Musicians and Gaelic actors at city event

Musicians and Gaelic actors at city event

ON Thursday Aros in Portree on the Isle of Skye sees the fruit of two projects that have been training young people in Gaelic arts.

Seventeen young Gaelic-speaking actors are currently learning stage and performance skills with the Sgoil Shamhraidh Dhràma on Skye and will come together with a 40-strong group of musicians from across the Highlands who have been working with Fèis Alba's Cèilidh Trail in Plockton in a performance featuring music, poetry and drama.

The Cèilidh Trail musicians then go on to tour their local areas before reconvening to appear at the Glasgow 2014 Festival on Monday, July 28, and later the same day at a special event at the Loch Lomond Sea Life Centre with Scots Trad Music Award-winning band Breabach.

l aros.co.uk

Prize on offer for composers

ENTRY to the Martyn Bennett Prize 2014 is now open.

The competition, which is named in honour of the late composer and multi-instrumentalist and organised by the Traditional Music Forum and the Queen's Hall in Edinburgh with funding from Creative Scotland, is open to composers aged 16+ who are based in Scotland and whose work and practice are influenced by Scottish traditional music.

Entrants should submit a new composition of between five and ten minutes' duration by 5pm on Monday September 1 in audio file or manuscript form.

The winner will receive £2,000 and the runner-up £1,000. A shortlist will be announced on Tuesday, September 16, and the finalists' concert will take place at the Queen's Hall on Tuesday, October 14.

l themartynbennettprize.com