Glasgow, Scotland - The cream of international Celtic music keeps appearing at the Celtic connections festival. Sunday's edition features Spanish bagpipe diva Susana Seivane, accordion master Donald Shaw and guests, the Dubliners and much more.

Sunday 22 January

01.00pm New Voices: Anna Wendy Stevenson
The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall: Strathclyde Suite
2 Sauchiehall Street, G2
£7.50 - tickets available from the Box Office

Performing with Anna Wendy will be Donald Hay, Fraser Fifield, Ross Paterson, Lesley Kirkness, Johnny Hardy and Luke Plumb.

01.00pm BBC Radio Scotland Live Broadcast
‘The Reel Blend’
City Hall: Recital Room
Candleriggs, G1
Free- obtain tickets from the Box Office

Join Robbie Shepherd for two hours of live Scottish dance music and chat, featuring previous winners of the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year Competition.

02.00pm The Young Tradition
Kathryn Tickell’s Folkworks
The Piping Centre
30-34 McPhater Street, G4
£7.50 - tickets available from the Box Office

03.00pm Donald Shaw’s Harvest
The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall: Main Auditorium
2 Sauchiehall Street, G2
£14.50, £12.50 - tickets available from the Box Office
on stage: (03.00-04.30pm)

Performing in Harvest will be Jean Michel Veillon (Brittany, flute), Gilles le Bigot (Brittany, guitar), José Tejedor (Asturias, bagpipes, low whistle), Uxía (Galicia, vocals), Chus Pedro (Asturias, vocals), Gerry O'Connor (Ireland, banjo), Aidan O'Rourke (fiddle), Karen Matheson (vocals), Michael McGoldrick (flutes & whistles), Ewen Vernal (double bass), James Mackintosh (percussion), Jim Sutherland (percussion).

03.00pm BBC Radio Scotland Live Broadcast
Gracenotes
City Hall
Candleriggs, G1
Free - obtain tickets from the Box Office

Jamie MacDougall introduces a special selection of Scottish music from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Special guests include top Scottish dance group the Alastair Savage Band.

04.00pm A Taste of the Fest with Ishbel MacAskill, support by Troy MacGillivray & Andrea Beaton
Tron Theatre Bar
63 Trongate, G1
£7.50 - tickets available from the Box Office

05.00pm Danny Kyle’s Open Stage with Gibb Todd
The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall: Exhibition Hall
2 Sauchiehall Street, G2
Free

Hosted by Danny Kyle’s good friends Gibb Todd and Liz Clark, the Open Stage is a chance to see new musical talent as they try to win a coveted support slot at next year’s festival.

07.30pm Hobotalk & The Sundowns
with support from Red Bee Society
The Garage
490 Sauchiehall Street, G2
£6 - tickets available from the Box Office

07.45pm Songs of Scotland, Fife
hosted by Doris Rougvie
Universal Folk Club
Sauchiehall Lane, G1
£8.50 - tickets available from the Box Office

A new venue for 2006, the intimate Universal Folk Club brings together the great tradition bearers of Scottish Song, with each evening throughout the Festival dedicated to the unique musical characteristics of a region of Scotland. Representing the Fife region for tonight’s session are The Sangsters – John Blackwood, Fiona Forbes and Anne & Scott Murray.

08.00pm Susana Seivane and The Finlay MacDonald Band
The Arches
253 Argyle St, G2
£14 - tickets available from the Box Office
on stage: Finlay MacDonald Band (08.00-08.50pm) Susana Seivane (09.10-10.30pm)

08.00pm BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year
The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall: Strathclyde Suite
2 Sauchiehall Street, G2
£12.50 - tickets available from the Box Office

This much sought-after award for Scotland’s young traditional talent, brings six finalists together to compete for a title that also acts as a major career springboard. The coveted prize includes a CD deal with Foot Stompin’ Records, a session on BBC Radio Scotland’s Travelling Folk program and bookings for major international folk festivals.

Winner 2005
SStuart Cassells - Bagpipes
(Falkirk)

Kirsty Cotter - Fiddle
(Glasgow)

Christopher Keatinge - Accordion
(Melrose)

Darren MacLean - Gaelic Song
(Skye)

Shona Mooney - Fiddle
(Lauder)

Hamish Napier - Piano, Voice, Flute
(Grantown on Spey)

Fraser Shaw - Border Pipes, Whistles
(Islay)

08.00pm Liz Lochhead and Michael Marra
In Flagrant Delicht
Tron Theatre
63 Trongate, G1
£14.00 - tickets available from the Box Office

East meets West, boy meets girl, brand new stuff meets old favorites when Dundee‘s finest, Michael Marra, and Glasgow‘s own Liz Lochhead put his songs and her poems together. Talking to each other in a program of all they're passionate about - places, people, paint and painters, love, language and football – Lochead gives hilarious character monologues and poems of poignancy while Marra, the incomparable gravelly-voiced singer-songwriter, provides accompaniment on voice and piano. A hugely successful collaboration, their performances are as thought-provoking as they are entertaining.

