{"id":11374,"date":"2026-11-02T07:47:25","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T07:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/?p=11374"},"modified":"2026-11-02T07:47:25","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T07:47:25","slug":"mg-alba-scots-trad-music-awards-2026-metagama-an-atlantic-odyssey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/mg-alba-scots-trad-music-awards-2026-metagama-an-atlantic-odyssey\/","title":{"rendered":"MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards 2026: Metagama: An Atlantic Odyssey"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Congratulations to Metagama: An Atlantic Odyssey<\/strong> who has \/ have been nominated in Original Work of the Year sponsored Musicians\u2019 Union in the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards 2026. Vote for Metagama: An Atlantic Odyssey now!<\/a><\/strong> It’s going to be another great night at the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards on Saturday 5th December in Paisley Arena, Lagoon Centre. Why not join us for a brilliant night of music and awards. Buy a ticket here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

We asked Liza of Metagama: An Atlantic Odyssey<\/strong> the following questions.<\/p>\n

Tell us about yourself<\/strong>
\nMetagama: An Atlantic Odyssey is a live show, devised by musician Liza Mulholland and writer Donald S Murray, and was created and performed by the Metagama Ensemble. Created to mark the centenary of the mass emigration of thousands of young people from the Outer Hebrides to Canada and the USA in the 1920s, the show commemorates and celebrates the lives and experiences of those young emigrants and comprises new songs and instrumental music, along with new writing and poetry, artwork, and traditional Gaelic songs. <\/p>\n

The little-known story of this mass emigration is placed within its wider historical context of post-WWI and the Iolaire disaster, and explores \u2013 through song, music, poetry, narrative, art and archive photographs \u2013 the impact on both the emigrants themselves and those left behind, as well as the impact of such great loss of young population on the Outer Hebrides and on Gaelic language and culture. <\/p>\n

The project has, from the start, been a wonderful creative collaboration between all the team. The Ensemble comprises some of Scotland's acclaimed musicians and artistes, including Charlie McKerron, Willie Campbell, John Joe MacNeil, Juliette Lemoine, Dolina Maclennan and Doug Robertson, who all composed new work for the show. Following its debut Creative Scotland-supported tour of the Highlands and Islands in 2023, to 5* reviews and sold out theatres, the Ensemble performed the show at Celtic Connections in 2024 to a sell-out theatre in the Royal Concert Hall. <\/p>\n

This was followed by further support from Creative Scotland for the recording of an album of music and song from the show and, with the additional support of Harris Tweed Hebrides, Charles Macleod Stornoway Butchers and Crowdfunder supporters, was recorded in Spring 2025 in Black Bay Studio and the Wee Studio on the Isle of Lewis. The 36-track album on the Wee Studio Records label was launched at a concert in An Lanntair at HebCelt in July 2025 <\/p>\n

Later in November 2025, the Ensemble performed three nights in Edinburgh's Traverse and Cumbernauld Theatres, followed by a Scottish tour in March 2026, again supported by Creative Scotland. A condensed version of the show was performed at Eden Court Theatre's Under Canvas Festival in July 2026 and further dates are planned for 2027.<\/p>\n

Any particular career highlights?<\/strong>
\nAs the Metagama: An Atlantic Odyssey Ensemble, our first highlight was the premiere in An Lanntair, Stornoway, on Friday 21st April 2023, exactly one hundred years to the hour after the SS Metagama sailed out of the bay and out into the Atlantic, heading for Canada with hundreds of young Hebrideans onboard. The emotional atmosphere in the theatre was palpable, as not only members of the Ensemble but also the audience had grandparents and other relatives on the ship that night in April 1923, and on the other ships, SS Marloch and Canada, which all made several voyages from the Hebrides over the course of several years.<\/p>\n

In addition, several people whom Liza and Donald had met in Detroit on their October 2022 research trip \u2013 sons and daughters of Metagama emigrants, now in their 80s \u2013 had come over to Scotland specially for the show, and were welcomed warmly by the audience. We were told later that many in the audience were shedding tears as the story unfolded, with songs and music striking a highly emotional chord. There were many laughs too, in the show and afterwards, not least of which was the Detroit delegation hosting 'Meet the Detroit Four' sessions in their Stornoway hotel, where they were inundated with local folk wanting to meet them, some reconnecting from many years before.<\/p>\n

