SMO @ Celtic Connections
19 January SMO @ Celtic Connections
Glasgow’s City Halls venue was jam-packed for Sabhal Mòr Ostaig’s special 40th anniversary concert, SMO@40. A host of musical stars who have shared in the college’s rich history were onstage to celebrate the college’s continuing contribution to Gaelic and Scotland’s culture and to showcase the intimate relationship SMO has enjoyed with music over the years since it was established 40 years ago.
The concert was held as part of Celtic Connections 2013 in honour of Sabhal Mòr and the critical role it plays as the National Centre for the Gaelic Language, Culture and the Arts, and to pay tribute to and to celebrate the contribution which the institution has made to the cultural life of Scotland.
Among the musicians and singers to appear on stage were: Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis, the renowned Irish pianist and composer Professor Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, fiddler Alasdair Fraser, Fergie MacDonald, Christine Primrose, Margaret Stewart, James Graham, Allan MacDonald, Decker Forrest, Mary Ann Kennedy, Dàimh, Allan Henderson, Iain MacDonald, Angus Nicholson, Ingrid Henderson, Andrew MacPherson, Murdo Cameron, Alasdair White, Eilidh MacFadyen, Natalie Haas, Niall Keegan, Sandra Joyce and Kenneth Edge.
Sabhal Mòr Ostaig Director of Development, Fundraising and the Arts Donnie Munro, who along with Festival Director Donald Shaw arranged for the event to take place, said: “This concert has been a very special way to launch this important year in Sabhal Mòr Ostaig’s history. That such an amazing array of talented international musicians and singers should come together in this way to celebrate and to honour the work of Sabhal Mòr is a wonderful testimony to the deep affection and respect in which it is held and, furthermore, is a recognition of the unique and special place which Sabhal Mòr occupies at the heart of Scottish cultural life. It is hugely appropriate that this year of celebration should start with music and song as these two distinct strands of our cultural life have been important ‘carrying streams’ for the transmission of our cultural heritage through many generations and also, and importantly, the ‘portal’ through which Gael and non-Gael alike have shared the riches of this precious national inheritance.”
Also taking place at Celtic Connections on the same day was a special afternoon concert in the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland at 2.00pm featuring the best of the College’s current BA (Hons) Gaelic & Traditional Music student talent..
There was also the opportunity during the day for people to learn some Gaelic or improve their Gaelic skills at a course run by the College’s Short Courses team, which took place in An Lèanag in Partick.
1 February
Margaret Stewart, recent Musician in Residence at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, will be performing ‘A Bhanais Ghàidhealach/The Highland Wedding’ on Friday 1 February as part of the Celtic Connections festival. This celebration of Highland nuptial customs, both past and present will include songs, music and visual art; both traditional and modern material, together with some of Margaret’s new compositions for the piece. The concert will take place in the Mitchell Library at 7.30pm. Tickets are available online at www.celticconnections.com/Events/Pages/Event.aspx?ev=448&ty=Gaelic
