Following Admiral Fallow’s sell out Glasgow show on 27th January, a 5 star review in the Herald proclaimed how “There are very few occasions when one is lucky enough to be present when a band takes the step into the big league. Friday night was one of these”.

A group formed in 2007 by Scottish singer songwriter Louis Abbott (formerly known as Brother Louis Collective), Admiral Fallow’s richly distinctive mesh of acoustic and electric textures with multilayered harmonies has gained a fast-expanding fan base either side of the Pond, prominently including Guillemot’s Fyfe Dangerfied, Elbow’s Guy Garvey, Radio 1’s Huw Stephens and BBC2’s ‘Whispering” Bob Harris. With their orchestral indie folk-pop repertoire, the band continues to attract admiring comparisons to Arcade Fire and Frightened Rabbit, while forging a sound that brims with originality.

The single “Squealing Pigs” from their debut Boots Met my Face album was performed live on BBC television’s Hogmanay Live Show on 31st December 2011 and has been used on NBC’s Chuck, featured in a commercial first aired at Super Bowl 2012.

As part of the Year of Creative Scotland, the organisers have received investment from Creative Scotland specifically to expand the Festival’s innovative programming in an attempt to deliver additional audience numbers from Shetland and further afield.

Mhari Pottinger from the organising committee explains how “we are always looking for ways to enhance what the Festival has to offer and we hope that by booking a big up and coming, more mainstream group that this will grow our audience further. Admiral Fallow have already secured a significant following in the central belt and won favourite new band status across a swathe of folk, pop and indie opinion. Being able to market an act that are poised for the big time, as part of our visiting artiste line up, is a really exciting development for us.”

In awarding this investment, Iain Munro, Director of Creative Development of Creative Scotland commented:

‘This is great news. To have Admiral Fallow perform is a fantastic coup, and will draw more people than ever to the festival. Scotland is a year-round festival nation, with an exciting programme of world-class events, festivals and culture for all to enjoy. We are delighted that through the Year of Creative Scotland many of these festivals have been able to expand their programmes. We look forward to an even bigger and better Shetland Folk festival this year.’

Meanwhile, the Festival’s organisers have also just added another Scottish act to the mainstream line up – Ross Ainslie & Jarlath Henderson. Arguably the most dynamic double-act on today’s Celtic Scene, this Scottish/Irish piping duo have won huge plaudits for their 2008 debut album, Partners in Crime, as well as for their brilliant incendiary live performances.

Advance Festival membership is now on sale and until the 2nd March, with membership forms/info available on the Festival’s website. Tickets for all concerts will go on sale to advance members in the middle of March and to the general public from 6th April. On that date, a ticket booking form will be downloadable from the Festival website and enclosed in every copy of The Shetland Times. For more information, including all the visiting acts’ biographies with sound samples please visit: www.shetlandfolkfestival.com

Source: Shetland Folk Festival Society

The capital costs will be met by a £7 million grant to the RSNO from the Scottish Government and a £5 million allocation from Glasgow City Council towards the new centre of excellence. The remaining £2 million contribution towards building costs will be raised by the RSNO, which also plans to raise a further £1 million to equip the new building. This will offer benefits for the people of Scotland as well as providing world-class facilities to international artists and guests.

The Orchestra, Glasgow City Council and the Scottish Government have been working together since 2010, preparing to build the flexible, multipurpose unit; a new rehearsal space which will also provide the City with a 600-seater auditorium, recording and broadcast facilities, a learning centre, office space and a redeveloped north entrance for the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.

The new development will increase GRCH’s ability to service its patrons – the north of the building will be re-modelled to provide better access to the venue and the main auditorium will offer improved accommodation, catering facilities and acoustics.

The new facility will be connected to the east of the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, on Killermont Street, facing the city’s Buchanan Street Bus Station. The design of the development has been managed by Glasgow City Council’s lead architect Kerr Robertson and his team, whose previous experience includes the highly acclaimed remodelling of Glasgow’s City Halls. Subject to planning, building work is expected to commence in the autumn of 2012 with a target completion date of summer 2014, coinciding with Glasgow hosting the Commonwealth Games.

It is hoped that the development, once complete, will attract thousands of extra visitors per year to Glasgow’s landmark venue. In addition, the RSNO will have the potential to engage with a much greater number of people, through the ability to present high-quality, in-house education and community programmes. With the fit-out of the latest internet-based digital technology, the organisation’s musicians and singers will be able to connect with schools, music and community groups throughout Scotland and beyond. The RSNO moving to the city centre will benefit the local economy with the continued use of the neighbouring amenities by staff, musicians, junior and senior Chorus members and visiting artists.

The Glasgow Royal Concert Halls will still be managed by Glasgow Life and staff are working with promoters and other users of the venue to ensure that the work does not impact on upcoming, scheduled performances. Once complete, the move by the RSNO will complement a year-round programme of events, including Celtic Connections – which ended with another record-breaking run on Sunday.

RSNO Chief Executive Michael Elliott: “This is one of the most significant developments in the history of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra – and we want everyone to play their part in its success. By embarking on this venture, together with the outstanding support of Glasgow City Council, the Scottish Government and the RSNO’s loyal friends and supporters, we will be able to deliver a rehearsal space, education facility and recital venue which will be the envy of many in the UK and beyond . Furthermore, the new home will enable Scotland’s national orchestra to propel its performance and to engage and communicate with the citizens and communities of Scotland more effectively than ever.”

Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop: “This project is part of the major regeneration work going on in Glasgow as a result of hosting the Commonwealth Games, which will create a lasting legacy for the people of Scotland beyond 2014.  The new development will enhance facilities for audiences, performers, schools, music and community groups, as well as providing a much-needed new home for the RSNO.  It will also be a showcase for Scotland’s world-renowned culture and creativity during the Commonwealth Games and the second Year of Homecoming, and contribute to the continuing vibrancy of Glasgow’s cultural life for years to come.”

