The Shetland Folk Festival Society has selected 5 young Shetland musicians to participate in another exciting and innovative Folk Festival collaboration project that will form part of the 32nd annual event, kicking off in two weeks time.
Working in partnership with the Anderson High School, The Trad Seeds project will unite the 5 young musicians with some of the most celebrated folk stars in the country.
From 30th April the students will be tasked with providing a 40-minute slot for the Friday night concert at the Clickimin Centre – despite never having played together before. With tuition and support from four members of the Scotland's extraordinary Treacherous Orchestra, the students will have to write, arrange, rehearse and eventually perform to hundreds of people on the Festival's largest and most profiled stage.
The project is part of Festival's Youth Programming and Development remit. Davie Henderson from the Committee said “that the Festival is always looking to develop new experiences for Shetland's talented youngsters. Many of our young musicians get the opportunity to perform at our mainstream Festival concerts and the Youth Event but this project will be particularly challenging due to the timescales involved. We know from our previous educational projects like Nordic Tone and S.H.O.W that the students gain a tremendous amount of confidence and experience and we look forward to seeing how this group flourish during the Festival week and thereafter”.
Group members are Danny Garrick (fiddle), Joe Watt (guitar/bass), Isaac Webb (percussion), Callum Nicolson (accordion/piano) and Liza Fullerton (fiddle). All are still at school but have fantastic ability and various levels of on stage experience with both traditional and contemporary acts in Shetland.
Travelling to Lerwick 5 days in advance of their gig to lend them a hand are John Somerville (accordion), Fraser Stone (percussion), Adam Sutherland (fiddle) and Innes Watson (guitar/fiddle) who play in some of the most successful Trad outfits in the UK. They'll headline the Friday night gig of the Festival with the incredibly popular and highly regarded 12-piece "Supergroup," Treacherous Orchestra. Also on the bill that night are Sprag Session from Cape Breton who are set to be one of Nova Scotia's biggest musical exports with their dynamic mingling of beats and melodies. With this turbo charged line up, the Friday Clickimin gig is looking set to be a particularly incendiary experience.
Although many of the Festival's concerts are now sold out, there is still some ticket availability for this concert and the Clickimin on Thursday 3rd which features a one-off gig with the hotly tipped rising band Admiral Fallow. The shop at 5 Burns Lane opens for face to face ticket sales on Thursday 19th & 26th between 6-8pm and Saturday 21st & 28th between 12noon and 3. Tickets and memberships can also be purchased by completing and returning the booking form downloadable from the Festival's website – www.shetlandfolkfestival.com