On the 2nd of February, I became BBC Radio Scotland’s Young Traditional Musician 2014.
The final was held at Glasgow’s City Halls where the six finalists, from all across Scotland, competed for the title.
The other five finalists were fiddler Mhairi Marwick, pianist Alistair Iain Paterson, accordionist Ian Smith, singer Jack Badcock and fiddler Neil Ewart. I was truly blown away by the standard of musicianship from all the finalists and feel very priveliged to have been named this year’s winner.
The winning prize includes a recording session with BBC Scotland, a guest appearance at the annual Scots Trad Music Awards event and a one-year membership of the Musician’s Union. I am also really looking forward to heading out on tour and recording with all the other finalists later this year.
Winning the award has proved to be major platform for rising talent such as singer Emily Smith, multi-instrumentalist Anna Massie and fiddler Ruairidh Macmillan. I am sure that this will be a terrific year for me and I intend to make the most of every opportunity that the success will bring.
Thank-you to all my friends and family for their encouragement and for coming to the concert to support me. Thanks also to Simon Thoumire (Hands up for Trad) for all of his help and to the BBC Scotland team for all their hard work.
Lastly, thank-you to the other finalists who were so encouraging and delivered such worthy performances.