Leader of Glasgow City Council Gordon Matheson: “We’re delighted to be investing in one of Scotland’s premier performance spaces, which will create a centre of musical excellence for both the city and nation. These ambitious plans will help to realise new ambitions for the RSNO and enhance the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall as a world-class performance space. The physical refurbishment will also offer Glasgow Music greater flexibility in attracting both new and existing talent to the performance space.”

Source: RSNO

CURRENTLY selling out venues across the country as she tours material from her new Rachel Sermanni’s Black Currents EP , in her ‘almost home gig’ Rachel Sermanni displayed the potent blend of whimsical song writing, compelling arrangements and uniquely expressive singing that has ensured her status as a rising star.

Rachel Sermanni

One of the elements that sets Sermanni apart from her singer-songwriter counterparts is her unique band set-up.  A tangible sense of fellowship exists between she and the three fiddlers – Laura Wilkie, Siobhan Anderson and Louise Bichen – and pianist Jen Austin, with whom she shares the stage. Their sensitive instrumental and vocal accompaniments transformed Sermanni’s songs into lavish, multi-layered arrangements.

The Fog, a word-rich, confessional meditation with ballad-like verses, demonstrated Sermanni’s impressive range and a growing confidence as a song writer. With ebbing and flowing backing vocals and syncopated fiddles, it was at once vibrant and dark; energetic and melancholy.

Yet Sermanni is equally captivating on her own. One of two songs to feature only she and her guitar, Humming Home, penned on a train journey back to the Highlands, resonated with emotion, and is perhaps one of her most overtly  ‘folk’ songs. The new EP’s lead track, Breathe Easy, described by the singer as having ‘two edges’, played on the recording’s preoccupation with dreams, the mellow, watery landscape brighter than the rest of its more brooding scenery.

Songs from Sermanni’s debut recording, the quietly released Bothy Sessions, also featured. The beautiful “about 50 seconds if you timed it” of Little Prayer was an intimate, close harmony gem featuring the voices of all five young women.  The lulling Sleep and driving, accusative Bones were other highlights, and are just two of her early accomplishments not yet released as recordings. Time will tell whether these will appear on her recently recorded full-length offering.

These are exciting times for Sermanni and her fans. Such is the depth and quality of the young singer’s music that it is easy to forget that she remains, as yet, unsigned. I’d hazard a guess that this won’t remain the case for long.

© Joanne Stephen, 2012

Links

• Rachel Sermanni

For the full line-up, tickets and more information on the festival please visit the official Rewind website – www.rewindfestival.com.

Adam Ant joins the glittering line-up of iconic 80s artists already on the bill, including Kool & The Gang, The Bangles, OMD and Soul II Soul, Average White Band, Ali Campbell’s UB40, Holly Johnson and Village People. This year’s Rewind 80s Music Festivals in Perth and Henley will feature another massive line-up of iconic 80s recording artists.

Rewind Scotland’s line-up: Saturday 21^st July features Ali Campbell’s UB40, Average White Band, Jimmy Somerville, Midge Ure, Five Star, Go West, Sinitta, Chesney Hawkes, Katrina (ex-Katrina and the Waves), Limahl, Right Said Fred, and Les McKeown’s Legendary Bay City Rollers. Sunday 22^nd July features Holly Johnson, Village People, Adam Ant and The Good, The Mad & The Lovely Posse, Lightning Seeds, Marc Almond, ABC, Roland Gift, The Straits, Wang Chung, John Parr, Altered Images, and The Christians.

Source: Rewind Festival

I CONFESS! I broke my cardinal rule and went along to the Sunday afternoon concert at St John’s Church, Arpafeelie, without doing any preparation, other than being attracted by a somewhat vibrant and eye-crossing poster.

THIS told me that a group called “Sederunt”, with guests, would be performing vocal music from the 14th to the 20th centuries, and interval refreshments would be in aid of the Highland Hospice. My only other preparation was to remember that the pews in St John’s are exceeding hard and the thin hassocks offer scant comfort as a cushion.

Soprano soloist Liz McLardy

But I needn’t have worried, for as soon as I saw the names that make up Sederunt, reassurance flooded over me. As an ensemble the sextet of local male voices sang a capella – countertenors Tim Palmer and William Palmer, tenors John Thomson and Philip Paris with baritone Andrew Bruce and bass Tilman von Delft, all under the direction of the ubiquitous Reno Troilus. And things only got better when I noticed the familiar faces listed as guests – boy trebles Donald McDiarmid and Allan Goodwill, sopranos Julie Keen and Liz McLardy, James Ross with his baroque clarinet and the pianist Helen Standen.

The programme was well crafted to take the audience on a vocal time travel, beginning with Sederunt singing ‘Viderunt Omnes’ by Pérotin, an European composer as old as they get. He was the master of polyphony at Notre Dame in Paris around the year 1200 and is accepted as the inventor of three and four part polyphony. Doubtless our ensemble take their name from Pérotin’s other best known work, ‘Sederunt principes’. This was a fine example of early polyphony, even if the countertenors (remember that in those days women did not sing in church) were a bit overshadowed by the male voices.

Two songs by John Dowland took our journey forward by some four hundred years to the London Courts of Elizabeth and James VI. Firstly Julie Keen, accompanied by Helen Standen, used an appropriately unembellished style without vibrato for the melancholic ‘Flow Not So Fast Ye Fountains’. Then Sederunt was joined by the trebles Donald and Allan for a saucy little number called ‘Fine Knacks for Ladies’, the meaning of which is maybe best left unexplained.

