“My childhood playground was here in the Woods” Anagach
would take us hillwalking as kids, and I remember the days we did the Five Sisters of Kintail; we climbed in the Cuillin and the wonderful An Teallach ridge. It was all totally exhilarating.
“Much of my childhood playground was here in the Anagach Woods in Grantown, building bases and dens. We were always out and about.
“I was sent to classical piano lessons – learning Minuet in F and such like. By the time I was in Sixth Year, I was on two hours of piano scales and an hour of flute scales four or five times a week, but it wasn’t the kind of music that spoke to me. It was technical, the sole function was to achieve the grades and pass the exams.”
Technical it may have been, but that music education gave Hamish a solid foundation for what was to come. And it was exposure to music of a very different kind that excited and thrilled this young classically trained musician.
The Féis came along, with its immersive teaching courses specialising in traditional music and culture, and it completely changed his life.