Ceòlas are to honour Rona Lightfoot in the first concert to grace Cnoc Soilleir’s new 200-seat auditorium. The legendary piper, singer and tradition-bearer from South Uist turned 90 earlier in the month.
Rona has been a huge part of Ceòlas since its early days, teaching Gaelic songs over many years at the summer school, allowing participants to learn from her wealth of knowledge on Gaelic language, music and culture. Rona also taught at Fèis Rois for many years and has been involved in numerous other events. She has been a stalwart of Gaelic culture, and a pioneer for women in the world of piping having played since she was 9 years old and becoming the first woman to compete in the Bratach Gorm, the Scottish Piping Society of London’s premier pibroch competition.
In 2010 she won the Balvenie Medal for services to piping, she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Gaelic Awards in 2019, and is celebrated in the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame as ‘one of Gaeldom’s great characters, a one-woman ceilidh with a treasure trove of folklore and the spirit to take on authority and win’.
The special concert will take place on Saturday 27th June at 7.30pm in Cnoc Soilleir’s new auditorium with a superstar line-up of Gaelic singers, musicians and pipers.
FULL LINE-UP
Gaelic singers: Ruairidh Gray, Sìneag MacIntyre, Maighread Stewart, Paul McCallum, Gillebrìde MacMillan, Kristine Kennedy, Penny Burgess & Màiri MacInnes
Pipers: Seonaidh MacIntyre, Mìcheal Steele, Roddy MacLeod MBE, Mìcheal MacLellan, Allan MacDonald, Bornish Pipers Club
Musicians: Pàdruig Morrison, Duncan Chisholm, Iain Dòmhnallach
Dancers: Jayne NicLeòid, Màiri MacLean School of Dance
