Lochaber concert to premiere new composition
The sound of music will fill the Nevis Centre in Fort William on Saturday when 140 young musicians from across the Highlands perform a concert, the highlight of which will be the premiere of a composition by Scottish composer and performer Patsy Reid.
Thugainn, is the name of the suite Patsy has written specifically for the Highland Youth String Orchestra and Ceilidh band ‘snas to perform and has been sponsored by the Friends of Highland Young Musicians, a voluntary group who support the Highland Regional Music Groups. Also performing at the concert will be the Highland Youth Pipe Band and the Gaelic choir, Còisir G.
Patsy Reid is 25 years old and graduated form Strathclyde University in 2004 with a 1st class Honours BA degree in Applied Music, specialising in performance and album production. She continued her studies at the Royal Northern College of Music and gained a Post Graduate Certificate of Education with Specialist String Teaching and a Post Graduate Diploma in Violin Performance.
At 17, Patsy was a finalist in the original BBC Young Traditional Musician of the Year Award and is now a member of the band Breabach who for the past two years they have been nominated for Best Folk Band. In 2008 she was approached to write a New Voices commission for Celtic Connections entitled 'Bridging the Gap'. The 50 minute piece of music was very well received and the live recording was released on Vertical Records in November 2008.
The Highland Council’s Music Development Officer Norman Bolton said: “Patsy has a great amount of experience in performing and teaching both traditional and classical music so it is a great honour to have her commission a new work for our young musicians to perform in public for the first time. I would like to thank the Friends of Highland Young Musicians for making this possible and I would encourage as many people as possible to come along to the Nevis Centre on Saturday for what will be a terrific and memorable evening of music.”
The concert starts at 7.00pm and tickets cost £8 for adults or £4 for school children. To book please telephone 01349 863441.