I was very excited to find out this month that I have been selected as a finalist in the Arts category for the Young Scot awards! Especially as I had no idea I had been nominated! Since its launch in 2006, the Sunday Mail Young Scot Awards has celebrated the inspirational contributions of thousands of young Scots who have made a difference to communities across Scotland. It is a huge privilege to be a finalist, and I am really looking forward to the awards ceremony in the Usher Hall, Edinburgh on the 30th April.
Also this month I performed at Creative Scotland’s Parliamentary reception at the Scottish Parliament, hosted by Clare Adamson, MSP for Central Scotland, and attended by Members of the Scottish Parliament from across the country. It was a fantastic evening, and it was great to see some of the projects that had received funding from Creative Scotland. I particularly enjoyed the reading of The Gruffalo in Scots from Tam Dean Burn’s Books on a Bike project with the children of the Royal Lyceum Youth Theatre. The evening finished off with a commissioned poem from Scotland’s Maker, Liz Lochhead.
Another recent achievement has been appearing as a guest on Robbie Shepherd’s Take the Floor, on BBC Radio Scotland on the 28th March. My granny has been a fan of the show for many years, and I remember listening to it when I was a very young. Box and fiddle music would have been one of my first introductions to Scottish music, so it was a real treat speaking to Robbie and to have him playing my songs on the programme! You can listen again online via the following link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05nv2fc
Claire Hastings
http://www.clairehastings.com
You can see the rest of this year’s finalists here: http://youngscotawards.com/2015/03/23/finalists/