Liz McLardy’s solo contribution to the afternoon was ‘Let the Bright Seraphim’, the Handel aria that regained its justified popularity after it was sung by Kiri Te Kanawa at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981. With James Ross covering for the ringing trumpet of Crispian Steele-Perkins and Helen Standen simulating the English Chamber Orchestra under Sir David Willcocks, there is no doubt that the performances by Liz and Kiri were equally satisfying.

Andrew Bruce sang the first of two Mozart arias with libretti by Da Ponte, ‘Se vuol ballare’ from The Marriage of Figaro. Andrew sang the aria, but sadly he did not act it, so most of the sense of plotting and revenge was lost. Such acting was less important when he was joined by the two ladies for the trio ‘Soave sia il vento’ from Cosi Fan Tutte, as concentration was on Julie and Liz as the two sisters woefully sing of their soldier lovers going off to war.

Taking the concert up to the interval was a fascinating piece of both ancient and modern six-part harmony written for the King’s Singers by the American composer Patricia Van Ness. The lower voices sing for most of the time in Latin, ‘Cor meum est templum sacrum’, while the upper voices concentrate on the more modern English version, ‘My Heart is a Holy Place’.

The second half saw one more song by Sederunt, a Spanish madrigal called ‘De Los Alamos’ and a series of solo spots from the cast, including arias by Purcell and Handel, and two of the lieder from Winterreise by Schubert, sung by Tilman von Delft.

The final composer’s name on the poster was Schönberg, and in view of the general tone of the afternoon, I was much relieved that it was not Arnold, but Claud-Michel Schönberg and we were not going to be presented with hexachordal inversional combinatoriality, but rather with two songs from Les Misérables, ‘Empty Chairs at Empty Tables’ sung by Philip Paris and a very strong last number, ‘Stars’, from Andrew Bruce.

As Reno Troilus says in his notes, there is an abundance of both sacred and secular material for male voices that remains rarely performed. And as is so perfectly demonstrated by The King’s Singers, there is a whole lot more that is neither madrigal nor medieval. It would have been nice for the concert’s finale to have been by all six members of Sederunt singing something suitable in six-part polyphony from any period of our vocal time travel.

© James Munro, 2012

Beethoven’s sonatas for cello and piano, five consistently inspired and wonderful works, offer the opportunity to trace the development of the composer’s genius throughout his life. Two early sonatas op. 5, written whilst Beethoven was as renowned as a virtuoso pianist and improviser as he was a composer, are followed some years later by perhaps the most famous sonata for this combination, the A major op. 69. This sublime creation dates from his middle years and is contemporary with the Violin Concerto and the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies.  The last pair of sonatas, op. 102, are fully mature creations, written in the highly-developed language of the late piano sonatas and string quartets.  Completing the cycle will be the Sonata for Horn and Piano in F major, op. 17 in Beethoven’s own arrangement for cello and piano.

Following a critically acclaimed South Bank recital debut in 2003, cellist Robin Michael has been much in demand as soloist and chamber musician. He is principal cello of the Orchestra Revolutionnaire et Romantique and regular guest principal of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, English Baroque Soloists, Academy of Ancient Music and Soloists of Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Recent concert highlights include touring South Africa with both Haydn concertos and performing the complete Bach and Britten suite cycles. Robin is the cellist in the Fidelio trio with whom he has toured Europe, Asia and South Africa. They recently gave a critically acclaimed Wigmore Hall debut and made their US debut in New York and Washington in the 2010/11 season. He also appears regularly with chamber groups such as the Dante Quartet, Eroica Quartet and Nash Ensemble.

Pianist Daniel Tong’s musical life is spent performing as soloist and chamber musician, directing two chamber music festivals and teaching.  Daniel has appeared at many of the foremost British venues and festivals – Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre, St Georges Bristol, Birmingham Town Hall as well as the Cheltenham, Aldeburgh and Edinburgh Festivals. He is frequently heard on BBC Radio and has broadcast throughout Europe. His latest project, ‘unravelled’ in collaboration with musicologist Richard Wigmore, has seen a series of lecture-recital weekends on Beethoven and Schubert piano sonatas.  In autumn 2012 he has been invited to curate a festival of Elgar’s music at Kings Place in London. The recordings by his London Bridge Ensemble have been praised and recommended in the press and in 2012 the Ensemble returns to the Wigmore Hall, appears at Kings Place in London and gives a series of concerts in Portugal.  The Ensemble will be performing in Inverness Town House on 6^th March 2013 for Inverness Chamber Music.  Each year Daniel plays with an array of wonderful artists, often at his own chamber festival in the Wye Valley.

Robin and Daniel will be playing Cello Sonatas No 1, No 4 and No 3 as well as the Horn Sonata for Inverness Chamber Music on Wednesday 15^th February at 8.00pm in Inverness Town House.  Cello Sonatas No 2 and No 5 will be performed in the same venue for At One With Music at 1.00pm on Thursday 16^th February.

Source: James Munro

IN LIFE so many things come and go, but in nearly every community people come together to sing, and local choral societies are a fixture across the length and breadth of the land.

INDIVIDUALLY they may wax and wane depending on circumstances and the drive of the conductor, and nearly without exception the ladies outnumber the gentlemen by about three to one. At present Dingwall and District Choral Society are on the crest of a wave with a vibrant and active committee, and the charismatic John Thomson at the helm.

Dingwall Choral and musicians in a previous concert (photo courtesy Lee Bruce & Dingwall Choral)

Despite it being cold and wet outside, there was a good sized audience and plenty of warmth inside Strathpeffer’s Spa Pavilion for this season’s winter concert. The main draw was the performance of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, but for the first half John Thomson had coached his charges in a collection of eight songs, of which three were arrangements by John Gardner of songs by Rabbie Burns –  ’Prayer under the pressure of violent anguish’, ‘Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary?’ and ‘O whistle an’ I’ll come to you’.

