2014 win be a year to remember for Scotland and Celtic Connections is getting everything started.
This is a big year for Scotland and Celtic Connections aims to kick if off in style. The world’s premier winter music festival celebrates its 21st birthday and organisers promise it has come of age with the biggest line-up yet.
More than 2,000 musicians from all over the world will descend on Glasgow between Thursday night’s opening concert and the finale on February 2.
Proceedings begin with Nicola Benedetti unveiling material from her forthcoming Scottish-themed album, performing with Julie Fowlis, Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham.
Amongst the many other highlights is multi Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter performing with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, a concert from veteran soul star Bobby Womack, and the 30th anniversary celebration of Capercaillie, whose members include the festival’s artistic director Donald Shaw.
He’s excited about the prospect of staging one of the biggest Burns’ celebrations ever seen at the SSE Hydro on January 25.
The line-up includes South African vocal trio The Mahotella Queens, Greek-Cypriot Alkinoos Ioannidis and Scotland’s own Karine Polwart, Dougie MacLean and Karen Matheson. The night before, also at the Hydro, Del Amitri perform their first UK show in more than a decade.
Donald commented: “The Burns Night, with its stellar line-up of homegrown talent and international acts, is going to be a perfect platform to explore the cultural ties and influence Scotland’s traditional music has on other Commonwealth countries.”
Also on the festival bill is Far Far From Ypres WW1 Scottish Songs, which marks the centenary of the Great War with a cast of more than 20 singers including Barbara Dickson and Dick Gaughan.
As ever, the festival comes to a close with the Transatlantic Sessions, featuring a wealth of one-off collaborations between big-name acts like Shawn Colvin, Darrell Scott, Aly Bain and Jerry Douglas.
It’s all set to be a cracking Burns Night!
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