The beautiful Isle of Barra is the setting for the world premiere of a specially commissioned work to celebrate the year of Scotland’s Islands.
The concert on Tuesday 12th July 2011 in Castlebay Community School will feature as part of this years Feis Bharraigh week and is the first stop on the Pipes & Strings Islands Tour 2011. The tour follows on from the release of the CD “Pipes & Strings – Suite for Alan” which will be launched at the National Piping Centre in Glasgow on Friday 8th July and locally in Stornoway on the afternoon of Saturday 16th July.
Pipes & Strings is an exciting project involving soloists Iain & Allan MacDonald, Roddy MacLeod, James Ross, Neil Johnstone and an 11-piece string orchestra. Project manager Rhona Johnstone describes Pipes & Strings as “a fusion between the traditional & classical music genres. What we are aiming to do is bring both these very different styles of music together and introduce audiences to something new.”
Rhona continues, “The tour programme will be formed mainly from the repertoire on the CD, including the title work – Suite for Alan, along with a new work – A Welcome Shore by Stephen Adam, which was specially commissioned for the year of Scotland’s Islands.”
Opening the tour in Barra is of great significance as “Suite for Alan”, which was written by Isle of Lewis based musician and teacher Neil Johnstone, features and celebrates the music of Neil’s father – the great piper, teacher & composer Duncan Johnstone.
Duncan’s roots were very firmly planted in the Western Isles with his mother hailing from Barra, his father from Benbecula and Duncan’s uncle was the late great Father John Macmillan of Barra.
When Feis Bharraigh was founded in 1981, Duncan was one of the first piping tutors and it is particularly fitting that the first Western Isles performance of “Suite for Alan” should be in Barra 30 years after the start of Feis Bharraigh, bringing Duncan’s spirit back to an island which he held so dearly in his heart and which provided so much of the inspiration for his piping compositions.
In addition, the inclusion of soloists Roddy MacLeod & Iain MacDonald is especially important and another interesting link in the story, as they were both tutored by Duncan.
“Isle of Lewis”
Neil commented, “ We are delighted to have been given the opportunity to bring this project to audiences in the Western Isles which has been our home for the past six and a half years. Being asked to perform as part of the Hebridean Celtic Festival is a great honour and we are very grateful for the financial support that we have been given by Scotland’s Islands to enable the project to run. We hope that by bringing my fathers music “home” this will inspire a new generation of musicians.”
The soloists and orchestra will be visiting the Western Isles and Skye from 12th – 16th July for a 6 date tour, commencing in Castlebay, Isle of Barra and finishing off at the Hebridean Celtic Festival in Stornoway, Isle of Lewis.
The CD, Pipes & Strings – Suite for Alan will be available to buy at each of the concerts as well as from the Hebridean Celtic Festival office during festival week. It will also be available to buy via the Pipes & Strings website, online and via digital download towards the end of the month. For more information please visit www.pipesandstrings.co.uk
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