The main part of the first half was taken up by Ken Johnston’s set of five songs about The Forty-Five that he prepared for the National Youth Choir of Scotland. Under the heading ‘”I Landed With Seven Men”, all five are well known, and four of them brought out the best of the choir with precise ensemble and good diction, especially the new setting of Johnnie Cope. The fifth of the set, ‘Skye Boat Song’, was delivered by the guest soprano, Brianna Robertson, with great sensitivity and feeling. Introductions to each song were read by the guest baritone, Douglas Nairne, who is becoming familiar to the Pavilion audience from past (and future) visits by Fife-based Opera Bohemia.

Carmina Burana is a reworking of about one-tenth of a catalogue of early medieval songs that were discovered at a Bavarian monstery near the Passion Play town of Oberammergau in 1803. Composed by the goliards, itinerant students and lapsed clerics, a sort of early hippie with some skinhead mixed in, they were written in low Latin, old German and medieval French. Most of the texts – variously bawdy, sensuous, comic or mock-tragic, but invariably lewd and libidinous – poke fun at both the government and the church. Carl Orff conceived his work as a staged spectacle or “scenic cantata” to be danced as well as sung and played, calling on huge resources of timpani, brass and percussion as well as strings and two pianos.

Sadly, these days we very seldom get the chance to see what is to all intents and purposes a staged orgy with music, and it would be unfair to expect the forty or so singers of Dingwall Choral and the two pianos of Aileen Fraser and Mairi MacKenzie to present such a display. They all performed with gusto and the pianists bravely tried to cover up the lack of the rest of an orchestra. The singing was tight and controlled, but there was no sense conveyed of the meaning of what was being sung.

Douglas Nairne and Brianna Robertson were in good voice, but never would one have suspected what was meant to be going on in their minds as they sang about the times ahead. In a way, this Carmina Burana was like an un-staged concert version of an opera. The basics were there but the context was lacking. Maybe another day and another place ….

© James Munro, 2012

Links

• Dingwall Choral

IT MIGHT seem a totally insane idea, transporting the entire 17-strong line-up for Celtic Connections’ flagship Transatlantic Sessions concerts all the way up to play in Shetland, in between their two sellout dates in Glasgow – not least since the festival’s artistic director, Donald Shaw, was one of the band – but it turned out to be a wholly inspired one.

Shetland’s 20,000-strong population includes a lot of extremely devoted and discerning Americana fans – as well as fans of quality music in general – and not a few world-class exponents of US roots styles, so it was small wonder that the gig, funded as part of the ongoing Scotland’s Islands promotion, sold out in record time, with fully five percent of that population excitedly packed into the islands’ largest venue. Shetland is also arguably the perfect locale in which to explore and celebrate the musical interplay between America and the British Isles, past and present, positioned as it is at a literal transatlantic crossroads.

Transatlantic Sessions debutant Ruth Moody

Besides the premier-league calibre of each individual musician involved, a key element in the Transatlantic Sessions’ long-running success – both the Celtic Connections live version and the BBC Scotland/Pelicula Films TV series – is the adroit balance between regular participants in the project, led by its joint musical directors, Shetland fiddle supremo Aly Bain and dobro legend Jerry Douglas, and first-timers.

Among the latter here were Wailin’ Jennys singer and banjo player Ruth Moody, majestic-voiced Mavericks frontman Raul Malo and the brilliantly original Irish singer-songwriter Declan O’Rourke. Besides Bain, Douglas and Shaw, other old lags (I’m sure they’ll pardon the expression) included the Scottish vocal dream-team of Karen Matheson and Eddi Reader, and the equally mouthwatering ‘house band’ of fiddler John McCusker, Michael McGoldrick on uilleann pipes, flutes and whistles, revered US guitarist Russ Barenberg and his similarly sublime Irish co-instrumentalist John Doyle, double bass deity Danny Thompson and drummer James Mackintosh.

Also in the veteran category, and doubling up on vocal and instrumental duties, were Grammy-winning fiddler, mandolinist and singer Tim O’Brien, and the vibrantly eloquent old-time specialist Bruce Molsky – who brought the house down with the comment, while introducing a lonesome logging-camp ballad: “I heard there used to be loggers here in Shetland – but I guess they did a bit too good of a job.”

Thanks to this mix of established camaraderie and mutual familiarity with the shot-in-the-arm freshness supplied by each year’s debutants, the Transatlantic Sessions original strapline – “the ultimate backporch session” – has only held truer as time has passed. Add to this all the 2012 performers’ excitement at being in Shetland, be it for the first time or as previous initiates into the islands’ unique charms, together with the audience’s rapturous reception – culminating in two standing ovations – and the result was a truly unforgettable night.

With the now traditional quasi-lounge area set up in a back corner, all the performers were onstage throughout the whole show, visibly delighting in the numbers they weren’t actively contributing to, with “spare” singers repeatedly inspired to jump up and chime in on backing harmonies – even when this clearly hadn’t been rehearsed, with choruses of up to six outstanding voices forming in the course of a song.

This year’s range of participants also richly expanded the stylistic palette to encompass everything from the blissfully distilled romance of Malo on the old Neil Sedaka hit, ‘I Found My World In You’, to Michael McGoldrick’s spine-tingling delivery of the Irish slow air ‘I Am Asleep’; from the ensemble’s round-robin rendition of ‘This Land is Your Land’, in honour of Woody Guthrie’s centenary, to a stunning, genre-roaming solo workout from Douglas which opened the second half.

Other highlights included Moody’s self-penned selection from her debut solo album The Garden, particularly its beautiful title track, and O’Rourke’s compelling Irish/calypso/country-pop composition ‘Lightning Bird Wind River Man’, while the arrangements were distinguished throughout not only by their crème de la crème instrumental calibre, but their judiciously varied deployment of lushness and sparseness.

