Congratulations to the 12 young musicians who have made it into the semi-finals of the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician Award 2022. The semi-finals will be held in Glasgow on the first weekend of October. As ever it will be a brilliant concert. Each semi-finalist will be accompanist by the house band consisting of Mhairi Hall (piano) and Michael Bryan (guitar). Keep up with the latest information at www.bbc.co.uk/youngtrad
Read about them below.
Alasdair MacDonald (Piano Accordion)
Hailing from Poolewe in the Scottish Highlands, Alasdair picked up the accordion when he was six years old.  Growing up, he attended many Feiseans, National Mods and Ceilidh dances with his box.  Alasdair has just graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland where he spent four years studying on the Traditional Music course.
Breanna Wilson (Fiddle)
Breanna Wilson is a fiddle player from Glasgow. She is currently entering her fourth year at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She grew up playing trad music in Glasgow and has competed at the Fleadh multiple times. She has performed at various festivals such as Celtic Connections, Celtic Colours and IMBOLC and is also an avid composer.
Eric Linklater (Fiddle)
Eric Linklater is a fiddle player from the Orkney Isle. He first started learning traditional music aged 8 with the Orkney Traditional Music Project, then went on to study fiddle playing with Jennifer Wrigley and joined the Orkney Strathspey and Reel Society in his teens. Since graduating in Scottish music from the RCS in Glasgow he has been back in Orkney pursuing composition and teaching traditional music.
Eryn Rae (Fiddle)
Hailing from the Scottish Borders, Eryn started learning the fiddle at the age of 7 under the tuition of renowned Shetland fiddler, Catriona Macdonald. Now based in Glasgow, Eryn is about to embark on her final year studying Traditional music at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Isla Ratcliff (fiddle)
Isla Ratcliff is a Scottish fiddle player, singer and composer from Edinburgh. She graduated with an MMus Scottish Music degree from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2020. Isla will soon release her debut album The Castalia, featuring traditional and self-composed tunes inspired by her time in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia in 2019.
Malachy Arnold (Harp (Clarsach) )
A young and innovative Harper from Glasgow, Scotland routed in Irish and Scottish traditional music with heavy influence from a line of harp playing within the family. Coming from a competitive playing background in Ireland whilst recording performing and releasing my music in Scotland, sharing new styles, compositions and expressing a new style of Clarsach playing.
Malin Lewis (Highland Bagpipes)
Malin is a piper, fiddler, whistle player and instrument maker from the Isle of Skye. They have studied piping at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland.
As well as composing music, Malin also performs on a set of self-made two-octave Smallpipes.
Romy Wymer (Harp/Clarsach)
Romy Wymer is a Glasgow-based harp player and composer originally from the Netherlands. She graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2019 and has since been writing and performing new music inspired by nature, stories and the little things in life.
Ross Miller (Bagpipes)
A World Champion piper, Ross Miller began piping aged 7 and graduated from the¬†Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2017. He is the official town piper of Linlithgow.¬†His debut album, ‘The Roke”‚ was released in early 2020 and was nominated for Trad Album of the Year at the MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards.
Saffron Hanvidge (Gaelic Song)
Saffron Hanvidge is a native Gaelic speaker and music student at Sabhal Mor Ostaig. She is a four-time Puirt-a-Beul winner and well-known Royal National Mod competitor. Saffron has been a prominent Inverness busker for fifteen years. Most recently she was part of the BBC’s Christmas program ‘Alleluia na Nollaige’.
Scott Figgins (Bagpipes)
Ayrshire-based Scott Figgins is a graduate of the traditional music course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, playing pipes; whistles; and guitar. Scott plays with folk band‚ Eriska‚ as well as in a duo with piper Scott Garden. When not touring or teaching, Scott is a pipe-maker in his spare time.”
Sophie Joint (Piano)
Sophie Joint is a pianist from Glasgow with a background in Scottish and Irish traditional music. She is in her final year at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and has won a Danny Kyle Award at Celtic Connections and The Molloy Award at Birmingham Trad Fest. Sophie enjoys composing and arranging in a contemporary style with strong traditional roots and has performed at international festivals including Festival Interceltique de Lorient and Celtic Colours in Canada.
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