Arran Music Festival hits the right notes ahead of centenary

Music Festival chair, Frances Coyle told the Banner: “We are generally very pleased with how the festival went. Going into it we had no idea of how many people would actually enter. In the end there were around 120 individual entries which involved over 200 children.

“The Saturday morning session was very busy. This was the first time that the festival has run on a Saturday. It was a bit of an experiment and it worked well. Every child who entered turned up and performed and many parents were able to come along, so we had a much bigger audience than normal.

“We may never reach the numbers of the peak of the years of the past but we certainly feel that there is enough appetite there for the festival to carry on. The success of this year gives us something to build on and a few ideas of things to tweak going forward.

“We would like to thank our adjudicators, Jerome Robertson and Jennifer Scott Reid, Lorne Macdougal and Brodie Thomson, as well as Andrew Dickie for stepping in as an accompanist. Also, all the volunteers, the schools for preparing their children and sending them along, Arran High School for the use of the theatre, Whiting Bay Hall, and of course, all our talented island children who were brave enough to take part and make the festival happen.”

The winners of the various categories are as follows: elementary drumming, Elsa Grassie; intermediate drumming, Callan Jessop; senior drumming, Laura Coyle; tenor drumming, Olivia Morgan-Lee; secondary school chanter, Lily Harmer; elementary level piping, Callum Glister; intermediate piping, Evie Steel; advanced piping, Katherine Coyle; primary school pads and sticks, Eva Campbell; primary school elementary drumming, Lucy Napier; primary school chanter, Sophia Black; primary school pipes, Fraser Young; country dance, Corrie Primary; choir, Kilmory Primary; action songs nursery age, Kilmory Early Years; action songs primary, Lamlash Primary; group music making, Whiting Bay; choric speaking, Whiting Bay; vocal solo under eight years, Euan McMaster; vocal solo nine to 11, Ivy Khonchoho; vocal duet, Emily and Fiona Dick; elementary piano, Cara McCormack; intermediate piano, Harris McCormack; advanced piano, Millie McCormack; brass elementary, Robert Dick; trad fiddle elementary, Abraham Kabala; trad fiddle intermediate, Anna Kabala; trad fiddle advanced, Rosie McNamara; fiddle groups primary, Arran Fiddle club A; fiddle groups elementary secondary, Arran High S5; strings elementary, Fiona Dick; clarsach elementary, Abraham Kabala; clarsach beginner, Hayley Glister; clarsach intermediate, Aisling Coyle; musical ensembles, Rosie McNamara and Lucy Napier; verse speaking nursery P1, Daisy Fleming; verse speaking P2/3, Jack Picken; verse speaking P4/5, Maisie Picken; verse speaking P6/7, Tia McKinnon; vocal duet, Emily McNally and Fiona Dick.