Other highlights included performing to a sold out theatre in the Royal Concert Hall at Celtic Connections and then in 2025 recording the music and song from the show in a 36-track album. New work was also composed in the studio for the album and has since been incorporated into the live show. Launching the album at HebCelt 2025 in An Lanntair, where we started in 2023, felt deeply special.<\/p>\n

An additional highlight was finding the Metagama ship's bell in England, via a relative of Liza. The bell was then featured onstage throughout the 2023 tour and Celtic Connections 2024, and it was subsequently arranged to be donated to Stornoway Museum, where it is currently on display and will be looked after into the future. Also, being invited to present extracts from the show at Glasgow's AyeWrite Festival and at Stornoway Museum and Western Isles Heritage Services' Emigration conference in Autumn 2025 were highlights.<\/p>\n

Perhaps an overarching highlight, however, has been in the response we've had from our audiences. So many people have spoken to us after shows, written to us and contacted us on social media etc, telling us of their own family stories, of their own family members who emigrated to Canada and the USA on those ships in the 1920s and what happened to them. Our show has struck a chord with people. Often traumatic events are not spoken of and the stories remain silent across generations, but the sharing of this story through our show has helped open up the ability of folk to talk about their own experiences and family stories, as well as encourage them to do their own research and discover more about their own family histories.<\/p>\n

What are your plans for the future?<\/strong>
\nWe hope to undertake a tour in other areas in 2027, including England and Ireland, which have their own emigration stories from cities such as Liverpool, Southampton, London, Dublin, Belfast etc.
\nWe have a lot of interest and requests for the show in many parts of the world, including New Zealand, where Donald has just completed a two-month writing residency, and we would dearly like to take the show to Canada, where the Hebrideans first landed and where there is extensive interest in hosting us. We would like to play at Celtic Colours where we feel there would be huge resonance with the story, given the wide-scale earlier emigration from Scotland to Nova Scotia.
\nWe would of course also like to perform in US cities like Detroit and Chicago, where many of our young 1920s emigrants ended up, including the grandparents of Liza and original Ensemble member Calum Alex Macmillan. However with US Visa costs being so high, this may not be possible.<\/p>\n

Metagama: An Atlantic Odyssey Social Media<\/strong>
\nWebsite: http:\/\/https:\/\/weestudio.co.uk\/products\/metagama-ensemble-metagama-an-atlantic-odyssey-cd<\/a>
\nFacebook: @Metagama:AnAtlanticOdyssey
\nInstagram: @metagama.anatlanticodyssey
\nYouTube: @metagama<\/p>\n

Listen to music: https:\/\/metagamaensemble.bandcamp.com\/album\/metagama-an-atlantic-odyssey<\/a><\/p>\n

The 2026 MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards are on the 5th December 2026 in Paisley Arena, Lagoon Centre! You will be able to watch it live in person (buy a ticket here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Hosted by Scottish personalities Alistair Heather and Mary Ann Kennedy, the night will welcome live performances from some of the brightest lights on the thriving trad scene today including Valtos, Gnoss, Sian, F\u00e8is Ph\u00e0islig, Spodo Komodo and BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician Rachel Groves and many more!<\/p>\n

If you would like to support Hands Up for Trad in their work with Scottish trad music and musicians why not become a friend of Hands Up for Trad<\/a><\/strong>. In addition to our high profile events like the Scots Trad Music Awards, we also deliver a less well known, education programme for young people from 8yrs right through to young adults at the start of their careers. Read more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congratulations to Metagama: An Atlantic Odyssey who has \/ have been nominated in Original Work of the Year sponsored Musicians\u2019 Union in the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards 2026. Vote for Metagama: An Atlantic Odyssey now! It’s going to be another great night at the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards on Saturday 5th […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11375,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","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":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nominee-2026","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/files\/2026\/10\/IMG-20260320-WA0005.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11374"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11376,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11374\/revisions\/11376"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotstradmusicawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}