Sharon Hassan is driving force behind North East Folk Collective She wears more hats than Audrey Hepburn, and carries them off with aplomb, without ever demanding the spotlight. Whether in her tutoring with the North East Folk Collective, who recently appeared at the Royal Albert Hall, or her association with Gadie Music, who deliver workshops to hundreds of young people every month, Hassan is a livewire of positive energy. Just consider her diary in the next couple of weeks, for instance. Or, better still, let's hear it from the woman herself. "We [the NEFC] are playing at the Scottish Fiddle Festival on Sunday at the Queens Hall in Edinburgh and we will be working this month with Jonny Hardie and Davy Cattanach from the [best-selling] Old Blind Dogs," said Hassan. We will also be working with Daniel Thorpe, who was the Scottish Young Trad Musician of the Year in 2011 and playing with them all at the Scottish Traditional Music Awards on December 7 in Aberdeen, which is being televised. Jonny and the others are not with us this weekend, but we have two gigs with them next week. These are at Premnay and Glenbuchat [both in Aberdeenshire] on November 29 and 30, in preparation for the Trad awards, which are kinda like the Trad Music Oscars. And my wee organisation [Gadie Music] has been nominated for Community Project of the Year, which is really nice. Hassan herself is a multi-instrumentalist, who graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in 1999. She has played with the popular folk band "Dochas" and performed all over the UK, Europe, the United States and Russia. To a large extent, her philosophy boils down to two simple words: "Folk matters." And she was almost as excited as her youthful charges when she took the NEFC to the Schools Proms in London earlier this month. "It was the first time I had ever been there and it was a great atmosphere," said Hassan, who has also forged links with West Lothian Council's youth music programme. The kids put so much work into it and it is always great to watch them go out and enjoy themselves. It is a genuinely uplifting tale and Sharon can be proud of how she is shaping the next generation of folk musicians in her homeland.