© Sue Wilson, 2012

Links

• Celtic Connections

The University of the Highlands and Islands will become a Celtic Connections education partner from 2013.

Speaking about the collaboration, Dr Neil Simco, Dean of UHI’s faculty of arts, humanities and business, said: “I am delighted that the University of the Highlands and Islands is becoming an education partner of Celtic Connections. The partnership makes great sense as many of our courses and research outputs reflect the traditions, culture and heritage of the Highlands and Islands.

“Our work in areas such as Gaelic, Nordic studies, history, fine art, textiles, archaeology, literature and Scottish cultural studies are potential areas for collaboration and our new applied music degree, which will be available from September subject to validation, will also tie in well.”

Celtic Connections’ Director, Donald Shaw, said: “We are pleased to welcome the University of the Highlands and Islands as an education partner for Celtic Connections in 2013. Education is at the heart of the festival and we look forward to working with the university on extending the reach and content of our education programme.”

The University of the Highlands and Islands already has strong links with the festival, with representatives having performed at it in the past. This year will be no exception as an ensemble of its traditional music students and staff prepare to deliver a celebratory concert in honour of the University’s official inauguration.

The event, which takes place from 2pm at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on Saturday, will feature 35 students from around the UHI network.

The Sabhal Mòr Ostaig UHI, North Highland College UHI, Perth College UHI and Lews Castle College UHI students will perform pieces by well-known Scottish composers Anna-Wendy Stevenson and Mark Sheridan.

Details of the University of the Highlands and Islands’ concert are available at www.celticconnections.com

For more information on the University of the Highlands and Islands visit www.uhi.ac.uk

Source: UHI

The 4 day “From Reels to Ragas” tour, which begins on 11 April 2012, is a cross-genre project fusing global and Indian music in a series of exciting concerts and free workshops on the Hebridean islands of Coll, Barra, Harris and Skye. Joining tabla-player Kuljit are Robert Irvine on cello, Jacqueline Shave on violin and Fiona Winning on viola.

Robert Irvine, Artistic Director, Red Note says, “We are so excited to be collaborating with such a world renowned artist as Kuljit, a musician from the very top of his field, and to be given the opportunity to share this fantastic music with the people of the Hebrides.”

‘From Reels to Ragas’ will explore harmony and counterpoint within a raga, which is a traditional form of Indian music with a single-line melodic format; during Indian classical music recitals the raga scale provides a rigid framework within which the performers can improvise. In contrast, Western ‘modes’ and ‘keys’ are usually used for composition, working with musicians in a notational-based context. Kuljit hopes to explore and combine these two worlds without sacrificing the roots of either.

Kuljit Bhamra says, “My recent experimentations with the tabla have driven me to work with an extended number of drums (usually only two) to allow me to pick out simple melodic phrases whilst also playing rhythmically, and I will use these during our performances. I’m excited about working with Red Note and hope that at least some of the performances will attract South Asian audiences too – Bollywood is all about strings!”

In addition to the world premiere of Kuljit’s new work ‘Lost Temples’, this tour announces renowned international violinist Jacqueline Shave as the Leader of Red Note Ensemble. Jacqueline first met Robert Irvine, Red Note’s cellist, in London where they played in a string quartet together for 5 years. Their musical partnership has grown from strength to strength over the years and in 2011 Robert invited Jacqueline to lead and direct Red Note’s work with Gabriel Jackson and their Shaker loops programme.

Jacqueline Shave says, “It felt like coming home playing with ‘Bert’ again, so much so we put on Beethoven Cycle recently on the Isle of Harris and played together at Red Note’s December Noisy Nights at The Traverse, Edinburgh. Having played many ‘grand’ concert halls all over the world, there is nothing that gives me greater pleasure than playing to an intimate group in a relaxed setting. It is a rare thing to have such a natural affinity with another musician, such as Robert, and I am delighted to be able to take up the Leader position in Red Note. I’m hoping to be moving to Glasgow next year and look forward to many musical adventures with the group.”

Jacqueline added, “I’m so looking forward to playing with Kuljit again and to play his new composition. It’s difficult to describe the lyrical beauty of his instrument, and the sounds and atmosphere he creates, but it will be unlike anything else you have heard, quite unique and hypnotic

The ‘From Reels to Ragas’ programme  includes music from all around the world: ‘The Bagpiper’s String Trio’ by Judith Weir, 3 pieces forming a very short instrumental opera based on the life of James Reid, a bagpiper in Prince Charlie’s Jacobite army; ‘Canto’ for solo cello by Giles Swayne, a full-on response to the composer’s experience of African musics, both minimalist and complex in tone; ‘The Stream Flows’ by Bright Sheng, a fresh and richly themed  Chinese folk song followed by a fast country dance; ‘Machair to Myrrh’ by Jacqueline Shave, written for tabla, guitar and violin with a central improvised section, rhapsodic broken chords, inspired by Gnaoua music and ‘Bucolics’ by Witold Lutoslawaski, a folk based attractive and melodic piece, in five movements, lasting just over five minutes.

The ‘From Reels to Ragas’ tour is a cultural and educational event promoting music, social inclusion and participation in the Hebrides; undoubtedly one of Scotland’s most beautiful and captivating locations. Local audiences will have the opportunity to listen to multi-award-winning virtuoso instrumentalists, improvisers and composers in a relaxed, fun, accessible environment. The workshops will enable local communities to discover India’s culture, explore the rhythms and different styles of Indian music and have a go on the tabla, drums and Indian harmonium.

As well as the concerts, Kuljit and the players will lead workshops in the afternoons before each performance for everyone to come and try their hand at mastering Indian rhythms and get a feel for the exciting breadth of music Red Note is bringing.

