Last weekend I headed down to Wiston Lodge to take part in the 17th BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year semi-finals.  The weekend started with a relaxing Friday evening full of tunes, songs and rehearsals.

With 13 musicians to rehearse with, rehearsals were splayed across Friday evening and Saturday day and we each had 30 minutes to arrange 10 minutes worth of music (and chat!) which would be performed at Coultar Village Hall.

Saturday was full of workshops, starting with Tai Chi then a workshop about our interaction with the media with Helen Needham, senior producer of Travelling Folk, Take the Floor, Out of Doors. Then a great workshop with Simon Thoumire which touched on a few different topics.

The concert on Saturday night had a well-attended audience, and regardless of nerves, the participants put on a great performance and a lovely show and was a nice round off to the weekend.

I had the pleasure to find out that myself, along with Charlie Stewart, Kim Carnie, Dougie McCance, Ella Munro and Grant MacFarlane had made it through to the finals, which will be held at City Halls, Glasgow on the 5th February 2017.

Luckily, the weather was lovely for the participants mini-shoot with Martin Forry out in the woods!