Celtic Connections
BBC Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year Final, City Halls, Glasgow
Miranda Heggie
Five stars
Wrapping up this year's Celtic Connections festival, the final of BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2015 saw six of the country's most talented emerging traditional artists take to the stage of Glasgow's City Halls. Seamlessly presented by Mary Anne Kennedy, this sensational showcase of Scotland's rising stars was a fabulous exponent of the many flavours of Scottish Traditional Music being written and performed today. Proceedings were kicked off by Ainsley Hammill from Cardross, who presented a spellbinding set of Gaelic songs, with a rich, dusky haunting tone. Dunblane-born clarsach player Heather Downie lent slightly jazzy hues to her first set, before playing a serene and hypnotic piece of Piobaireachd. The fiddle featured heavily during the evening, with 3 of the finalists giving sterling performances on the instrument. Ryan Young played a lively set of traditional tunes, as well as his own more mournful composition, aptly titled Despair with a crisp suppleness, while Gemma Donald brought a driven and fiery momentum to her playing. Seamus O Baoighill, from the Isle of Skye, played a pair of waltzes on fiddle with amazing dexterity and a wildly infectious sense of rhythm, before ending his set with a perfectly polished performance on the highland bagpipes.
There could only be one winner though, and it was singer Claire Hastings whose engaging performance most impressed the judges and led to her being presented with the winner's quaich. Her beautifully clear voice rang through the hall as she presented a moving set of Scots' Songs. Opening with her own composition, The House at Rose Hill, and following on with Roddy McMillan's Let Ramensky Go, Hastings' talents not just as a musician but as a compelling storyteller were obvious.
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