Gig review: BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician 2010

Published on Monday 1 February 2010 20:05

CITY HALLS, GLASGOW ***

THE fiddle triumphed for a second year in the finals of the 2010 Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician award. Fiddler Daniel Thorpe, 23, from Inverurie took the award with a set that included some neatly swinging hornpipe playing, as well as a beautiful rendering of the slow air Lament for King George V, by the late Highland fiddle maestro Donald Riddell.

Thorpe, ably supported by guitarist Innes Watson and James Lindsay, is an honours graduate of the Royal Scottish Academy's Scottish music degree course. His was the sole fiddle among an impressive group of six finalists, which included the young Gaelic singer and harpist Mairi Chaimbeul from Skye, Glasgow-Irish button accordionist Paddy Callaghan, Glasgow harpist Hannah Phillips and two Highland pipers, Lorne MacDougall from Carradale and Kyle Warren from Helensburgh. All six were presented with quaichs by the Traditional Museum and Song Association, while Thorpe's first place gives him a recording opportunity at Watercolour Studios at Ardgour.

While the judges deliberated, MC Mary Ann Kennedy introduced last year's winner, , Ruairidh Macmillan, who – with guitarist Tia Fyles and bodhran player Adam Brown – played with the zest of a musician reaping the benefits of last year's win.

It fell to one of the panel, Mary McMaster, to bemoan the judges' lot in having to decide a single winner from such a diverse and promising group of finalists, and to declare, "how safe our music is in their hands".