It is hoped that this tour will inspire and nurture the artistic health of the area, taking participants beyond the sensual enjoyment of music and leave a little bit of Bollywood in its wake!

Tour Dates/Venues/Ticket booking:

Wednesday 11 April – Coll 7.30pm

Arinagour Village Hall; no bookings tickets on the door on the day – £6.00, under 12′s free.

Thursday 12 April – Barra 7.30pm

Castlebay Community Hall; 01871 810047; tickets on the door – £6.00, under 12′s free.

Friday 13 April – Harris 7.30pm

The Mission House; 01859 530 227; tickets on the door £6.00, under 12′s free.

Saturday 14 April – Skye 7.30pm

The Aros Centre; Box Office 01478 613750 – £10.00, under 12′s free.

All Coll, Barra, Harris and Skye workshops are free to all participants, and will take place on the afternoon of the performances. Visit www.rednoteensemble.com

Source: Red Note Ensemble

Since 2004 Scotland’s national orchestra has been committed to its Out and About programme – annual, week-long residencies in areas of the country which are not frequently visited by a national performing arts organisation. In partnership with Shetland Arts and supported by Creative Scotland; Loganair; TOTAL E&P UK Limited; Capital Solutions; NorthLink Ferries; and Shetland Islands Council, 70 RSNO musicians will journey from the Orchestra’s base in Glasgow to the archipelago and integrate with the local communities by learning, creating and performing music.

The RSNO has been preparing for this trip for well over a year. In 2011 the RSNO commissioned Shetland-born composer and award-winning traditional fiddler Chris Stout to compose a substantial work for orchestra which will serve as the centrepiece of the Orchestra’s Sunday evening concert.

Chris also wrote a motif which has been used as the starting point of a composition and performance project, driven by collaboration between RSNO and Shetland musicians. Four groups from the RSNO visited the Islands last October and made contact with a number of Shetland-based traditional musicians, armed with Chris Stout’s ‘musical kernel’. Since the initial visit the four groups have worked together with Chris in Shetland, in Glasgow and online, producing four distinct works inspired by his original melody.

Award-winning traditional musician and composer Chris Stout: “I’m delighted that the RSNO will be visiting Shetland. It’s a nice feeling to know that the excitement and anticipation felt by the visiting musicians will be shared by the local community. This project allows musicians to share ideas on a huge scale and I’m certain everyone will come out of it feeling energised and fulfilled.

“It is this sense of sharing knowledge which has been the main inspiration behind my piece Tingaholm. Although it exists as a complete work it stays true to the tradition that I have been brought up with. It is open to the interpretation of some of the finest musicians in Shetland, in collaboration with members of the RSNO. I can’t wait to hear the results!”

On Friday 2 March the four ensembles will perform their new works as well as traditional tunes and contributions from the RSNO musicians at separate locations in Shetland’s outer isles, each marking geographic points of the compass; Unst (Baltasound Junior High School), Out Skerries (Skerries Junior High School), Foula (Primary School) and Fair Isle (Primary School). They will perform concerts connected via live video link to each other as well as transmitted live to the Garrison Theatre, Lerwick for the enjoyment of those in Shetland’s capital . The Outer Isles Project starts at 7.30pm and all associated events in the outer isles are free of charge.

The RSNO Brass Quintet will present Bigton Brass Concert, an afternoon programme featuring music by Bizet, Beethoven, Gershwin and Mancini, at Bigton Hall on Saturday from 3.00pm. Also on Saturday is Busta Recital; RSNO Violin Paul Medd will be performing a solo recital in the Long Room of the historic Busta House Hotel on the shore of Busta Voe. Tickets for both events are available from Shetland Box Office.

On Friday RSNO Leader James Clark will provide masterclasses for local young string players before they join the RSNO to perform at St Columba’s Church, Lerwick on Saturday night. Members of the RSNO will also be offering mentoring opportunities to members of the Shetland Community Orchestra.

St Columba’s Church, Lerwick on Saturday 3 March is the venue for the Big Kirk Chamber Concert, with the Orchestra’s Leader James Clark joined by strings, brass and woodwind from the RSNO and local young musicians side-by-side. As part of the programme James will perform Mozart’s First Violin Concerto which he previously performed at 2011’s Edinburgh International Festival to universal critical acclaim. The concert starts at 7.30pm and tickets are available from Shetland Box Office.

The RSNO returns to its symphonic proportions for The Sunday Symphony, on 4 March at the Clickimin Leisure Complex, Lerwick – for the Orchestra’s 21st anniversary since its last full performance in the town. The programme, conducted by Austrian David Danzmayr, includes Britten’s Four Sea Interludes, Sibelius’s Symphony No1 and the world première of Fair Isle-born musician Chris Stout’s Tingaholm.

On Monday 5 March the full force of the visiting musicians will be heard once more, this time for the RSNO’s schools concert Heroes and Rogues. One of the finest presenters and animateurs in the business, Paul Rissmann will guide the young concert-goers through a musical journey, exploring key musical concepts linked to the curriculum. The school groups attending the concert have been preparing for the visit by participating in an online workshop with Paul Rissmann and RSNO musicians using the online community for Scottish schools, Glow.

Two groups of RSNO musicians present specially adapted versions of the Orchestra’s award-winning concert programme for pre-school children, Monster Music, at Brae High School, Clickimin Leisure Complex, Lerwick, Sandwick Junior High School and Mid Yell Community Hall.

Working with Shetland’s Community Mental Health team, members of the Orchestra have devised a tailor-made creative workshop for patients, to be held at the Clickimin Centre on Saturday. RSNO musicians are also catering for those who are unable to attend the RSNO performances, with a number of informal performances planned in residential care homes across the islands during the visit.

