The Williamwood High School Performing Arts Music Festival 2015 on September 17 was an exciting event, with pupils at Williamwood providing accomplished and enjoyable performances in a variety of styles and instrumentation. Adjudicators Donald Finlayson and Siobhan Anderson were clearly impressed by the outstanding musical talent within the school, and identified the evening’s most exciting performance in the Junior Section as Andrew Cramb for his Piping skills, while the Senior Section winner was recognised as Matthew Donaldson for his unique Drum kit technique. Highly commended positions were awarded to Malachy Arnold in S1 for his musical performance on the Clarsach, and Andrew MacLeod in S6 for his confident and entertaining interpretation on the Trombone.  Well done and congratulations to all pupils that took part.

The Dewar Arts Awards are proud to support the brightest and best of Scotland’s young artistic talent.

This year two of our pupils won 2015 Awards from the national charity Awards for Young Musicians (AYM). S6 pupil and percussionist, Ethan Skuodas and S1 student and bassoonist, Jamie King. Each outstanding young Award winner receives financial help ranging from £200 up to £2,000 and they also benefit from individually tailored support, which may comprise mentoring, access to advanced skills workshops with professional musicians, master classes and opportunities to attend rehearsals with orchestras and other musical partners.

Competition for the 2015 Awards was extremely high but after careful deliberation the independent adjudication panel decided to award Ethan with a Robert Lewin Scholarship, named after the man upon whose legacy the charity was founded.

On Sunday 1st November Jamie has been invited to play in London with fellow awardees and members of the London Sinfonietta, including John Orford who is Professor of Bassoon at the Guildhall and Royal Academy of Music.

If you are interested in applying applications for awards for this year can be submitted from 1st Oct 2015, details can be found at their website www.a-y-m.org.uk.