A multi-artist collaboration to recreate a performance from a volume of little-known and forgotten local songs is due to make its world premiere on a Stranraer stage in May.

Macmath: The Silent Page is a song project of major historical significance to Scotland’s musical heritage. It involves a team of seven of Dumfries and Galloway’s top traditional musicians – Emily Smith, Robyn Stapleton, Aaron Jones, Claire Mann, Wendy Stewart, Jamie McLennan and Ali Burns – who are all in the process of breathing new life into an old forgotten collection of local songs.

The project has been commissioned by the Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival and the songs will be performed for the first time at the Ryan Centre, Stranraer, on Tuesday, 26 May before moving to the Buccleuch Centre, Langholm, on 27 May and joining a number of other performances at the Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival’s grand finale at the Easterbrook Hall on Sunday, 31 May.