Musical work sought to celebrate Year of Stories
Iconic stories, people and places across the Highlands and Islands will be celebrated this year in a new piece of music to be performed during this September’s Blas Festival.
In conjunction with Scotland’s Year of Stories, the organisers of this year’s event are seeking proposals from musicians and composers for the creation of a new 40-minute piece of music celebrating Highland stories.
The Blas Festival, which began with small-scale events in 2004, celebrates
Highland music, Gaelic language and culture.
It will host the premiere of this new piece of work during the festival which will run from September 2 - 10.
Last year’s commission celebrated the 200th anniversary of Màiri Mhòr nan Òran and was led by Gaelic singer Kim Carnie, who is originally from Oban.
The festival, organised by Gaelic arts organisation Fèisean nan Gàidheal, in partnership with Highland Council, has commissioned many new works over the years, including last year’s commission by Kim, multi-instrumentalist and producer Mike Vass (2020), Gaelic song expert Jo MacDonald (2019) and Gaelic singer Mischa Macpherson (2018).
The musician awarded the commission this year will have a budget of up to £3,000 which will support them to compose new material or arrange existing material and prepare for a number of performances at Blas.
This year’s festival will feature a host of much-loved traditional musicians from across Scotland as well as featuring many young musicians from fèisean across the Highlands.
It is expected that significant birthdays of some of Scotland’s most treasured tradition bearers will be celebrated.
As well as around 30 live events, there will be an extensive education and communities programme and online workshops, talks and livestreamed concerts.
Calum Alex Macmillan, Blas Festival organiser, said: 'We are delighted to be returning to our traditional September dates for this year’s Blas Festival, visiting communities across the Highlands with a programme that will celebrate our rich Gaelic culture and heritage.
'The annual commission is always a highlight of the festival offering, and we are so pleased to be able to give artists the chance to create and showcase new work again this year.
'We are excited to be incorporating the theme of Scotland’s stories within this year’s commission and look forward to seeing what the successful musician will create.'
Proposals should be submitted by e-mail to Blas Festival, blas@blas.scot, by 5pm on Monday, March 14.
For more information and proposal guidelines, please visit www.blas.scot/commission.
Further information about this year’s festival will be available in the coming months at www.blas.scot.