(and a farewell to Ceòl Mòr)

Guest blog by Stewart Aitken

Since 2000 AIYF has been producing a range of events designed to introduce, inform and inspire young musicians to the wealth of opportunities through playing Scottish traditional music. Led by David Francis, the annual summer programme as part of the international festival has explored, mentored, commissioned and performed some of the most original “new” traditional music available in the country.

(And a farewell to Ceòl Mòr)

Guest blog by Stewart Aitken

Since 2000 AIYF has been producing a range of events designed to introduce, inform and inspire young musicians to the wealth of opportunities through playing Scottish traditional music. Led by David Francis, the annual summer programme as part of the international festival has explored, mentored, commissioned and performed some of the most original “new” traditional music available in the country.

This summer saw David decide to draw this particular journey for him to an end after a fifteen year association with AIYF in his capacity as director of trad music – we’ll still be involved with his work with the Traditional Music Forum but that’s for another day. I felt it would be great just to mark the innovative, and at times ground-breaking, work he has overseen with the festival with a bit of a review of the journey he has helped us take. The project was clearly influenced by a wider rise in profile and development of the genre across the country and internationally but, I believe, it has in equal measure had an impact on the development of some careers, the direction of some musicians and bands and the creation of new and equally innovative initiatives.

AIYF has always prided itself on being, not only a platform for high quality performance across a number of musical and performance events, but also a platform for innovation, collaboration and providing an opportunity for young people to learn and experiment. With this in mind, the then Director of the Festival felt that AIYF should be supporting access to and development of traditional music better and started The Splore with David. Aimed at the 16 to 25 age group the course brought a wealth of experienced tutors including Norman Kennedy, Mairi Campbell, Alistair Hardie, Corrina Hewat, Ian Lowthian, Kenny Hadden and Hazel Wrigley to work with them. The sessions included creating new work, use of voice, storytelling and also brought the first international trad connections to AIYF in the form of Coast String Fiddlers from British Columbia in 2005.

The summer school of workshops, rehearsals and performances grew into the formation of the first youth Big Band in the country, Ceòl Mòr. Modelled on The Unusual Suspects it had Harris Playfair as its first MD. The band was set up to push the boundaries of the music and take more influences from jazz and other music styles into new commissions including Harris’s “Movement 4”, Aidan O’Rourke’s “Coriolis” and an epic arrangement of Gordon Duncan’s “Jock Broon’s 70^th” with brass. The band became one of the summer things to get involved in for many young musicians with other commissions from Dave Milligan, Innes Watson, Patsy Reid and Tia Files (to name a few) to look forward to. In later years the opportunity to work with MDs Stephen Deazley and Hamish Napier and musicians Karine Polwart and the Treacherous Orchestra were added attractions. The band explored the fusion with jazz and classical style, worked on the role of song and went back to the roots of some of the traditional music in the region.

This mix of creative catalysts challenged the participants each year to look at their own talents and the band were always encouraged to share their own ideas and compositions (many making it into the final concerts.) Some of these participants are now creating wonderful music across the world with some of the biggest trad bands of the moment, including Treacherous Orchestra, Breabach, Peatbog Faeries and Rura. A good number have been finalists of (and some have won) the Young Scottish Trad Musician of the Year.

The band has also had the bonus of performing at other festivals and events including The Edinburgh Fringe, Arts&Business Awards, Scots Trad Music Awards, The Edinburgh Mela and Celtic Connections – where the band will once again be performing in January.

The scene has changed greatly since 2000 with some wonderful initiatives now happening across the country and Ceòl Mòr & The Splore have played a major part in this movement that now see summer activity at Tinto Summer School, Ceilidh Trails across the country, The Gordon Duncan Experience and the Edinburgh Youth Gaitherin as well as the many Fèisean, the school at Plockton and closer to home the North East Folk Collective, youth workshops at Portsoy, Stonehaven and Huntly in Aberdeenshire – plus much, much more.

Going forward AIYF will continue to be a platform for young people to experiment and learn about the fantastic opportunities given by traditional music playing. The names of The Splore and Ceòl Mòr may not be used at the moment but the connections to these projects will be strong with continuing participation in AIYF from International groups, tutoring from past participants now firmly established in the profession and the wealth of material available to explore made possible by the foresight, in 2000, to start this journey and see where it went by David and the AIYF team.

Stewart Aitken is Artistic Director of Aberdeen International Youth Festival