Every winter, the Celtic Connections Festival fills Glasgow with music that encompasses tradition and innovation, connection, collaboration, and musical conversation. This year, part of that included a concert celebrating the twenty fifth anniversary of Fèis Rois.

The word fèis means festival in Scottish Gaelic. In Scotland it has also come to mean a festival of tuition and instruction. The instruction is in learning Gaelic language, learning and improving musical skills and knowledge, and other aspects of Gaelic culture. Across the north of Scotland, as  they have been building such festivals for more than two decades now, Fèis Rois has grown from that first gathering of fifty or so  people to a year-round series of activities for students and adults, reaching thousands of people across Ross shire and beyond. The Celtic Connections concert, in the lively atmosphere of the Old FruitMarket in Glasgow, celebrated the inclusive nature of the fèis in ways as  creative as the learning at the festivals over the years has been.

The first half of the program comprised  two pieces of music, called High Five and Spring March. Composer and pianist James Ross, musicians Mairearad Green and Matilda Brown, and music specialist Alpha Munro, as well as three Young Fèis Rois musicians, worked together on the pieces at first, and then led music workshops  with students at Saint Clement’s School in Dingwall to work on their pieces. The students there are those of differing abilities, so Matilda Brown also worked with the students using technology designed by Drake Music Scotland, which allows people who may not be able to play traditional instruments to make music and create sounds in differing ways. Ideas from these workshops were incorporated into the finished pieces.

The performance at Celtic Connections included six students from Saint Clement’s school using sound beams and other technology along with the tutors playing traditional instruments. It was exciting to see the possibilities of the technology, and even more engaging to see the collaboration between those playing traditional instruments and those using the other devices, and the supportive way the tutors respected the students’ work.

The second half of the concert showcased original and creative ways of making music as well. In a lively and ever changing set of tune and song, it featured varied collaborations among twenty five artists representing the twenty five years of the program. Many of those on stage had made professional careers in music after going through Fèis Rois programs as they were growing up. These included Gaelic singer Rachel Walker, top notch fiddle player and tutor Lauren MacColl, award winning composer, piper, and accordion player Mairearad Green, and multi instrumentalist Matheu Watson. Composer, singer, and harp player Corrina Hewat was musical director of the program, and Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis, who has recently been named the amabassador for Fèis Rois, also added her voice to the proceedings.

The music was a lively mix of traditional and newly composed music, including a favorite set of puirt-a- beul which had been developed for the Ceilidh Trail, a program Fèis Rois has which allows young musicians to gain touring experience across Scotland. Among other pieces on the bill were  a set of tunes composed by Mairearad Green and Corrina Hewat, a poem reflecting on the fèis,  and a set of fiddle tunes which finished up with a special twenty fifth birthday jig composed by Lauren MacColl.

Kerry Dexter is the Music Editor for Wandering Educators.
Kerry's credits include CMT, the folk music magazine Dirty Linen, National Geographic Traveler, Strings, and The Encyclopedia of Ireland and the Americas. She also writes about the arts and creative practice at Music Road. You may reach her at music at wanderingeducators dot com.