Celtic Connections 2016: a taste of the festival

Celtic Connections, held in Glasgow in January each year, lights up Scotland’s winter with music from artists who connect to their heritage and carry that connection forward. This year artists from Africa, Mongolia, France, Canada, the United States, Ireland, and many other countries join musicians from all across Scotland for eighteen days of musical celebration, a celebration which includes concerts, master classes, talks, art exhibits, come and try workshops on a range of instruments, concerts for school children, late night sessions, the after hours festival club, live broadcasts and tapings of radio and television shows, concerts which feature rising stars...

Here is a bit of what things in Glasgow have looked like so far, The festival runs through 31 January.

At a concert by the Chieftains from Ireland, surprise guest Kris Kristofferson sang with Aylth McCormack. McCormack, who frequently collaborates with the Chieftains, is from Lewis in the Western Isles.

Brian Finnegan lent his talents on whistle to a concert with his musical friends Kathleen MacInnes, Dermot Byrne, and Mike Vass.

As part of the New Voices strand, with which Celtic Connections commissions new music, guitarist Ewan Robertson gave the world premier of his audio visual piece inspired by the Celtman triathalon and the landscapes and history the marathon’s route traverses in Scotland’s north.

Kyle Carey and Giilebride MacMillan offered sets of Gaelic Americana and Gaelic songs and then joined up to sing together at evening’s end.

Eddi Reader celebrated Burns night with a program in collaboration with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, in arrangements Rabbie himself would have found intriguing.

Photographs by Kerry Dexter. made with permission of the artists, the festival and the venues involved. Thank you for respecting copyright.

You may also wish to see
Scotland, Americana, inspiration: Kyle Carey
Celtic Connections 2013: Images
Eddi Reader sings the songs of Robert Burns
Celtic Connections 2011: images

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