Ellen Thomson, Director of Education and Community Partnerships: “Bringing together two fantastic musical traditions was the source of inspiration for the RSNO’s Out and About week in Shetland and I am delighted that we’ve been able to do this in such a creative way. This project brings with it the usual RSNO ingredients, full orchestral concerts, inspirational music making for young people, tailor-made community workshops and small-scale performances as well as collaboration with some of Shetland’s finest musicians.”

Shetland Arts Director Gwilym Gibbons: “This is a hugely ambitious and exciting project and one that has been a long term ambition of Shetland Arts and the RSNO. I am delighted that Shetland Arts and RSNO are working in partnership to bring the orchestra to Shetland. It is very rare for a full symphony orchestra to commit to overcoming the enormous logistical challenge of getting to an island location like ours, let alone head out to our own outer isles of Fair Isle, Outer Skerries, Foula and Unst.”

The RSNO is a national performing company supported by the Scottish Government. In addition to the valuable relationships with Shetland Arts, Creative Scotland, TOTAL E&P UK Limited, Loganair, Capital Solutions, NorthLink Ferries and Youth Music Initiative the RSNO would like to thank the Binks Trust and the Bacher Trust for their generous contributions to the project.

For more information on the activities of the RSNO during Out and About in Shetland go to www.rsno.org.uk or contact Shetland Box Office on 01595 745555 or www.shetlandboxoffice.org

Source: RSNO

Alasdair will begin working with the Festival from February 2012, delivering his first programme in May 2013. He will be the Artistic Director for a minimum of three years. 

Alasdair is an acclaimed composer whose work has been presented and broadcast internationally, with commissions and premieres in recent years with the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Nash Ensemble and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

He is currently Artistic Director of the St Magnus International Festival in the Orkney Islands, and has led many other projects and festivals, including the Northlands Festival in Scotland and Sound Inventors, a national scheme for engaging young people with composition.

He has also worked in theatre, dance, opera and on the concert platform, as well as writing music for television and film.   His appointment follows in Bath International Music Festival’s long tradition of leadership by practising artists, bringing both a particular creative sensibility to the role, and a direct practical understanding of the needs and interests of musicians.

As a composer, Alasdair’s work ranges from large-scale orchestral pieces, to operas performed by local communities, to scores for theatre shows in London’s West End.   He has a passionate commitment to engaging new audiences, and to supporting younger musicians and composers.   Some of his recent projects include an opera in Gaelic for the community on the Isle of Skye, and a large-scale performance of Mozart’s requiem bringing musicians and singers together from all over Scotland.   He also leads the composition course for young professional composers at St Magnus International Festival.

Jane Drabble, Chair of Bath Festivals said “I am delighted to welcome Alasdair to Bath Festivals’ team of superb artistic directors.  He has exactly the skills and experience to build on Joanna MacGregor’s fantastic artistic achievements, as well as to grow the Music Festival’s engagement with our community.”

Alasdair Nicolson, said “I am excited to be joining the team of this wonderful festival and looking forward to starting programming. The city of Bath and its surrounding areas are so rich in history and architecture, and the Festival itself has a long tradition of music old and new. I can’t wait to get started bringing some of these things together as I begin to create the programme for my first festival in 2013.”

Alasdair’s first Bath International Music Festival will take place from 29 May to 9 June 2013, building on the Festival’s strong reputation for the excellence, diversity, innovation and inclusivity of its programme.

Source: Bath Festivals

HOW many pieces of wood does a violin contain?

I’M asked this question by violin maker Alan Beavitt when I visit him on his remote croft in Wester Ross. I guess, and I’m wildly wrong. Is your guess any better?

Alan Beavitt made his first violin when he was still at school in South London and now, more than 100 fiddles later, he is one of this country’s most respected violin makers, widely known among big city orchestral string-players but pretty much a secret closer to home. The fact that he lives in a remote corner of the Highlands, a five mile walk from the nearest road end on the peninsula of Scoraig, he says, “adds a little to the mystique”.

Alan Beavitt

Mystique is not something to be taken lightly in the world of stringed-instruments, where it can be worth millions. A Stradivarius violin recently sold for £9.8 million simply because it is part of this antique brand, and the value of such instruments continues to rocket from auction to auction, despite research that shows that, in blind tests, some modern violins sound better than the Cremonan classics.

Alan tells an anecdote about a London dealer. “I needed some money so I took him a violin to see if he would sell it. He said I was one of the best makers in the country and that he would have taken the violin like a shot, if I had been dead!”

He smiles ruefully at the knowledge that his instruments will long outlast him and will probably soar in value once he is no longer around to benefit. It must be the kind of scenario that could persuade someone to fake their own death!

Instead of pursuing his vocation as an instrument maker when he was young, Alan was persuaded to study science. He became a physicist and worked in Australia and England before getting to know someone who lived on Scoraig, visiting them and deciding to give up his career in science for a life of self-sufficiency.

He moved there with his wife and children in 1973 and established himself as a violin maker to supplement their living on the croft.

The view from Alan Beavitt's workshop on Scoraig

Alan is a calm, soft-spoken man, and each of his few words are well-chosen, seeming to result from deep thought. He brings to his work the rare combination of a physicist’s precision with an artist’s flair. In 1984 he won the Facta Britannia (Made in Britain) violin prize, and he remains at the top of his field.

He makes violas as well as violins, and baroque as well as modern instruments, sometimes making what he fancies, other times working to commission. His customers are mostly advanced level students embarking on professional careers, and the only marketing Alan needs to reach them is word of mouth and the recommendation of those who already play his instruments.

They have sold to violinists in Argentina, Australia, Italy, Sweden and Germany, and both classical and folk players seem to like them.

