A Dingwall piper and whistle player has been named BBC Radio Scotland’s young traditional musician of the year.
Ali Levack was presented with the prestigious award at a ceremony in Glasgow this evening.
The 26-year-old was previously a finalist in the competition back in 2018 and has been winning accolades for competitive piping from an early age.
As part of his prize, Mr Levack has been given a recording session and a one-year membership to the Musicians Union.
He said: “It’s such an honour to win – especially in this 20th anniversary year of the competition.
“Everyone played their hearts out tonight and gave a fantastic performance which has made it such a special night.
“The competition was tough so I’m a little bit shocked to have won, but utterly thrilled.
“The past winners have gone on to do some amazing things so it’s really exciting to think what could lie ahead – 2020 is going to be a very exciting year.”
Sin thu fhèin a bhalaich!
Ali Levack wins @BBCRadioScot's Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2020 🎉#YoungTrad @ccfest#ccfest2020 #bbcalba pic.twitter.com/vHhQGdwgGC
— BBC ALBA (@bbcalba) February 2, 2020
Gareth Hydes, BBC Scotland commissioning editor said: All the finalists were superb and the judges faced a very difficult decision.
“Ali’s performance personifies everything we want to celebrate about traditional music – it was vibrant, showed fantastic spirit and had the audience truly captivated. We want to wish Ali huge success for the future.”
The other finalists were singer Josie Duncan from Lewis, Uist accordionist Pàdruig Morrison, fiddle player Mhairi Mackinnon from Perthshire, Aberdeenshire guitarist Calum McIlroy and Aberdeen singer Cameron Nixon.
