This year, Scottish Culture and Traditions (SC&T) is celebrating 20 years of providing adult evening classes in the full range of Scottish traditional music, song and dance and we estimate that over 2500 people have been through our classes since we started in 1997. 

We believe it is important to keep our traditions alive and are driven by a wish to introduce as many people as possible to these traditions, through participation. This term we have over 250 participants taught by experienced and enthusiastic tutors.  The emphasis is on enjoyment and a sense community as much as the acquisition of new skills. This is reflected in the participation of our classes in community and local events, including our popular end of term concert.

In the coming year we plan to develop our existing Trade for All programme which, over the past three years, in partnership with local community organisations, has provided free class places for 30 folk from disadvantaged communities. The plan is to take the programme out into the community, so people do not have to travel so far to attend a class. We also seeking funding to run a program for young people next year in collaboration with the North Atlantic Fiddle Convention (NAFCo) 2018, which takes place in Aberdeen and the Aberdeen International Youth Festival.

We are delighted to have been nominated for Community Project of the Year in the Hands up for Trad Traditional Music Awards 2017. You can vote for us here 

We celebrated our 20^th anniversary this year with a three day festival of music, song and dance in Aberdeen, as part of a wider cultural festival celebrating the history of the city – Silver City Stories. In the past three years we have compiled and published two significant volumes, one of songs (A Puckle o Sangs) and, more recently The Aberdeen Collection, 250 contemporary Scottish tunes in traditional style, many contributed by leading lights in the traditional music scene.

But most of all, it is about getting people playing and enjoying taking part in traditional music, and with this keeping the tradition alive.