An ANGEL'S AN ANGEL FOR A' THAT: Sheena Wellington took the Herald Archangel award for her work in keeping traditional Scottish music alive
THERE were furrowed brows and imaginary furrows in the carpet at Edinburgh's Festival Theatre on Saturday when Doric singer Jock Duncan accepted a Herald Angel award with an impromptu acapella performance of the comic song The Plooin' Match.
The slice of North-east Scottish culture, delivered in a dialect many found confusing, capped a ceremony where the music programme of the International Festival scooped the lion's share of the awards. Duncan, who received his award from comedian Ross Noble (one of last year's winners), was part of the Scots and Their Songs series of the concerts at the festival centre, The Hub. The ploughing song, delivered complete with actions and asides, had been part of his show-stealing performance at the concert of songs of Work, Sex, and Drink.
The Archangel, for singular achievement, went to Sheena Wellington, who was chief architect of the series and has been Scotland's most tireless campaigner for the cause of traditional music for many years. The recent announcement of #1.5m of Government support as part of the national cultural strategy can be substantially attributed to her efforts, and she came to broader public attention when she sang Burns's A Man's A Man For A' That at the opening of the Scottish Parliament last year.
Other Angels were awarded to Christian Zacharias and to the musicians of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra for their collaboration on the performance of all of Mozart's piano concertos that has been another major part of the Festival's music programme, and to director Tim Albery for his staging of Wagner's Das Rheingold for Scottish Opera, the fifth year in succession that the company's contribution to the Festival has been so recognised.
On the Fringe, Noble presented Angels to George Dillon for his compelling one-man adaptation of Steven Berkoff's book, Graft, and to young performance company Shunt, whose Ballad of Bobby Francois has been a clever and disorientating success at Club Pleasance.
Little Devils, for triumphing over adversity in the maelstrom of Edinburgh, went to
eccentric singer/songwriter Jane Bom-Bane,
who broke her wrist in a fall down the staircase
of her digs and adopted a one-handed keyboard technique for her show, and the Carpe Diem company, whose superhero saga American Eagle 2000 has been beset by injuries since
it opened at the Gilded Balloon, which
the actors performed through, before admitting themselves to hospital after the curtain
came down.
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