ScottishPower Powerful Performance

Young musicians from across Scotland were presented with an exciting opportunity this year to perform live on stage at the 2012 Celtic Connections festival.

For the third year running, our principal sponsor ScottishPower held its Powerful Performance contest, designed to encourage youngsters to celebrate their traditional musical heritage.

The initiative invited musically minded pupils from across the country to submit a short recording of traditional music using instruments, vocals, or a combination of the two.

After much deliberation by our expert judging panel talented musicians from St Ambrose High School in North Lanarkshire have been crowned this year’s winners.

The group of 17 secondary school pupils battled it out with fellow instrumentalists across the country to scoop the top prize and will have the unique opportunity to showcase their talents on Friday 3rd February at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, as part of the final Education Concert at the festival.

The winning class will also be automatically entered into the highly competitive Danny Kyle Open Stage competition.

To top it all off, the successful group will receive a masterclass from Innes Watson to help the pupils prepare for their performance. A popular collaborative performer and teacher, Innes is a member of several ensembles performing at Celtic Connections in 2012, including the Treacherous Orchestra.

Ann Loughrey, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at ScottishPower said:

This is the sixth year ScottishPower has supported Celtic Connections and we are delighted to see Powerful Performance go from strength to strength.
We’re thrilled with the quantity and quality of entries received and St Ambrose High school should be extremely proud to have been selected as the winner for their engaging arrangements, strong rhythms and confident performances.
ScottishPower is committed to supporting the arts in the UK through its sponsorship of Celtic Connections, as well as others, and Powerful Performance has been fantastic in encouraging young people and local communities to celebrate Scottish music, its Celtic traditions and heritage.”

Natalie Gibson, Head of Music at St Ambrose High School was delighted with the news:

The pupils are over the moon to have won the ScottishPower Powerful Performance competition – it’s a great achievement for the school and for all of the individuals involved.

Sarah Bonner, Music Teacher at St Ambrose High School said:

The group put a great deal of time and effort into practicing the entry and is so excited to have won the chance to perform at the Celtic Connections festival. We’re going to be very busy over the next month preparing for the performance and are looking forward to learning from Innes Watson during the masterclass.

St Ambrose High School’s entry was performed by 17 pupils from S1 to S5 – Jade Curtis, Lauren Curtis, Aoife Bradley, Collen Spalding, Paul Freil, Avery Sanchez, Adam Manley, Lucy Hughes, Thomas Street, Chloe Street, Katie Reid, Ryan Docherty, Emma Gilmour, John McArthur, Keiran Johnstone, Michael Douglas and Erin Christie.