Allan MacDonald receives Edinburgh Angel Award

Allan MacDonald has received the prestigious Edinburgh Angel Award for his series of pibroch concerts at the Edinburgh Festival last August.

The award is presented each year to a concert or concert series considered the most appealing and unique. The winner is chosen by journalists covering the Festival. MacDonald’s award marks the first time that a pibroch concert won. Major classical and mainstream concerts are performed during the same period of the Festival.

Entitled “From Battle Lines to Bar Lines – The Musical Pulse of Scottish History” MacDonald said “explored aspects of Scottish history and the music and Gaelic songs associated with particular events that figured highly in the psyche of the Gael.”

The sold-out concerts each had a specific region of Scotland: Perthshire, Argyllshire, Lochaber and Skye. The pibrochs were performed on the Highland pipe, A-pipes, small-pipes, cello, viola, piano, fiddle, flute, clarsach and accordion.

Unfortunately, the Edinburgh Festival has stringent policies against recordings to be made of its events.

Originally from Glenuid, Scotland, Allan MacDonald is one of the most accomplished pipers of the last 50 years, in competition, performanmce, academia, and recording. His research in the 1990s that studied the relationship between pibroch and Gaelic song, was ground-breaking.

p|d

What do you think? We always want to hear from our readers, so please use our comment system to provide your thoughts!

Do you have news? Be sure to send your information to pipes|drums. We can’t report what we don’t know about! Please remember to support the businesses that advertise and make the not-for-profit p|d possible.