Mary Ann Kennedy and Sìleas Sinclair: The Open Fund for Music Creators
Two of Scotland’s top choral directors and composers collaborate for the first time with new hopeful songs for their beloved Gaelic choral community. Lochaber-based Mary Ann Kennedy and Sìleas Sinclair from Oban are award-winning musicians in their own right and in the top flight of choral competition at the National Mòd, Gaeldom’s premier festival of music and song. The two are recognised as the most adventurous composers and arrangers in Gaelic music today, but they have never worked together to create new music, despite living a matter of miles from each other in the rural West Highlands.
Having seen the impact on the music and wellbeing of so many of their friends in choirs-in-abeyance during lockdown, Sìleas and Mary Ann set out to create ‘Aon Ghuth Còmhla’ (One Voice) – three new, accessible, bespoke songs for their community, to give them hope and renewed energy, and to allow them to look forward to a day when singers will be able to sing again as one. They’ll also develop high-quality online learning resources and workshops which will enable the whole choral community, in Scotland and worldwide, to take part.
‘Aon Ghuth Còmhla’ follows on from previous individual choral successes in the mainstream world: Mary Ann created a large-scale work for choir and traditional music soloists – ‘Aiseag’ (Ferryboat) – for the 1st PRSF New Music Biennial in 2014, while Sìleas was commissioned in 2019 to create the music for ‘Alba’, the first-ever British entry in the Eurovision contest for choirs.