UHI music students to showcase their skills at Piping Live

Music students from UHI will be showcasing their skills at one of Scotland’s biggest live music events with a performance at the Glasgow International Piping Festival on Tuesday 9 August.

Students and alumni from UHI’s applied music course will play a range of traditional tunes with piping connections as part of a live session. The set will include a new tune specially written by fiddler Anna-Wendy Stevenson, UHI’s applied music Programme Leader, to celebrate the ongoing partnership between UHI and the National Piping Centre.

UHI has been working with the National Piping Centre for many years to provide opportunities for music students, including specialist tuition and work experience. Several graduates from UHI’s applied music degree have also gone on to work at the centre, including Ailis Sutherland from Kirriemuir who is a piping instructor and Ellie McLaren from Braemar who secured a role as a marketing assistant.

The most recent development in the partnership is an agreement which will enable graduates from the National Piping Centre’s new HND to go on to complete UHI’s BA (Hons) applied music degree.

Anna-Wendy Stevenson said: “This relationship is a key to the development and growth of our music and cultural provision, offering opportunities for our students to receive expert tuition from some of the most respected pipers in the world.”

Findlay Macdonald, Director of Piping at The National Piping Centre, added: “The National Piping Centre is delighted to be working in partnership with UHI on this special development in piping education. This collaborative partnership offers a new path for piping in a very flexible and exciting way. The distance learning and blended approach which UHI are highly experienced in gives pipers across the world the chance to develop their piping to degree level with tuition from the very best in piping and the wider traditional music world.”

Piping Live is a week-long celebration of piping culture with everything from traditional piobaireachd to contemporary bands all lined up to represent the international world of piping. The week culminates in the World Pipe Band Championships organised by Glasgow Life on behalf of the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association. The festival attracts audience from across the world for a celebration of Scottish music and culture.

The live UHI session will take place from 6pm on Tuesday 9 August in the Street Café at the National Piping Centre, McPhater Street, Glasgow. To find out more, visit https://pipinglive.co.uk/events

For more information about music courses at UHI visit www.uhi.ac.uk/courses