![\"Eilidh](\"http:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/files\/2016\/05\/Eilidh-300x200.jpeg\")
Eilidh Simmers, from Keith in Moray, has won the Instrumental class of the Robert Burns World Federation\u2019s National Schools Competition Finals for Secondary Schools in age category S3-4 – and unusually on piano. The event, which took place at St George’s School for Girls, Edinburgh, on Saturday 23rd April 2016, comprised of Recitation, Singing and Instrumental competitions across three age categories: S1-2, S3-4 & S5-6.<\/p>\n
Commenting, Michelle Thomson, MP for Edinburgh West, said, “‘I was delighted to attend this competition which show-cased the depth of talent we have from all over Scotland.<\/p>\n
“I was particularly impressed with Eilidh Simmers on the piano. She plays with a rare poise from someone of her age, and I enjoyed the modern treatment of traditional songs, which will ensure they continue to remain relevant and enjoyable for today’s players – so much so that I sought her out after her performance to ask where they had come from!<\/p>\n
“As a former graduate of the Royal Scottish Conservatoire I understand how important it is that young people find something they enjoy playing and that they get the chance to perform.”<\/p>\n
15 year old Eilidh, who has been playing piano since she was 6 years old, was up against another 11 musicians in the same age group from all over Scotland including fiddlers and pipers. While she has previously won prizes in other competitions, such as the Traditional Music and Song Association\u2019s piano classes, it\u2019s the first time she has won a national prize for her playing. Out of 30 solo players in the Instrumental categories, there were only 2 pianists.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m over the moon\u201d, said Eilidh, \u201cbecause the piano would never usually get that much credit and it was much more difficult at national level as the pipes were included this year as well as the fiddlers, which made it even tougher for the piano to succeed!\u201d<\/p>\n
As a grade 8 player Eilidh, who is taught piano by Fife-based music professional and teacher, Stuart Watson, learns mainly classical exam repertoire, but she also loves Scottish music and jazz. She chose the two winning arrangements of \u2018The Atholl Gathering\u2019 and \u2018Mrs McLeod of Raasay\u2019, arranged by Stephen J. Wood, as they are specifically written in a contemporary-classical and jazz style. Eilidh said,\u201cThe pieces are so modernized\u2026I love the syncopations and the harmonies really make the piano sing out\u201d.<\/p>\n
Several of Steve\u2019s other traditional arrangements, which have often been specific commissions from Scottish musicians, have won top prizes in the Royal National Mod, featured on SQA exam syllabus lists, and been short-listed for the classical and contemporary syllabuses of prestigious exam boards. Professional musicians from both the worlds of classical and traditional music, such as Murray McLachlan and Anne Lorne Gillies have endorsed his work.<\/p>\n
Stephen J. Wood commented,\u201cMy hope is that these arrangements may serve to enrich both the Gaelic, Scottish and mainstream piano repertoire, by introducing the beauty of these traditional melodies in this new contemporary classical and jazz guise, to audiences from all cultural divides \u2013 classical, jazz as well as traditional.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such successes can only serve to hearten those of us who perform, write and arrange piano in the so-called \u201ccross-over\u201d genres, with a foot firmly in both the camps of traditional and other musical forms, following in the wake of musicians, notably pianist\/composer Ronald Stevenson, who wrote arrangements of authentic Gaelic and Scottish traditional tunes and songs, to what would be considered high levels of classical musicianship.<\/p>\n
As a non-traditional instrument, piano certainly seems to be establishing itself on the traditional scene as a solo instrument, and with pianists appearing as finalists and winners of traditional competitions such as the Feis Rois, Traditional Music and Song Association, The Royal National Mod and the BBC Radio Scotland Young Musician of the Year, this upward trend looks set to continue.<\/p>\n
Anne Lorne Gillies, singer, writer, broadcaster, has remarked that, \u201cpiano features unabashed alongside the harps, accordeons and guitars of today\u2019s vibrant, multi-instrumental, largely improvisatory Scottish folk scene.\u201d (Reviews www.stephenjwood.co.uk )<\/p>\n
Eilidh Simmers is not only part of this evolving picture, but is also involving other younger musicians. She is currently teaching beginner\u2019s piano to several Primary School aged pianists, two of whom are playing piano in the TMSA Keith Festival in June.<\/p>\n
The Atholl Gathering (Air) and Mrs McLeod of Raasay (Reel) are both taken from Contemporary Scottish Solos for Piano Book 3, arr. By Stephen J. Wood:\u00a0 Eklectica Publishing, 2014.<\/p>\n
Photo: Eilidh Simmers receiving her winner\u2019s certificate
\nEnds 12.5.16 (3 pages)
\nLena Wood
\nEklectica Publishing
\n01204 853060
\nmail@eklecticapublishing.co.uk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Eilidh Simmers, from Keith in Moray, has won the Instrumental class of the Robert Burns World Federation\u2019s National Schools Competition Finals for Secondary Schools in age category S3-4 – and unusually on piano. The event, which took place at St George’s School for Girls, Edinburgh, on Saturday 23rd April 2016, comprised of Recitation, Singing and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,37],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6729","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-newsletter","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/files\/2016\/05\/Eilidh.jpeg","featured_image_src":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/files\/2016\/05\/Eilidh.jpeg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/files\/2016\/05\/Eilidh.jpeg","author_info":{"display_name":"simon","author_link":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/author\/simon\/"},"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcv15g-1Kx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6729"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6732,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6729\/revisions\/6732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}