Celtic Connections kicks off tomorrow, Thursday 17th January, which will see 2100 musicians performing across the city over the course of 18 days.

Throughout Celtic Connections 2013 the Gaelic tradition will be celebrated with some of the world’s finest Gaels taking centre stage at Glasgow’s annual folk, roots and traditional music festival.

There is the chance to see an abundance of Gaelic talent this Saturday, 19th January. During the afternoon a project between Tobar an Dualchais and the University of the Highlands and Islands will be showcased at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. The performance is under the musical direction of Julie Fowlis and Anna-Wendy Stevenson. It is an exciting collaboration to create a new musical suite to celebrate Scotland’s heritage of song and music

On Saturday night at the Old Fruitmarket the internationally-renowned Skye College Sabhal Mòr Ostaig will be celebrating with performances from past and current tutors, alumni and students. Performers will includie Julie Fowlis, Alasdair Fraser, Fergie MacDonald, Dáimh, Christine Primrose and Margaret Stewart – plus very special guest Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, of Limerick University’s Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, this promises one mighty 40th birthday ceilidh.

An alternative, perhaps more lively option for Saturday night but still within the Gaelic realm is Kila with Mánran at the O2 ABC when dynamic and fresh sounds from Scotland and Ireland will be performed.

Two of Scotland’s foremost Gaelic talents Maeve MacKinnon and Joy Dunlop will both be performing at the festival as will as Celtic Connections’ stalwarts Altan who performed 20 years ago at the inaugural festival. As ever they will be sure to give one of their fun-filled performances.

On 24th January winners of a 2012 Danny Kyle Open Stage Award, the young Glasgow five-piece Barluath – named for an ancient, fiendishly difficult piobaireachd embellishment – have garnered further plaudits for their debut album Source, a dynamic mix of Gaelic and Scots song with bagpipes, whistles, fiddle, guitar, bouzouki, bass, clarinet and piano.

There will be a world premiere of Dán on Thursday 24th January when the talents of 14 contemporary Celtic musicians unite – acclaimed bands Kan and Guidewires, Gaelic singer Alyth McCormack and the all-star Breton quartet of Jacques Pellen, Janick Martin, Etienne Callac and Geoffroy Tamisier – Dán is an ambitious, sea-themed collaboration seeking to rekindle ancient links and forge new ones between the kindred cultures involved. In tonight’s UK premiere, timeless traditional tunes and inspired improvisational passages interweave seamlessly in amongst freshly-penned compositions from Irish poet Theo Dorgan.

One of Scottish folk music’s most exhilarating live acts Dàimh will give a memorable performance at the O2 ABC on Friday 25th January. West Highland-based combo Dàimh recently opened another new chapter in their 15-year career. Having bade a regretful farewell to vocalist Calum Alex MacMillan, the band’s core instrumental quartet have now enlisted redoubtable Gaelic champion Griogair Labhruidh, with a new album due in early 2013, and tonight’s expanded line-up also featuring percussionist Donald Hay and double bassist Jenny Hill.

Flora MacNeill is the heir to a priceless family legacy of songs, absorbed at croft-house ceilidhs as a child on Barra, the great Gaelic singer was a veritable revelation for lowland, urban listeners at Hamish Henderson’s landmark Edinburgh People’s Festival Ceilidh in 1951. This performance will be an account of her remarkable life-story, which has subsequently included performances on the world’s most illustrious stages, is hosted by her daughter, singer and clarsair Maggie MacInnes, and features some of her most iconic songs, performed by the Boys of the Lough, Ireland’s Peadar Ó Riada and the Cúil Aodha choir, among other special guests – none more special, of course, than the lady herself.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum will be the perfect setting for Andy Thorburn’s beautiful choral work Tuath du Deas (North and South) on 27th January. Written in Scots, Gaelic, English and Latin for 12 singers this piece evokes Scotlan’s human evolution over two millennia. It features specially-written text by Aonghas MacNeacail, in honour of whose 70th birthday the original cast have reconvened, including Rod Paterson, Mary Ann Kennedy, Elspeth Cowie, Alyth McCormack, Christine Kydd, Mary Macmaster, Heather Macleod and Lindsey Black, Corrina Hewat and Rory Campbell.

Across the final weekend of Celtic Connections there are some more opportunities to hear Scotland’s native tongue. One of Scotland’s finest emerging singer songwriter’s, in Gaelic and English, Mànran and Bodega frontman Norrie MacIver launches his own band line-up at Oran Mor on Friday 1st February. Also performing on this night across the city in the Glasgow Art Club are Cruinn who bring together four of Scotland’s leading Gaelic singers – James Graham, Fiona Mackenzie, Brian Ó hEadhra and Rachel Walker. Cruinn also showcases their collective multi-instrumental talents, in a richly-appointed repertoire of traditional, contemporary and original material.

At Celtic Connections 2013 there is also the opportunity to attend a free talk on the Origins of our Tongue (Tùsan ar Cànain). Audiences are invited to join the University of the Highlands and Islands language specialists Dr Donna Heddle, Director of our Centre For Nordic Studies and Professor Rob Dunbar, Director of Soillse, with guests Dr Christine Robinson, Director of Scottish Language Dictionaries and J Derrick McClure, Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen, for a lively evening of discussion and debate about the origins of Scotland’s indigenous languages. The talk will be chaired by comedian and frequent television and radio contributor, Susan Morrison, this evening of quick-fire wit and wisdom, featuring four eminent academics confined in one room, is not to be missed.

For the first time in 2013 there will the Celtic Connections Song School at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum which offers a wide range of singing workshops which includes the opportunity to learn Gaelic Songs with Darren Maclean.

Source: Celtic Connections