Scottish poet and playwright Liz Lochhead was born in 1947, in Motherwell, Lanarkshire. She studied at the Glasgow School of Art and taught art at schools in Glasgow and Bristol. She was Writer in Residence at Edinburgh University (1986-7) and Writer in Residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1988. Her first collection of poems, Memo for Spring, was published in 1972 and won a Scottish Arts Council Book Award. Her poetry has been published in a number of collections including Penguin Modern Poets 4 (1995).

A performer as well as a poet, her revue Sugar and Spite was staged in 1978 with Marcella Evaristi. Liz Lochhead travelled to Canada in the same year, after being selected for a Scottish Writers Exchange Fellowship, and she became a full-time writer, performance poet and broadcaster.

Her plays include Blood and Ice (1982), first performed at the Edinburgh Traverse in 1982; Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off (1989), first performed by Communicado Theatre Company at the 1987 Edinburgh festival; Dracula (1989); Cuba (1997), a play for young people commissioned by the Royal National Theatre for the BT National Connections Scheme; and Perfect Days (1998), a romantic comedy, first performed at the Edinburgh festival in 1998.

She translated and adapted Molière's Tartuffe (1985) into Scots, premiered at the Edinburgh Royal Lyceum in 1987, and the script of her adaptation of Euripides' Medea (2000) for Theatre Babel in 2000 won the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award. In her play Misery Guts (2002), based on Molière's The Misanthrope, the action is updated to the modern-day Scottish Parliament. Her work for television includes Latin for a Dark Room, a short film, screened as part of the BBC Tartan Shorts season at the 1994 Edinburgh International Film Festival, and The Story of Frankenstein for Yorkshire Television. Her latest work is a new collection of poetry, The Colour of Black and White: Poems 1984-2003 (2003).

08.15pm The Dubliners with special guests Cushtie
The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall: Main Auditorium
2 Sauchiehall Street, G2
£18, £16 - tickets available from the Box Office
on stage: Cushtie (08.15-09.00pm) The Dubliners (09.10-10.50pm)

09.30pm With Strings Attached
Blazin' Fiddles with Justin Currie, Colin MacIntyre and Eddi Reader
Old Fruitmarket
Candleriggs, G1
£18 - tickets available from the Box Office
on stage: (09.30-10.15pm / 10.35-11.20pm)

A lavish collaboration involving three of Scotland’s finest contemporary singer songwriters — Colin MacIntyre (Mull Historical Society), Justin Currie (Del Amitri) and Eddi Reader — and top folk band Blazin' Fiddles, With Strings Attached was introduced at Celtic Connections 2005. An all-star instrumental team, led by Blazin' Fiddles who’ll be supplemented by cello, double bass, viola, percussion and a five-piece horn section. The horns are led by renowned trombonist Rick Taylor who is also the project’s musical director. This concert features a mix of covers and originals, new and old material, hits and rarities, plus the signature Blazin' Fiddles sets. “Right from the start, our only stipulation to the singers has been that they don’t choose anything traditional,” says Bruce MacGregor of Blazin’ Fiddles. “There’ll be some reprises of tracks from last year, but Justin, Colin and Eddi have all come up with new songs as well.”

10.00pm BBC Radio Scotland Live Broadcast with Iain Anderson
Recital Room, City Halls
Candleriggs, G1
Free - obtain tickets from the Box Office

A special edition of Iain’s show featuring special guests in performance and conversation.

10.00pm Late Night Session
Universal Folk Club
Sauchiehall Lane, G2
Free

Informal music session.

10.30pm Festival Club with Gibb Todd
The Holiday Inn - City West
Bothwell St, G2
£7.50 - tickets available from the Box Office

The best late-night club in the city, this is the place to keep the party going after all the gigs are over. Rub shoulders with world famous artists as they make special unbilled appearances alongside the best newcomers. And Doris Rougvie hosts the House of Song in the Cabin Bar.

Other Celtic Connections stories:

Altan, Filska and Showcase Scotland at Celtic Connections 2006

Scottish Acts and Jazz at Celtic Connections January 19th

Homecomings and New Celtic Talents at Celtic Connections January 18

Celtic Connections Continues with Americana and Celtic Sounds

Legends and Newcomers at Celtic Connections Festival Monday January 16th

Lesley Riddoch on Celtic Music Radio

Celtic Connections Announces New Concerts and Special Guests

Martyn Bennett Day at Celtic Connections

Busy Schedule at Celtic Fest in Scotland

Celtic Connections Opening Concert Cancelled

[Photo: Susana Seivane].