A talented young Largs musician has won the prestigious BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award with her band Talisk at an awards show at the Wales Millenium Centre in Cardiff.

Hayley Keenan is a former pupil of Kelburn Primary School, Largs Academy, and member of the North Ayrshire schools traditional group.

Talisk’s breed of vibrant Irish and Scottish traditional folk stood out amongst hundreds of entries, and won them one of just four places in the finals. The band features a line up of Mohsen Amini on concertina, Hayley on fiddle and Craig Irving on guitar.

It is the second award for the trio, who played their first official show as recently as August last year. In January they won a Danny Award following their appearance at the Danny Kyle Open Stage at the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow.

Talisk return to Celtic Connections next year, but their success at the Radio 2 Folk Awards has already landed them a series of bookings at high profile summer events such as Cambridge Folk Festival, Towersey Village Festival and Fairport Convention’s Cropredy Festival, and other invitations are likely to follow. They will be playing at Girvan Folk Festival this weekend (1st to 3rd May).

Speaking about the band’s success, fiddler Hayley Keenan, who’s family still live in Largs, said: “We are over the moon to have won the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award. There was stiff competition from the other bands and performers. We are looking forward to a busy summer of festivals.” Check out their website: www.talisk.co.uk for more live dates and information.