Fjanna musicians take home medals from national event

Young musicians Anya Johnston, Jodie Smith and Mike Laurenson.

Three young isles musicians shone in a national competition at the weekend, returning home with a clutch of medals and silverware.

The three, Anya Johnston, 12, and Jodie Smith and Mike Laurenson, both 13, were competing in the prestigious National Association of Accordion and Fiddle Clubs annual competition in Falkirk over the weekend.

The day-long competition began in the morning with Anya, scooping a silver medal in the march strathspey and reel category and a bronze medal in the slow air section.

More good news followed when Mike collected the sought-after accolade of the competition’s accordion player showing the greatest potential.

And following a hard-fought open duet competition in the afternoon, Anya and Jodie achieved a well-deserved first place following a note perfect performance of their challenging musical piece.

In the final section of the day the trio, competing as Fjanna (Shetland dialect for peerie foy), the youngsters took part in the open trio section, up against traditional musical icons such as Tom Orr, Marie Fielding and Craig Paton.

The group who played last in this section with Jodie on the fiddle, Mike on the accordion and Anya on piano gave it their all in and collected an admirable third place, for what judges commented as a set “which really got the crowd going”.

Their tutors are Eunice Henderson, Peter Wood and Violet Tulloch.