Projects
The following Projects have been directed and led by Programme Leader, Anna-Wendy Stevenson, a fiddler and composer who has worked with a wide range of artists, organisations, universities, community groups, festivals and media.
She has lectured at several institutions and tutored summer schools including: the Conservatoire in Brest, Brittany, Ohio School of the Arts, Boston Harbour Fiddle School, Swannanoa Gathering (North Carolina, USA), Feis Rois and Ceolas.
10th Anniversary of Community Land Scotland
In September 2020, students from the BA Applied Music and MA Music and the Environment programmes were commissioned to write a song to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Community Land Scotland. This film explores the process of making music online during the pandemic whilst learning about land ownership in Scotland.
Nead nan Ceòladair - The Musicians' Nest
"A wonderful collection of Gaelic and Scottish Island music, one in which is an absolute credit to Lews Castle College UHI..."
(Ian D Hall, Liverpool Sound and Vision)
Nead nan Ceòladair - The Musicians' Nest is an album showcasing the talented musicians that have immersed themselves in music courses in Benbecula and have gone on to win awards and work in the traditional music field.
Featuring Manx fiddler Tom Callister, Seonaidh Macintyre with Trail West and Elephant Sessions fiddler Euan Smilie, Inyal’s Robbie Greig, bands Eabhal and Hecla, Breabach piper, and flautist James Duncan MacKenzie.
The album was launched with a huge reunion gathering at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall as part of the Celtic Connections Festival programme on February 3rd 2018. The recording has received excellent reviews and was an album of the week on BBC Radio nan Gàidheal. Read the Scotsman review.
Orain na Cloinne Bige - Early Years Gaelic song web app
We were commissioned by the Comhairle nan Eilean Siar’s Multimedia Unit to source, arrange and record music for 20 new Gaelic songs for early years, working with young Gaelic singers in the community in Uist.
The songs are accompanied by animations and the app has now been incorporated into Scotland’s Glow Education resources: Singing to Learn, Learning to Sing.
Far Flung Corners
This is a partnership with award-winning Soundstorm Music Education Agency and the BA (Hons) Applied Music, providing students with an opportunity to work with top professional musicians from Dorset on a creative musical exchange.
The Far Flung Corners project allows students to devise and deliver workshops in creative music making and song-writing across schools in the UK. Since 2014, the project has delivered workshops and performed to 4000 young people in schools in Dorset and the Hebrides, providing students with an opportunity to work with professional musicians on a creative musical exchange. The project explores themes of environment in all senses: physical, cultural as well as sustainability, identity and tradition.
Far Flung Corners Project was a finalist in the Herald Higher Education Awards 2017 for their community engagement. A highly successful and creative endeavour, in 2017 the project launched a commercial recording at the Celtic Connections Festival and received excellent reviews and was named album of the week on BBC Radio nan Gàidheal. March 2020 saw the release of follow up album, Black Bay, in Poole’s Lighthouse Theatre. The album was arranged and recorded over the space of a weekend at Black Bay Studio, on Great Bernera, off the west coast of Lewis.
The project is made possible thanks to key funders: Arts Council England and Soundstorm and Wave.
Links: https://soundstorm-music.org.uk/
Reviews: http://www.livingtradition.co.uk/webrevs/ffc001.htm https://www.facebook.com/farflungcollective/ https://folking.com/tag/the-far-flung-collective/
Fuaran nan Eilean
In partnership with Feisean nan Gaidheal, Fuaran nan Eilean - Spring of the Islands - was a special collaboration between the University of the Highlands and Islands and Fèisean nan Gàidheal.
A performance and workshop tour of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia as part of the Celtic Colours Festival showcased Gaelic song repertoire collected and arranged in the Hebrides by students as part of the Fèisean nan Gàidheal’s innovative heritage project Fuaran.
Albastur Cultural Exchange
An exciting project which facilitates professional teaching and performance experience at top festivals in the Celtic region of Asturias in Northern Spain and in Scotland, led by Simon Bradley.
Albastur Cultural Exchange is an ongoing research project with the remit to explore and investigate the Scottish and Asturian (Northern Spain) Celtic music traditions and forge strong cultural links between them. The project is based on field trips involving staff and students from the University of the Highlands and Islands who collaborated with professional practitioners from both locations. This project reports and reflects on the added value that can come from assimilation through immersion and the benefits of international cultural exchange for both staff and students. The positive outcomes from the project have the potential to inspire and install confidence in teaching professionals to embrace students as active researchers and practitioners in line with the Teaching Excellence Framework.
