Oliver's compositions' The Wrong Sock' and 'Covid Reels' were awarded with 1st prize at the prestigious FolkNam composition competition held in Namur, Belgium on June 21 2022. Participants came from across Belgium and France for the annual competition held in La Casserole Namur by FolkNam, an organisation that promotes folk music across Wallonia and organises folk dances, sessions and events.
The Wrong Sock was composed in 2020 following a January 1 walk near Petit Hallet in Wallonia where a friend wrongly asked me whether I had taken his sock. its in a Donegal Highland style. The Covid Reels is the second half of a highlands set I wrote in 2021 as part of a music project while long-time sick with long corvid it has a second half that goes into the minor.
The Jury praised Oliver's attention to detail and sensed a lot of work had gone into preparing the compositions.
