A teenage piper from Skye has won a prestigious folk music award.
Brighde Chaimbeul, a 17-year-old pupil of St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh, is the winner of this year’s BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award.
She won the award in a hotly contested final at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Four finalists in the Young Folk Award performed live during a special interval programme, presented by BBC Radio 2’s Simon Mayo and top folk musician Kathyrn Tickell.
Brighde played her Hamish Moore Smallpipes and won through to the finals, along with three others, including the Causeway Trio (all recent pupils of St Mary’s Music School – Pàdruig Morrison, Pete Thornton and David Swan).
She said: “I’m absolutely delighted and really grateful for all the support and kind words I have received. It has been a mad few days, it hasn’t really sunk in.
“As a result of winning the competition I will be playing at three festivals this summer which I’m really looking forward to – Cambridge, Corpredy and Towersey. After that we’ll see. I’m very excited.”
Brighde is one of five musically gifted siblings who have attended or are currently pupils at St Mary’s Music School.
Her brother Eosaph and sister Ciorstaidh Sarah are also keen traditional musicians and join Brighde and others in playing folk music in the school’s traditional group. Eosaph plays guitar and drums and Ciorstaidh Sarah the accordion. Older sister Mairi is now studying jazz, world music and composition at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and Steaphanaidh is studying harp at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
Dr Kenneth Taylor, headteacher at St Mary’s Music School, said: “Brighde is a highly talented piper as well as an accomplished pianist. We know how hard she has worked to achieve these standards and everyone at St Mary’s Music School is delighted with her thoroughly well deserved success in this prestigious competition.”
