This month's YMI Spotlight explores the rich legacy of the impact of Youth Music funding in Scotland over the last 20 years
Children enjoying a YMI-funded music lesson. Image by Gordon Willoughby.
Since the inception of the Youth Music Initiative (YMI), Fèisean nan Gàidheal has worked in partnership with The Highland Council and now High Life Highland, to deliver traditional music in all 170+ primary schools in a geographical area that accounts for over a third of the land mass of Scotland. It has always been important to strengthen links to local Fèisean and six of them in the area - Fèis an Earraich, Fèis Chataibh, Fèis Inbhir Narainn, Fèis Lochabair, Fèis Rois and Fèis Spè - support the delivery to ensure local knowledge is best harnessed.
It has been a joyful 20 years, the depth and breadth of YMI’s impact showcased beautifully by this year’s Blas Festival.
Over 40 events took place in village halls, arts centres, and theatres throughout the region over nine days in early September. A parallel programme in schools included the tour of a newly written play for over 400 pupils in 15 of the region’s Gaelic medium schools. In Scotland’s Year of Stories, this included Gaelic songs and tunes tied to traditional Highland tales. One of the Gaelic-speaking actor-musicians, Fergus Munro, is a former primary school pupil who benefitted from YMI tuition in Lochaber.
An additional 35 former Highland YMI pupils - some professional musicians and some still students - took to the stage for this year’s Blas Festival, joined by 10 of the current and former tutor team including Charlie McKerron and Sandra Mackay. The Bàideanach Suite composed by Charlie, inspired by the local landscape in which they live, featured a host of local musicians as well as the Fèis Spè Monadh Ruadh Cèilidh Band.
Charlie and Sandra have each been teaching YMI sessions in Highland primary schools for around 15 years and agree that the work provided enables them to live and work outwith the central belt. Charlie, fiddler with Capercaillie and Session A9, balances his touring schedule with time at home teaching music, including through YMI. As he explains, the inclusivity of YMI can tease out an interest in music in children who may not otherwise have the opportunity to experience music-making first-hand:
“Not every child has a talent for music, or even interest, but it is joyous to occasionally see young musicians blossoming into talented players as a result of YMI and Fèisean involvement”.
In a recent survey (September 2022) of Highland YMI tutors, 50% stated that YMI work made up more than a quarter of their annual income. For some, the reliance was even greater with YMI accounting for more than half their yearly salary. 67% cited YMI work as having had an impact on allowing them to remain in – or choose - the Highlands as home.
The distinctive culture of Highland Scotland shaped YMI from the very beginning. In the early years of the new millennium, Gaelic medium education was enjoying a fairly robust expansion. This shone a spotlight on traditional culture as explained by Bruce Robertson, Director of Education, Culture and Sport at The Highland Council when YMI was launched:
“We had fast-growing Gaelic medium education across the Highlands at that time, we had a fantastic music service...traditional music was so important culturally as well as musically and educationally and this was a chance to expand it to all our primary schools. So, it really came along at the right time. And, of course, at just about that time as well, we had opened up the National Centre of Excellence over in Plockton.”
Sandra Mackay links these cultural connections – both traditional and innovative – presented to children who have no other direct access to the Gaelic culture of where they live as hugely beneficial to her own job satisfaction:
“I was delighted when a young lass with no Gaelic background decided to focus her music exam on a Gaelic song which was written for Fèis Spè. This was a direct result of YMI in schools. This year, we are writing new lullabies as part of YMI which will become part of our living culture in the area”.
I recently walked into a Fish and Chip shop on the mainland and was recognised by the young lad behind the counter who after 12 years and a minimal contact time spontaneously sang me one of the songs we had worked on!- Anne Martin, Fèis an Earraich schools delivery for the Fèisean nan Gàidheal YMI
Every year YMI tutors are encouraged to make Gaelic song and Gaelic instructive phrases as an integral part of their YMI sessions, but the 20-year anniversary gave us a reason to re-focus everyone’s attention on the Gaelic culture we share through the programme. Not all YMI tutors in Highland are fluent Gaelic speakers, but there is an expectation that those involved show willing to embrace the language and culture on the region’s doorstep. Tutors visiting Gaelic medium schools are Gaelic speakers and other schools, especially those for which Gaelic is an additional language, are supported by the inclusion of a quality Gaelic cultural experience within the YMI sessions.
Indeed, this culture and history inspired this year’s Blas Festival commission, centred on the Gaelic-speaking travelling people of Sutherland and Ross-shire, The Summer Walkers. This musical work by Chloë Bryce, premiered to coincide with the 80th birthday celebrations of Essie Stewart, highlighted the role the travellers played in the preservation and transmission of ancient Highland traditions. Chloë is a former pupil in Gaelic medium education (GME) who received traditional YMI instruction in school. She acknowledges the cycle of her own story from GME YMI pupil to Fèis Rois participant, to enrolling in Sgoil Chiùil na Gàidhealtachd, to graduating from the RCS, to tutoring at Fèisean and through Fèisgoil projects and finally taking centre stage as recipient of the 2022 Blas commission.
You can still watch the livestream of The Summer Walkers (Chloë Bryce), The Bàideanach Suite (Charlie McKerron) and some of the other Blas Festival 2022 featured concerts by buying a ticket for the virtual concerts.
