The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) have awarded a grant of £45,800 to The Big Orkney Song Project, which will create Orkney’s very first dedicated song archive and thus aid in the reinstatement of the Orkney Song Tradition, it was announced today. Orkney’s rich Song Heritage is to be preserved and revived thanks to a grant from the HLF. The award will allow ‘Orkney Singers’ (OS), who are well known in the County for running a series of successful song events, to run a two year project commencing in September 2008, designed to collect, archive and revive the songs of Orkney. The award will enable OS to comprehensively document the oral song tradition for the first time. The Big Orkney Song Project (BOSP) will aim to preserve the songs held in the sound archive within the Orkney Library and Archive (OLA), expanding on this with the creation of the Big Orkney Song Collection (BOSC). OS will collect, catalogue and archive songs that have been traditionally sung in Orkney, locally written and contemporary songs and children’s rhymes, thereby building up a complete picture of Orkney’s dynamic song heritage. The activities run by OS during the project will include: setting up and running community “Song Share” events across Orkney (28 in total), digitally recording each event; running song collection and sharing events in care homes; and identifying, cataloguing and notating the song material in the OLA. In the second year of the project, OS will set up and run Traditional Orkney Song Workshops to enable the teaching of newly found material throughout Orkney, holding concerts of traditional Orkney song, and encouraging the use of the BOSC by musicians, schools and choirs as well as the general public. Commenting on the award, Jackie Lawton – Treasurer of OS – said “we are absolutely delighted that the HLF have agreed to fund what can only be described as a life saver for Orkney’s song heritage. As well as the essential cataloguing and notating of the existing material in OLA, this project will be a last ditch attempt to collect and preserve any previously undiscovered songs in Orkney, and ensure their survival by bringing them back into the domain of the local community.” She continued “We (OS) wish to extend an invitation to anyone in Orkney who is interested in the County’s rich heritage of song, to join us in this exciting two year project. We would also like to encourage new members to join the Committee of Orkney Singers, and take an active part in driving the project forward.” Anyone who is interested in being part of the BOSP should email Jackie at orkneysingers@hotmail.com.