Valerie Bryan, music teacher at Ullapool High School, hopes the project will inspire current generations of young people by showcasing what past generations have achieved and produced.

"In October 2009, every venue in Ullapool will be alive with the creative work of past generations of young people from Lochbroom, Coigach, West Sutherland and all the surrounding communities," she said. "Over the last 25 years, the creative output has been quite extraordinary – from renowned singer-songwriter Andi Neate to award-winning sculptor Charlotte Watters, young people from this area have made incredibly significant contributions to the international arts world."

Entitled Tillidh Mi Dhachaidh, the project will culminate in a three-week celebration of these artists' work. On September 26th next year Ullapool's arts venue, An Talla Solais, will host the opening of the project's art exhibition, which will also be on show in the Macphail Centre, the Ceilidh Place, and Ullapool public library. Musical events will be centred round the weekend of October 2nd and 3rd, when concerts will be held simultaneously in the Macphail Theatre and Ullapool Village Hall.

Valerie explained: "My original idea was to invite all my ex-music students who are now working in the profession to come back and put on a concert to celebrate 10 years of the new community school building, and 25 years of the upgraded six-year secondary school.

But as soon as I started to think about it, I realised that there are so many musicians working professionally that they wouldn't all fit into one concert! So I decided to stage two concerts over two nights. In the village hall, there will be a stage for singer-songwriters, rock and popular music, and DJs. At the same time, the Macphail Theatre will host a concert of Gaelic and traditional music, with some classical performances. The idea is that the audience will go to one concert each evening, so that they get to see both concerts. The only problem is that I want to be in both places at once!"

She added: "There is vast scope for collaboration between former and present pupils and I already have plans for joint performances. We will revisit a few performances from the past, too. For instance, the project's title, Tillidh Mi Dhachaidh, is taken from a RunRig song which we recorded in 1998 as Ceol agus Brogan before our trip to Germany. Calum Macdonald has kindly consented to let us use the title, and I can't wait to hear this song accompanied by the original band and singers, with our present fantastic bunch of pupils! We plan also to commission new music. Former students Mairearad Green and Michael Bryan, now performing with bands such as Box Club, The Unusual Suspects, The Gordon Duncan Tribute Band and The Treacherous Orchestra, composed the music for Donald Blair's Highland 2007 film Sea of Glass and we hope they will compose a piece for us all to perform in 2009. Andi Neate has already written us a song which will go into rehearsal soon."

As well as a whole host of professional musicians – Lochinver-born Mod gold medallist James Graham and up-and-coming clarsach player Rachel Hair are also in the line-up of musicians – Ullapool High School has also nurtured many highly successful visual artists. Charlotte Watters, Alasdair Brotherston, Barbara MacLeod, Duncan Todd and Martin Minton are only a few of the artists who have gone on to forge careers in such areas as sculpture, animation, jewellery, design and photography.

"The possibilities of collaboration between all of these people and the various genres are infinite," said Valerie. "However, what we now seek is funding to enable us to offer them the opportunity to come home and develop these. We initially applied to the Homecoming Scotland 2009 initiative, as this project seemed to us to be exactly what Scotland should be offering the world of the Scottish diaspora. They were highly impressed by our proposal – but unfortunately, not quite impressed enough to offer us the funding we need!

"They have offered to publicise the events – but we are now seeking funding to enable us to offer these highly qualified and skilled professionals the fees they require – and deserve – to come home and show us what they have achieved in the years since they have left Ullapool High School. We are very pleased to have been awarded partial funding from Highland 2007 Legacy, but we are still looking for further funding – both cash and in kind – to enable the project to fulfil its potential.

"In the months leading up to the exhibitions and performances we hope to bring our professionals into all the local schools and communities for a diverse series of workshops to enable all community members to become involved with the project."

We plan to launch the Tillidh Mi Dhachaidh project on Wednesday, November 26, in the Macphail Centre with an informal presentation from 6.30pm outlining the aims of the project, and giving a demonstration of the work of some of the participants.

We hope that local residents, community and business representatives will come along to share some of the plans we have for the next year. While we continue to seek awards from funding bodies, we are of course also hoping to attract local sponsorship for the project.

One of the reasons for launching the project on November 26 is that the exciting new Scottish band Box Club is performing at 7.30pm in the Macphail Theatre, and two of their members are Mairearad Green and Michael Bryan, our former pupils and musical directors for Tillidh Mi Dhachaidh. They are a fantastic band to listen to live – so why not stay on after our launch and enjoy a top-quality performance!"

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend

Bookmark this

---