Duncan Wood and Cathal McConnell give a presentation, joined for this set of tunes by student Axel, from Hamburg, and tutor Nigel Gatherer.

We have just completed our first week of the summer schools. Trad Music week has been a great success with a super group of students, some new and some by now old friends.

Highlight of this week was without doubt the legendary Cathal McConnell of Boys of the Lough, who joined us for flute whistle and song (and will be returning for Guitar and Common Ground weeks) Cathal gave a wonderful afternoon presentation and some seriously inspiring concerts, along with Duncan Wood (fiddle).

Also of note was an outstanding concert by bluegrass band Goldrush who captivated us with their close harmony and frenetic instrument virtuosity. The Goldrush members also added to our skill sets by holding a bluegrass workshop and for a couple of evenings we had a distinctly americana feel to our Scottish trad tunes.
We also had wonderful concerts and presentations from Pete Clark, Nigel Gatherer, Neil Patterson & Alan Jones in various combinations nearly always joined by Cathal, who together with some exceptionally gifted students gave us a tremendous variety of concerts in the evenings and during the afternoons.
We have loaded a few, very few, photos to Flickr - but if you want to keep a visual eye on progress - keep an eye on this set of photos on Flickr , a set which will grow over the weeks.

Food and accommodation was as has been, as usual at WestPark, fantastic, leading us having to play in the sessions in to the wee small hours to burn up the calories.
The sessions have been memorable with a great balance of styles and a variety of tunes and songs with many students and tutors being inspired by one another. Many potentially long lasting friendships have again been forged with numerous music collaborations explored and planned. We established cemented and links with other international education projects and educational facilities which will be reported on as things develop.

If you have not already confirmed your attendance for future weeks, accommodation and tuition is still available for late sign ups. If you are interested, ideally email us or text on 0784 332 8739 and we will sort out what you need to do to join us for the coming weeks - or even if you want to pop in for the evening events.