BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician 2006 Semi-finalists

Here is the detailed list of our semi-finalists for 2006. You can hear them play in the Coulter Hall, Coulter on Saturday, October 8th at 7.30pm tickets priced £5.

Check out the running order and directions to the concert.

Kirsty Cotter - fiddle
Originally from Suffolk, Kirsty came to play Scottish music through her parents great love of it, and thanks to some very inspiring fiddle lessons from Catriona MacDonald. Kirsty was the first English person to graduate from the BA (Scottish Music) Hons from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Kirsty is currently based in Glasgow and is working as a performer and teacher all over the UK. She is also a peripatetic fiddle teacher in North Ayrshire and Director of the Scottish Music Ensembles at the RSAMD Junior Academy.

Martin Hunter - accordion
Martin is from Glasgow and learnt accordion at the legendary St Roch's. He has competed at the All Ireland on accordion and drums as part of the Irish Minstrels as well as many ceilidhs in the St Roch's Ceili Band . In 2004 Martin and his band Tacan won a prestigeous Danny Award at Celtic Connections and performed at the festival in 2005.

Christopher Keatinge - button accordion
Christopher has been studying the box for 9 years now under the tutorage of borders accordion ace Ian Lowthian. He has performed in concerts and gigs in the Borders area, and competed in a number of competitions. Christopher has been greatly influenced by Irish and contemporary Scottish music, but also plays European music too. He recently won the Rotary Club's Young Musician of the Year for Southern Scotland.

Griogair Lawrie - guitar,bagpipes, small pipes, whistles, vocals
Griogair is 22 and has just completed a year of study of the Gaelic Language at Sabhal Mor Ostaig, Isle of Skye having graduated from Strathclyde University with BA Music Honours in 2004. In 2003 he won the prestigious "Highlands and Islands Young Piper of the Year" for hornpipe and jig and when at Strathclyde University he was First Guitarist in the University Guitar Ensemble. Griogair hasalso written tunes and arrangements for theatre and films - including a major film which is due for release in October 2005. The film was shown at the Cannes International Film Festival where he played 18 European Ministers of Culture and the famous European cast up the red carpet.

Jeana Leslie - fiddle, voice
Jeana hails from Deerness in Orkney and loves going to local ceilidhs and playing tunes with her neighbours including Jennifer and Hazel Wrigley. She has many varied influences and has visited the east coast of Canada (PEI & Cape Breton) many times where she has played with the local musicians. Jeana is a also a keen tune writer and has played at Orkney Folk Festival both as a soloist and band member. She has also been offered an unconditional place on the traditional music course at the RSAMD as well as receiving the Jimmy Shand Scholarship from the academy for promising musician with first study in fiddle or accordion.

Darren MacLean - voice
Darren has been singing since he was 3 years old and won his first competition at his local mod when he was 5. He went on to build on this success when he won the 2003 Mod Gold Medal in Oban and the Traditional and Contemporary competitions at 'Seo Seinn' in Stornoway during the years of 2003 and 2004 respectively. He comes from a family of well-known Gaelic singers that include Kristine Kennedy and more famously Calum Kennedy. Darren has also toured the Borders of Scotland, Denmark and Germany.

Shona Mooney - fiddle
Shona is originally from the Scottish Borders and has been exposed to music all of her life. In 1999 & 2000 she and her two friends Lillias Kinsman-Blake (flute) and Ross Horne (bass) reached the 'BBC Radio 2 young folk awards semi-final'. Shona decided to further her education after reading about a new course in folk and traditional music based in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Shona worked with other fiddlers from the Borders (Innes and Lori Watson, Allan Hyslop and Rachel Cross) in a project called 'Borders Young fiddles' - promoting the traditional music of their area and combining it with their own compositions. The CD was released in 2004.

Hamish Napier - piano, voice, flute
Hamish, from Strathspey, comes from a family steeped in traditional music. He received excellent tuition in many instruments at the renowned music department at Grantown Grammar School and his local Gaelic Arts Festival Feis Spe. Hamish plays piano, flute and sings with award winning band Back of the Moon (winners of the 'Best Newcomer Artist/Band' at the 2003 Scots Trad Awards, and the Lorient Interceltic Festival band competiton 2003), appearing numerous times at Eden Court Theatre in Inverness, the Millenium Dome and the Highland Festival, and has toured in the US, Canada, France, Italy and Switzerland.

Fraser Shaw - border pipes, whistles
Fraser began learning the bagpipes at the age of 6 from the renowned piper Fred Morrison of South Uist, and latterly by the Tiree piper Kenny MacDonald. It was the age of 16, when Fraser moved to Skye to study at Sabhal Mor Ostaig, that he really became immersed in the trad music scene. He co-founded 4 piece band Cluanas with whom he toured Scotland performing at festivals such as Orkney, Edinburgh, Highland festivals and further afield to Germany and Canada. He has recorded with Farquar McDonald and Aidan MacEoins as well as appearing on TV and Radio Scotland's Pipeline.

Christina Smith - fiddle, singing
Christina is from Glasgow and comes from a musical family. She performed with a great orchestra - Hillhead Strings - and achieved her grade eight Advanced Higher music certificate last year. Christina takes part in many fleadh competitions and was delighted to come 2nd in the All Ireland fleadh cheoil last year. Lately she has been supporting Beneche at folk clubs and has also performed her first Edinburgh Fringe gig.

Calum Stewart - wooden flute
Traditional music has always been a big part of Calum's family in Garmouth.
Despite the huge popularity of the fiddle in his native Moray, it was the whistle that took his fancy as there were always whistles laying around the house whilst growing up. He soon moved onto the wooden flute and it was players such as Cathal McConnell, Mark Duff, Alex Green and Chris Norman that influenced him. The many fiddle and piping traditions from around Scotland also have a big influence on him, as he often looks to them for repertiore and technique, bringing them back to his own playing on the flute. Calum has performed at several UK festivals as well as the 2003 Lorient festival in Brittany.

Ali Vass - piano, vocals
Ali was first taught piano by her father at the age of 6. As a youngster she played as part of her family band - The Vass Family which included her brother Mike who appeared in last years final. The band played all over Scotland including Celtic Connections festival and the Eden Court in Inverness. In 2001 Ali left Nairn to study philosophy in Edinburgh since then has been playing in a duo with her brother Mike.

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