A bumper year for Live Music Now Scotland was topped off with the announcement that Carol Main, director of the charity, was awarded an MBE for services to music.
Carol was appointed as Live Music Now Scotland's director thirty years ago, when the Scottish branch was created. Her work over the past three decades has involved supporting the fledgling careers of young, exceptional musicians in Scotland, and organising concerts for a very diverse, and ever-growing audience, with performances in prisons, schools, care homes and far-flung locations.
Carol's work to date has seen her bring musical performances everywhere from Orkney to Abu Dhabi; set up workshops in primary schools in Dumfries and Galloway and for street children in Mumbai; and organise concerts and group sessions for those living with learning disabilities, mental health problems or dementia.
'It is a huge honour to have been included in Her Majesty's New Years Honours list for 2015. It is a privilege and inspiration to work with the best of Scotland's young professional musicians in building their careers, enabling them to bring music of the highest quality to people throughout the country who would otherwise not have such enriching experiences as part of their lives'.
Following on from a busy year in 2014, which included staging performances as part of Glasgow's Cultural Programme running alongside the Commonwealth Games; organising song sessions with Mull Musical Minds; collaborating with Luminate: Creative Ageing Festival; taking part in a cultural exchange with Live Music Now Netherlands; and scores of other projects in Scotland, the UK and beyond, Carol is not one to rest on her laurels. She leaves next week for Abu Dhabi where Live Music Now Scotland is organising Pitch, Pulse and Pizzazz, a project designed to introduce deaf and hearing impaired children to classical music. In February she'll visit India, where Jennifer Austin, a traditional musician from Orkney, takes up the third LMN Mumbai Music Residency.
