Dr. Alasdair C. Whyte belongs to the island of Mull. Music and singing are in the family and he has been singing in Gaelic for as long as he can remember. In 2006, aged 19, he followed in his mother Riona’s footsteps in being awarded the An Comunn Gàidhealach Gold Medal for solo singing at the National Mòd. He has released original and traditional Gaelic songs on various albums, including a solo album, ‘Las’ (2012), and two albums with current band WHYTE: ‘Fairich’ (2016) and ‘Tairm’ (2019). WHYTE received the Arts and Culture Award, sponsored by Creative Scotland at the 2019 Scottish Gaelic Awards.
Alasdair was awarded a Ph.D. in Celtic and Gaelic in 2017 by the University of Glasgow and, in 2019, he was awarded a Lord Kelvin Adam Smith Research Fellowship by the same university to research the place-names of his native island of Mull.
Alasdair is Chair of the Glasgow-based Gaelic arts and culture development organisation An Lòchran; President of The Mull and Iona Association; and an ambassador for the Gaelic dialects of Mull with Dòrlach.
Alasdair was named Gaelic Ambassador of the Year by The Scottish Government in 2019.
