Award winning young fiddler joins HebCelt line up

The award-winning Hebridean Celtic Festival has added another string to its bow by including this year’s BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year in its line-up.
By The Newsroom
Published 11th Mar 2019, 10:56 BST
Updated 11th Mar 2019, 11:57 BST
Fiddle player Benedict Morris will be playing the HebCelt Festival this summer.Fiddle player Benedict Morris will be playing the HebCelt Festival this summer.
Fiddle player Benedict Morris will be playing the HebCelt Festival this summer.

Fiddle player Benedict Morris beat five other finalists to win the prestigious competition last month at Celtic Connections and as part of his prize was invited to play at the internationally-renowned HebCelt.

He will now appear as part of a trio, with acclaimed musicians Ryan Murphy and Pablo Lafuente, in front of thousands of festival goers when the annual event is held in Lewis and Harris from 17-20 July.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Benedict, 21, from Glasgow, is currently in his final year on the BMus classical course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Most Popular

He has previously appeared at HebCelt in the band The Hur. With guitarist Cormac Crummey he also makes up the Bene and Cormac duo that has earned critical acclaim and appears with World Champion Irish dancer David Geaney in his new dance show ‘Velocity’ which made its Broadway debut in November.

Benedict said: “I’m honestly delighted to be returning to Stornoway this July for HebCelt 2019. I played there two years ago with The Hur and it was definitely a highlight of the year.

“To come back this time with my own trio after winning BBC Young Trad at Celtic Connections, is going to be very special indeed – it’s no doubt going to be an amazing few days. See you all there.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

HebCelt director Caroline Maclennan said: “Benedict is an outstanding musician and we are delighted he will be part of the festival this year.”

HebCelt has already announced 16 artists and bands, including headliners KT Tunstall, The Shires and Tide Lines. The final acts making up the main arena programme will be revealed later this week.