AISEAG, (The Ferryboat) performed at First Ever UK-Wide New Music Biennial Celebrations

AISEAG, (The Ferryboat), is about connections. It was one of twenty new compositions chosen and commissioned for the 2014 UK wide Biennial Celebrations. It was premiered at Sabhal Mor Ostaig on July 3, 2014, and then followed by performances in London England and at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland. It was recorded by BBC3 and is available for digital download. A feature documentary of Aiseag was filmed for BBC Alba and was broadcast on Sept 22nd 2014. http://www.nmcrec.co.uk/new-music-biennial/mary-ann-kennedy

Aiseag was co-composed “across the seas” by musicians Scott Macmillan, (Nova Scotia), Mary Ann Kennedy (Scotland), poet Aonghas MacNeacail, (Scotland) and audio designer Nick Turner (Scotland). Using modern technology, electronic and found sound, Cape Breton and Scottish Highland musicians and a Glasgow string section, the composers created a piece which demonstrates the lifelong fascination of the journey between the Highlands of Scotland and Canada’s Gaelic diaspora.

The premiere of ‘Aiseag’ took place at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig as part of SEALL Arts newly resurgent Fèis an Eilein in Skye at the end of July, featuring the quartet of writers, plus Cape Breton fiddler Colin Grant, Skye-based Cape Breton piper Angus MacKenzie, percussionist Allan Òg MacDonald, reader Christina MacDonald from the Isle of Skye, the strings of the Scottish Festival Orchestra, led by Stewart Webster, and the award-winning Inverness Gaelic Choir. The commission was won by Mary Ann during her tenure as Musician in Residence at SMO in 2013.

Subsequent performances involved a Caledonian Sleeper safari-ceilidh to London for a massive Biennial celebration at the Southbank Centre, a home-town gig at Eden Court Theatre in Inverness, and the finale at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall as part of the Commonwealth Games celebrations.

Now the challenge is on to bring Aiseag to Nova Scotia..........more to follow