Stuart MacRae: evoking lost voices

Stuart MacRae: evoking lost voices
A new choral work by Stuart MacRae conjuring the ghosts of a Hebridean community receives its world premiere at the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow on 18 January.

Hallaig is a setting of the Scots Gaelic poem by Sorley MacLean and describes the passing of time in the former village on the island of Raasay. The village (pictured) was subject to the Highland Clearances which depopulated the region during the eighteenth century and now stands uninhabited.

Commissioned by the Sorley MacLean Trust, the piece will be performed by the Glasgow Gaelic Musical Association Choir conducted by Kenneth Thomson in Glasgow’s City Halls.

Inverness-born MacRae has frequently drawn on elements of the Scottish landscape in his work, from the early orchestral piece Boreraig to the more recent Birches, commissioned by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra for the Highland year of culture in 2007.

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