Young Musician - Oban Rotary Club

The Rotary Club of Oban
The Rotary Club of Oban
The Rotary Club of Oban
The Rotary Club of Oban
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Young Musician of the Year 2024

The Rotary Club of Oban held its local heat of the Rotary Young Musician of the Year in the Parish Church on Tuesday evening. Competing were 7 Young Musicians; Owen Stevenson on accordion, Chis MacLaurin on electric guitar, Ben Docherty on bagpipes, Lily Robertson on vocals, Eva MacCallum on vocals, Millie Bonniewell on vocals and Alisdair Bullock on bagpipes.

  Pres Pete,  Owen, Chis , Ben, Alisdair, Eva, Lily, Millie ,judges Katy and Kathryne with Dot at the end.
 
Winner, in a close run contest, was piper Alistair Bullock and the runner-up was Lily Robertson.
 
Alistair won with a wide range of tunes including Pibroch and a tune he wrote himself. Both young people will go through to the next regional round of the competition in the new year.

President Peter Tosh presented the prizes, Rotarian Dot Dahl gave the vote of thanks and Past President Ciorsti Baxter compared the evening.

A special thanks to Minister Alex MacCallum for opening up the Church for us to provide such a magnificent venue, to our two expert judges, Kathryne Wilkie and Katy Cameron, the audience who turned up to support the event and not least to all the competitors who did so well.

 

The Rotary Club of Oban's Young Musician of the year was Anna Tait-Westwell. Anna is a very accomplished young musician, especially for a person of such a young age and will no doubt go on to be a hugely  successful musician. The Rotary Club of Oban are delighted to support Ann and have her as our Young Musician for this Year.

Anna already has an impressive CV and is clearly a truly gifted talent.
  • Anna has won the Clarsach recital 3 times at the Royal National Mod
  • She has won the harp medal at the Edinburgh Competition Festival
  • She performs every year at the Highlands & Islands Music Festival – she has won Clarsach Recital, Piano Grade 4& 5 as well as Singing.
  • Anna has performed at the Edinburgh International Harp Festival in the 100th Anniversary Concert for the Clarsach Society.
  • Anna had a composition published in the Wild Strings Jazz harp collection after winning a composition competition.
  • Anna started playing the fiddle aged 4 and the Clarsach aged 7.
  • She has a growing interest in the Paraguayan Harp – which she is learning to master.

We all wish Anna a fun year ahead as our Young Musician of the Year.

Our picture shows Anna with President Douglas Small and Rotarian Dave Waltho (Youth Convenor).
Oban Rotary's  "Young Musician of the Year" for 2018 was Neil McCracken, a 15 year old student at Oban High School who specialises on the piano but is also a gifted saxophone player.

Young Neil entertained members and quests with his piano renditions to much applause at Oban Rotary's recent annual Charter Dinner, which event also raises funds for local charities. Neil has gone on from these events to be chosen as pianist for the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland for their 2019 Summer Tour. This involves a week's preparation at Sabhal Mor Ostaig in Skye and thereafter playing in Glasgow and Belfast plus other venues.

Although the bulk of Neil's costs are covered by the NYJOS Oban Rotary provided £250 towards the amount he has to raise and President Iain Mac Intyre is seenhere presenting a cheque for this amount to Neil in which Iain also expressed  good wishes from all concerned in Oban for Neil's future. Also in the picture are Rotarians L-R Roger Parry, Kees Van Rein and Douglas Small.
© The Rotary Club of Oban. All rights reserved.
Officers 2024 - 2025
President -
Senior Vice -
Junior Vice -
Peter Tosh
Steven Lowe
Edward Thornton
Secretary -
Treasurer -
Kenneth Moncrieff
Ronnie Forbes
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