Orkney fiddler Kristan calls the tune to take title as young musician

Published on Sunday 30 January 2011 14:10

BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year City Halls, Glasgow

ALL ten previous winners of this fiercely-fought annual competition are continuing to forge successful professional careers in music, many of them featuring prominently on this year's Celtic Connections bill. Such is the contest's calibre that even winning through to the final is now a major badge of honour, and one richly deserved by each of the six hopefuls. With the show broadcast live on Radio Scotland (and televised highlights available to view on the BBC's Celtic Connections website), each performer had 15 minutes to make their bid for the title all presenting a different musical specialism.

The youngest contender, 16-year-old Borders accordionist Andrew Waite, drew the short straw as opener, but looked and sounded remarkably unfazed by the challenge, opening with a silky, dreamy, beautifully handled slow air, which kicked up via a sharp-angled strathspey into a terrifically exuberant reel. As with all the finalists, he had a sizable posse of family and friends in the audience cheering him along - although minus brother Chris, whose band Rura was simultaneously playing elsewhere

By all accounts the competition's judges always have a fiendishly difficult task. This time few will have envied them making a decision from such a contrasting array of talent, also including Alistair Ogilvy's wonderfully characterful, minutely nuanced Scots singing, Lorne MacDougall's brilliantly authoritative piping and lyrical whistle work, pianist Tina Rees's vibrant, soulful renderings of traditional and original material, and Skye teenager Mairi Chaimbeul's adventurous, quicksilver clarsach playing and sweet Gaelic vocals. In the end, though, it was 22-year-old Orcadian fiddler Kristan Harvey who carried off the prize, with her lusciously full-toned, deeply felt version of a Paul Anderson slow air, and some thrillingly fiery dance tunes, further fuelled by touches of bluegrass and jazz.