the Glasgow Concert Hall where Mairearad Green was performing. This young player (accordion, pipes) from Achiltibuie had been commissioned under the New Voices scheme to compose something for Celtic Connections. And I am here to say it was very high calibre!
She chose (and lead) a fine line-up of musicians who performed her music which I think could be described as Celtic Fusion. She engaged with the audience immediately upon walking on the to stage - believe me a lot of performers do not - and it was music happily played (smiling faces mostly without music; she had no music) and enthusiastically received.
While they played non-stop for 45 minutes - good linking between pieces too, i.e. some fast and some slow all mixed with good key changes - there was a slide show .... no, I mean a Powerpoint video show ... going on behind them on the back wall of the stage. These photos of mine are similar to what was being shown. In fact, the title of the performance was called 'Passing Places' which is what the above photo shows. Well, it shows the sign on the lower right.
Piggy has a walk-on part in this Photoshop Mini-performance as he was recently in Achiltibuie (and he thinks he can sing). He and the sheep were doing their 3/4 time Summer Isles Serenade: "Baa, baa, Oink"! What was a Pig from Vancouver doing in Wester Ross? Well, that is where Iain's father's people are from; yes, Mairearad is a far-out relation. Yes, we know ... they are are all related and, indeed, lots of folk were in the hall so it was meeting-and greeting time. (Piggy ... you missed that!)
No comments:
Post a Comment