We have 4 school concerts featuring some of the fantastic artists appearing at this year’s Celtic Connections Festival.
These concerts will be suitable for all P4 – S6 pupils, and our opening concert is for nursery to P3 pupils. This year’s programme welcomes performers from all over Scotland, and also features fantastic young musicians from the RCS Junior Academy and St Roch’s Céilí Band.
Please complete the application form. You can apply for more than 1 concert and there is no limit to the number of seats you ask for, but you must complete 1 application for each concert.
Click here to download the application form
Completed application forms can be emailed to amcv@glasgowlife.org.uk
Enquiries should be emailed to schoolinfo@glasgowlife.org.uk – please do not email enquiries to the amcv email address for applications.
Programme
Tuesday 21st January, 11:00 – 12:10
Kinnaris Quintet and The RCS Junior Conservatoire
Nursery – P3
The powerhouse group forging new attitudes towards traditional and folk music with their unique and signature sound. Expect uplifting and driving harmonies, intricate arrangements, and joy in abundance. Renowned for having a style quite like no other - powerful, fresh, euphoric, raw, enigmatic and emotive - Kinnaris Quintet have quickly become the must-see act on the live music scene.
Plus special guests the RCS Juniors, comprising young musicians from around Glasgow participating in The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Junior Conservatoire programme. The young musicians really are an inspiration.
Wednesday 22nd January, 11:00 – 12:20
Breabach and St Roch’s Céilí Band
P4 – S6
Securely ranked among Scotland’s most skilled and imaginative contemporary folk acts, Breabach unite deep roots in Highland and Island tradition with the innovative Scottish music scene. 2022 saw them release their studio album ‘Fàs’ for which they were awarded ‘Folk Band of the Year’ at the BBC ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards. To date they have released seven increasingly acclaimed albums, whilst fuelling their creative appetites in collaborations with BAFTA award winning animator Cat Bruce on short film Dùsgadh, indigenous Australasian artists Moana & The Tribe, Quebec’s Le Vent du Nord, video game composer Big Giant Circles and as artists-in-residence at 2019’s Celtic Colours Festival with Cape Bretoners, Beòlach.
The fabulous St Roch’s Céilí Band will open the concert. Formed over 40 years ago by Frank McArdle as a lunchtime club in a Royston secondary school, this organisation is now responsible for teaching traditional music to hundreds of children across Glasgow. Representatives from the 15-18 age group will have you tapping your feet, clapping your hands and maybe even singing along to a traditional song!
Thursday 23rd January, 11:00 – 12:20
Peat & Diesel and Sarah Markey
P4 – S6
We’re delighted to welcome back Peat and Diesel to this year’s Celtic Connections Festival School Concert Programme. They are a three-piece band from Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, comprising Calum “Boydie” MacLeod, Innes Scott and Uilly Macleod. The band formed over Saturday sessions at the band members' homes in Stornoway, and grew in popularity through exposure on social media. In 2019 they won “Live Act of the Year” at the Scots Trad Music Awards, and they have since gone from strength to strength.
Sarah Markey is a traditional flute player, singer and harpist from Coatbridge, Scotland. She was a BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year finalist in 2019 and an Up and Coming Artist of the Year nominee in the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards 2022.
Her musical upbringing, whilst steeped in traditional music, has a very different influence mainly from the multi-faceted Scottish traditional music scene. Sarah has recorded and collaborated with some of the traditional music scene's top artists, such as Mec Lir, Hayley Keenan (former member of Talisk) and Calum Stewart.
Tuesday 28th January, 11:00 – 12:20
Blazin’ Fiddles and Kaitlin Ross
P4 – S6
Take a group of the hottest contemporary fiddle players from the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, mix with some wonderfully sympathetic piano and guitar arrangements and you’ve got the award winning Blazin’ Fiddles on your hands. And they are Blazin’, in the past decade no other band has quite captured Scottish fiddle music’s variety, energy and sensitivity like Blazin’ Fiddles have.
Blending solo and ensemble sets, with the occasional insightful tale, they all come together in a fiery blend to excite your senses. From remote village halls to the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, fiddlers Jenna Reid, Bruce MacGregor, Rua Macmillan and Kristan Harvey are joined by Anna Massie on guitar/fiddle and Angus Lyon on piano to deliver a musically intoxicating event for all.
It’s a pleasure to welcome back Gaelic singer Kaitlin Ross to the Celtic Connections school concerts. Kaitlin was born and brought up in the Highlands, in Fearn. She has, through her involvement in Gaelic song and music, performed nationally and internationally.