Celtic Connections 2025: Scotsman critic Jim Gilchrist picks his highlights

The GRIT Orchestra returns to Celtic Connections on 18 January | Mihaela Bodlovic

Three decades on from its foundation, Glasgow’s vast and protean roots music festival Celtic Connections – its 300 or so events at 25 venues defying anything like a comprehensive preview – embraces not only a hugely eclectic range of music but also numerous multi-disciplinary productions.

Take, for instance, When Fish Begin to Crawl, an “immersive cinematic experience” spotlighting the Flow Country by composer Jim Sutherland and filmmaker Morag McKinnon, accompanied by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall New Auditorium on 2 February. Or A Giant on the Bridge at the Tramway on 22 January, combining songwriting, storytelling and hip hop: the work of musicians Jo Mango and Louis Abbott with theatre-maker Liam Hurley, it explores the challenges involved in life after prison.

Also at the Tramway, the 23rd sees fiddler John Metcalfe present Tree, with gorgeous visuals from Jony Easterby, while Hayden Thorpe performs his album Ness, created in collaboration with nature writer Robert Macfarlane, at the City Halls Recital Room on the 26th. There’s dance, too, as Moving Cloud at the Theatre Royal on the 25th combines piper Brìghde Chaimbeul with the band TRIP and Scottish Dance Theatre.

The bulk of the programme, however, remains concert based, with enough to satisfy the broadest of tastes, whether it’s the Hebridean punk of Peat and Diesel at the Emirates Arena on 23 January, the inspired Gaelic pipe and song collaboration Canntaireachd, at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (GRCH) on the 25th, country hero Lyle Lovett at the same venue on the 19th, or KT Tunstall reprising her Eye to the Telescope album 20 years on at both the Concert Hall (30th) and the Barrowland Ballroom (31st).

The festival’s opening night on the 16th promises an “epic” Royal Concert Hall launch for Glasgow’s 850th anniversary year, although the organisers are keeping the programme under wraps, hinting at weel-kent faces, surprise guests and specially commissioned performances and film.

The Dear Green Place is further feted in The Glasgow that I Used to Know, celebrating Adam McNaughtan, composer of such enduring songs as The Jeely Piece Song and Yellow on the Broom. It’s hosted at GRCH Strathclyde Suite on the 18th by Siobhan Miller with Scott Gardiner and Brian Miller.

The annual piping concert sees world champions Inverary and District Pipe Band and the Finlay MacDonald Band take the Royal Concert Hall stage on the 25th, while another Gaelic star, Julie Fowlis, appears with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra at GRCH on the 24th.

Julie Fowlis will perform at Celtic Connections with the SCO on 24 January

From Ireland, fiddle ace Frankie Gavin brings a re-constituted De Dannan to the Barony Hall on the 18th while Karan Casey celebrates the women of Ireland in her theatrical song cycle, The Women: We Will Rise, at GRCH Strathclyde Suite on the 17th.

The beautiful Mackintosh Church on the 21st, meanwhile, hosts eclectic cellist Su-a Lee’s acclaimed Dialogues with fiddler Duncan Chisholm, flautist Hamish Napier and multi-instrumentalist Donald Shaw, and Scotland’s leading singer-songwriter, Karine Polwart, is joined by a choir at GRCH on 1st February for The Back of the Winter, a celebration of singing and community, borrowing its title from one of her best known songs.

Ten years on from their momentous formation and 20 years after the passing of Martyn Bennet, whose unique music was their starting point, the genre-defying GRIT Orchestra returns to the Royal Concert Hall on 18 January.

From further afield, the renowned Finnish folk band Frigg joins the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra on the 19th in City Hall, while other international guests range from the vibrant Tanzanian sounds of the Zawose Queens, at Òran Mór on the 19th, to the open-throated polyphony of The Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices in Kelvingrove Museum on 1 February.

The Palestinian Arab Orthodox Scout pipers of Beit Jala perform at Celtic Connections as part of Bethlehem Calling | Contributed

Further multicultural riches include Bethlehem Calling, at the Tramway on the 25th, promising stories, music and even pipers from stricken Palestine, in a collaboration between former Franz Ferdinand drummer Paul Thomson, Grid Iron Theatre’s Ben Harrison, director Raeda Ghazaleh and theatre-maker Zoe Hunter.

A considerable American contingent includes multiple Grammy-winner Lyle Lovett at GRCH on the 19th, the old-time partnership of Rhiannon Giddens and Dirk Powell at the City Halls on the 20th, while the soul-folk-pop fusion of Lake Street Dive hits the Old Fruitmarket on the 26th.

And, of course, the hugely popular Transatlantic Sessions return to GRCH on 31 January and 1 February, celebrating 30 years since the show first appeared on TV, with regular hosts Aly Bain and Jerry Douglas leading the house band and guests.

Finally, some major homegrown jazz attractions include an intriguing collaboration between the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra and the Highland band Breabach at GRCH on 23 January. The energetically eclectic corto.alto host their Made In Glasgow show at the Barrowland Ballroom on 18 January, while the following night, saxophonist Matt Carmichael previews his forthcoming Dancing With Embers album at the Barony Hall.

Full programme at www.celticconnections.com