Cultural bridges made through Scottish and Chinese song workshops

Young people in Inverness from Chinese and Scottish backgrounds are being brought together through a musical project which will see them perform on the 1st December as part of the first concert of the 2009 Inverness Winter Festival’s Advent Calendar Music Trail

In preparation for the concert The Highland Council’s Traditional Music Coordinator Margo Maclennan and Mandolin tutor Donald Jack will join forces with Scottish Highlands Inverness Moray Chinese Association (SHIMCA) to bring a taste of Scottish and Chinese traditional music to the young people during a workshop on Tuesday 27 October.

At the end of September professional Glasgow based Chinese singer Fong Liu, who is a member of the Harmony Chinese Music Ensemble,  joined Margo and Donald in a workshop with 60 children and staff of the two primary 7 classes at Crown Primary School. The children and staff were taught how to sing a Traditional Chinese Song and given the outline and description of how to colour a Peking Mask as part of the traditional Chinese and Scottish song workshop.

A second workshop will also be held tomorrow (27 October) at the Scottish Highlands Inverness Moray Chinese Association (SHIMCA), 1 Ardconnel Terrace, Inverness from 2-4pm with the local community of Chinese children and their helpers organised by Monica Lee MacPherson MBE.

The culmination of both workshops will bring the children from the two groups together in a performance on Tuesday 1 December at Inverness High School. Both Fong Liu and Eddie McGuire, musician with Harmony and Whistle Binkies folk group, will join the children and the students who attend Highland Council’s Traditional Music Classes for the first concert of the 2009 Inverness Winter Festival’s Advent Calendar Music Trail.

This project has been supported by the Highland Wellbeing Alliance Cultural Bridges Fund which is administered by The Highland Council. The aim of the fund is to encourage greater understanding across cultures in Highland and to promote improved community relations between new residents, minority ethnic community groups and the wider community in the Highlands.