New Voices: Andrew Waite

Andrew Waite plays The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on Sunday 17 January, with his show Tunes From the Subconscious starting at 1pm. It's part of New Voices, the Celtic Connections strand that focuses on emerging talent. Waite is a veteran global touring accordionist and one of the world's most prominent purveyors of the instrument, and this is his first chance to expand on the influences and musical ideas he's been cultivating for fifteen years on the road.

He grew up playing the traditional jigs and reels of Scotland and Ireland, and later explored jazz harmony, American bluegrass, classical music and pop-funk — all of which inform his own original material. The set is written and arranged for a full band with strings, drums, guitar, banjo and piano, so it's a larger sound than you'd expect from a solo accordionist. It's a good way to hear how those different threads — the trad roots, the jazz and bluegrass, the classical and the pop-funk — pull together into one show.

Waite has been on the radar for a while: he was a Young Traditional Musician of the Year finalist, and later nominated for Up and Coming Artist of the Year in 2015 and Musician of the Year in 2022. This is his first time taking those ideas and putting them out with a full band behind him.

Tickets are £17.18, which includes the booking fee, and the show runs at 1pm on Sunday 17 January at The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 2 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow City Centre G2 3NY.