Supporting tomorrow's professional whistlers

[Mikethebook]

My wife and I are missionaries living by faith on a low and uncertain income, and I have been so blessed by the generosity of other forum members with spontaneous gifts of whistles etc, that will make participation in our church's worship group possible with a necessary variety of keys. You are a wonderful and generous bunch and I want to thank you all here and now.

But I've wanted to give for a change and when the opportunity arose to pass on a flute/whistle combination to someone more deserving, I came across The National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music in the village of Plockton on Scotland's west coast. Quoting from their web-site, "the Centre is a residential project based at Plockton High School, and students follow a normal comprehensive educational curriculum in addition to their specialist music studies." Former Battlefield Band member Dougie Pincock is Director of centre and also the tutor in flute and whistle. Marc Duff has also taught there. The school caters for gifted youngsters who may well turn out to be some of tomorrow's traditional music professionals . . . . but it is not overfunded. Dougie told me that some pupils need help in buying decent instruments and they could also do with gathering a bank of whistles in different keys for those who do it as a secondary instrument to have the option of playing in different keys in group work.

So if you feel you want to donate cash or whistles to the centre, I'm sure Dougie would be delighted. Check out their website at http://www.musicplockton.org or contact Dougie at dougie.pincock@highland.gov.uk. I've been listening to a CD of there's. It is very good.