A north-east composer has won a top award for a piece inspired by a discovery in the Outer Hebrides.
James Lindsay penned the piece Hebrides Terrace Seamount after the recent discovery of the undersea mountain off the coast of Barra.
The 25-year-old’s piece was performed by a live band at the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh, where judges named him the winner of the Martyn Bennett Prize for Traditional Music Composition.
The award is given in memory of the late Scottish musician Martyn Bennett, who died of cancer in 2005 at the age of 33, and is supported by Creative Scotland to highlight the role composition plays in Scotland’s traditional music.
Mr Lindsay, of Pitcaple, said it was a “huge honour” to win the prize, and now plans to use his £2,000 winnings to develop the composition into a full length album.
All of the five short-listed composers had their work recorded on the night of the competition, and Mr Lindsay’s piece has already been played on the radio.
The former Meldrum Academy pupil got involved with traditional music while playing for the school ceilidh band, Fiddlesticks, and went on to study applied music at Strathclyde University.
He also joined top Scottish roots band Braebach as their bass player, and has toured Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The band’s collaboration with Aborigines and Maoris was performed at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.