Perthshire musicians tune up for Celtic Connections

Jan 11 2011 by Alison Anderson, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

PERTHSHIRE musicians pepper the programme of this year’s Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow, which opens on Thursday with an exciting fusion concert, The Pulse of World.

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (GRCH) is the venue for this ground-breaking embodiment of Celtic Connections’ commitment to fostering international artistic collaboration. The concert is led by globally-renowned Indian tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, together with a stellar array of Scottish and Irish traditional musicians including Perthshire’s Patsy Reid (fiddle/viola) and Ross Ainslie (small pipes/whistle). Charlie McKerron, Michael McGoldrick and Hebridean singer Jenna Cumming are also renowned names on the line-up alongside a host of Indian stars selected by Hussain.

Thursday’s gala premiere, following a period of intensive rehearsal by Hussain and his Celtic collaborators, unveils a wealth of new music drawn from across their respective traditions and far beyond.

Their project has been produced by Celtic Connections with international live music producers, Serious, as part of an ongoing participation programme linked to River of Music – the Cultural Olympiad programme supported by the National Lottery and Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

As part of Serious, Ross has also been involved in a young people’s project which is a collaboration between Scottish and Indian musicians. He was a tutor on the week of workshops in October and is involved again this week in the run-up to their first performance at the Celtic Connections’ Schools’ Concert on Friday.

Also on Friday, Ross, from Bridge of Earn who is now based near Dunkeld, teams up with his old piping buddy Ali Hutton from Methven and the 11 other seriously talented Celtic musicians who form the Treacherous Orchestra, well-known in Perth for their Concert Hall appearances. This supergroup return to the O2 ABC – the scene of their main-stage debut during Celtic Connections 2009.

Ali’s other Celtic Connections duties include a collaboration with Innes Watson and others for a New Voices gig on Sunday in the Strathclyde Suite of GRCH and a Glasgow Art Club concert on Sunday, January 23.

Patsy, from Knapp overlooking the Carse of Gowrie, has a number of Celtic Connections engagements. She has forged a reputation as a leading Scottish musician in both classical and traditional genre, and next Wednesday at the Old Fruitmarket she underlines her international credentials as part of a new supergroup, RoughCoastAudio.

This nine-piece makes its debut live performance at Celtic Connections, merging Celtic, Nordic classical and east European influences with rock and dance grooves.

And this Sunday in Glasgow City Halls Patsy and pianist Mhairi Hall with the Edinburgh String Quartet collaborate in a new strings-backed arrangement from Hall’s debut album Cairngorm.

Butterstone’s international star Dougie MacLean plays his first concert after receiving an OBE in the New Year’s Honours for services to music and charity. His GRCH appearance next Friday (January 21) forms part of a major coup for Celtic Connections – when it hosts the first-ever live broadcast beyond American shores of the celebrated radio show, Mountain Stage.

Legendary gospel diva Mavis Staples tops the Mountain Stage bill, with Dougie flying the home flag, in this special event which will air on 130 radio stations Stateside.

Traditional music legends-in-their-lifetimes Jock Duncan, Pitlochry, and Sheila Stewart, Blairgowrie, are taking part in a diamond jubilee concert to celebrate 60 years of the School of Scottish Studies at Edinburgh University. The star-studded multi-generational line-up in the GRCH Strathclyde Suite on Saturday also includes Karen Matheson, Julie Fowlis and Duncan Chisholm.

Jock will present the prizes at the Gordon Duncan Memorial Solo Piping Competition on Sunday afternoon.

This competition was set up in honour of Jock’s son Gordon, who died in December 2005, aged 41. Gordon was widely regarded as one of the most skilled and innovative traditional music performers and composers of modern times.

Celtic Connections, supported by ScottishPower, runs until January 30. Full details can be found on www.celticconnections.com or telephone 0141 353 8000.