Young people are performing their hearts out at the popular Lochaber Music Festival held this week in venues around Fort William.
Now in its 43rd year, the event showcases the talents of local pipers, fiddlers, clarsach and chanter players, accordionists, singers, dancers as well as verse and drama performers.
The piping and traditional music section started the event with 30 young chanter and bagpipe players and 20 traditional musicians ranging from beginners to advanced, participating.
Finlay Cameron from Roy Bridge won the Premier Scots Traditional Award and also picked up certificates for his outstanding performances in four categories in the solo bagpipe section.
Lochaber High School received distinction certificates for their performances in the bagpipe quartet and John Stewart-Stevenson was praised for his outstanding playing in the violin solo section. Lorna Linfield and Megan Campbell secured distinction awards in the clarsach solo and bagpipe solo classes respectively.
The programme continues tonight with drama performances, choirs, group music-making as well as the strings and brass sections and closes tomorrow with the Grand Festival Concert at Lochaber High School beginning at 7pm.
Festival chairperson Lilian MacDonald said: “The classes are very competitive and we are very lucky with our expert adjudicators. It is great to see the continuing musical progression of our young people.”
(BLOB) Lochaber High School’s Senior Wind Band struck gold at the treble when pupils took part in the national finals of the Scottish Concert Band Festival in Perth Concert Hall.
A stunning performance by the 43 young musicians against 15 other bands resulted in them wining a Gold Plus Award for the third time. And it’s the first time a band in this class has ever achieved three Gold Plus Awards in a row at the national finals. As a result, their conductor, Mark Reynolds, Highland Council’s brass instructor in Lochaber, has been awarded a travelling scholarship to attend the Mid West Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference in Chicago in December.
