A celebration of North-east culture is among the musical and literary highlights at the 2017 May Festival.
The three-day event, organised by the University of Aberdeen and running from May 26 to 28, will feature sessions looking at how music, song and writing from the region has changed over the centuries.
Among the highlights is a look at the James Carpenter Collection made up of more than 700 ballads and traditional songs from the 1930s North-east.
American Carpenter was awarded a Fellowship from Harvard to collect folksongs in Britain. He bought a car and began to travel England, Scotland and Wales in search of singers and was soon drawn to the North-east. Here he located prolific singers never recorded before or since, such as Bell Duncan, an 80-year-old woman from Aberdeenshire, whom he described as 'the greatest ballad singer of all time'.
May Festival will also celebrate new work by Scottish and Irish writing with readings from the Causeway magazine, produced by PhD students from the University of Aberdeen.
Historian Lexie Conyngham will discuss her Hippolyta Napier series, which is set in Ballater and will launch her latest novel A Knife in the Darkness.
The music strand of the Festival also boasts strong links to the region with the University’s Chamber Choir performing a selection of work from their latest album Immortal Memory – A Burns Night Celebration. The work reimagines the work of the national bard and shot to number three in the classical album charts. All proceeds from the disc support flood recovery programmes in Ballater.
Members of the Aberdeen Early Music Collective will also give a recital and singers and instrumentalists from the University’s ensembles specialising in Renaissance music will perform.
Festival organiser Lottie Rodger said: “We have a great selection of events dedicated to music and literature at this year’s May Festival.
“Many draw on North-east heritage and culture but we have a wide-ranging programme which also includes upcoming author Wyl Menmuir, longlisted for the Booker prize for his debut novel, Alan Spence, an award-winning novelist, playwright and author, and Robert Stone, a former North Sea diver whose book covers his intriguing life from treasure hunter and smuggler to become an entrepreneur and oil trader.
“The May festival offers something for all interests and many events are free or low cost thanks to our main sponsor Total EP UK and other supporters.”
For full details of the programme visit www.abdn.ac.uk/mayfestival. In addition to music and literature, the Festival also features events in history, science, food and drink, the environment and current affairs.