Alan’s workshop is a shed beside a vegetable patch sporting impressive cabbages. Small and orderly, it smells of wood-shavings and is lined with a neat array of tools. In the store-room next door there are stacks of wood blocks, seasoning for several years before being used.

The wood Alan works with is crucial, and when I suggest he must be regularly eyeing up trees as potential raw materials, he gives a wry nod and says, “I’m always on the look out.”

I am surprised to learn that a tree I consider to be a weed is most highly prized: the back and sides of violins are made of sycamore, although not any old tree will do. Around one in a hundred have a particular rippled characteristic in the wood, which polishes up to give a gorgeous pattern of golden stripes. I will never look at a sycamore the same way again!

The front view of one of Alan's violins

The front soundboard is made of European spruce, and Alan says he has enough for the rest of his life, having bought an ideal tree from the Dolomite mountains. He shows me a block of rough, honey-coloured timber and it is hard to credit it can be the source of the delicately curved, shell-thin, lustrous instrument that is his finished product.

On the violin he is currently playing, he has made the chin rest from box wood, the bridge is maple and the finger board and pegs are ebony. When Alan talks about ebony he makes a point of saying that it is a tropical wood that is not in short supply, contrasting it with pernambuco, a tropical hardwood used for bows, which is now rare. These things matter.

Each piece of wood is shaped with utter precision and working to this kind of accuracy with a living material requires a remarkable amount of time. “If someone wanted a violin urgently,” Alan says, “I could make one for them in a couple of months.”

His total production is around 4 instruments per year, although he admits to not working full-time, being diverted by the garden and livestock. “It’s a pretty time-consuming place to live,” he says.

Once the time required to make a fiddle becomes clear, the price tag of £5,000 seems remarkably good value. The sheer work involved in constructing a violin is brought home by another anecdote, which is also an instructive story about the relationship between instrument makers and their players.

In 2008, he and eleven other makers were brought together at the RSAMD in Glasgow (now the Conservatoire), and together they made a violin. Working flat out, it took them a full week. They did it in full view in the refectory, as a kind of performance, in order to give the students a chance to see what is involved in making their instruments.

“We did it for our expenses and for the fun of it, and I was surprised to find that I was by far the best player among the makers. Some of them can play a bit, but others not at all.”

It is in fact quite rare for makers to be good players, but for Alan, being able to play his instruments is an important aspect of the process. He plays both folk and classical and has just formed an amateur string quartet with three other Highland players.

So is instrument making an art or craft? “Both,” he says. “And there is science involved as well.” Alan has pioneered understanding of how humidity influences violins and has published the science of ‘humidity cycling’, the result of painstaking research into the range and sequence of moisture levels a new instrument requires to go through in order for the wood to settle into its final state.

So he brings to bear his physicist’s knowledge of acoustics and humidity cycling, with a craftsman’s skill in precision woodwork. “I’m pretty consistent these days,” he says, with typical understatement. “I try to learn something from everything I make. I don’t vary the instrument acoustically, but I do make aesthetic changes with each violin.”

There is more than simple skill involved in making these instruments. A Beavitt violin is an exquisite object to hold: glowing, taut, its burnished curves catching the light and highlighting the grain of the minutely detailed wood. “Making it beautiful is a kind of art, I think,” he says.

By the way, altogether the art of violin-making involves 78 pieces of wood. How close were you?

© Mandy Haggith, 2012

Links

• Alan Beavitt
• Mandy Haggith
• Mandy Haggith’s Blog

Mary Ann Kennedy will host the event from the Grand Hall in Glasgow City Halls which is taking place during the Celtic Connections Festival, Glasgow on Sunday 5th February.

BBC ALBA’s programme ‘BBC Radio Scotland Neach-Ciùil Traidiseanta Òg 2012 : BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician 2012’ will be broadcast on Monday 6th February 2012 from 9 – 11pm as the finalists perform for 15 minutes in a concert setting for the coveted title. Performances can be accompanied by a professional traditional musician of their choice, from a group provided.

This year’s finalists include:

• Alistair Ogilvy from Strathblane for song – Alistair’s main instrument is his voice, focusing on Scots song. He was a finalist in the 2011 Young Trad Award and since then his career has gone from strength to strength. He is about to make a CD and has just completed the Traditional Music and Song Association of Scotland’s (TMSA) Young Champions tour around Scotland and he’s been busy performing in Scotland alongside Alan Reid, Jim Malcolm and Heidi Talbot.
• Kirsty Watt from Lewis for song – Kirsty has always lived on the Isle of Lewis where traditional music has always been part of her life with her closest and main influence for Gaelic singing being her beloved grandmother. She has taught Kirsty some of the most beautiful and lyrical songs that she now so loves singing. In 2010 Kirsty was Young Musician of the Year in Stornoway.
• Catriona Price from Orkney for fiddle – Catriona is at the forefront of the new wave of young talent emerging from Orkney’s traditional music scene. Having taken up the fiddle at the age of seven, Catriona was taught by Douglas Montgomery (Saltfishforty, The Chair). She graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music in 2010 and is currently studying for a Masters Degree at the Royal Academy of Music. She also began writing tunes at an early age with several now included in tune books and recorded by musicians around the world and perfroms regularly with duo Twelfth Day.
• Katie Boyle from Glasgow for fiddle – Katie graduated with a first class masters in Irish traditional music performance from the Irish Academy of Music and Dance in 2008 where she tutored in fiddle from 2008 to 2010. Her main influences traverse the traditional fiddle idiom – from her native Scotland to her ancestral Donegal. She is a previous All Scotland, All Britain and All Ireland Champion and has toured extensively in the UK, Ireland and across North America and Europe playing with acclaimed artists including Bobby McFerrin, Donal Lunny and Dick Gaughan.
• Roisin-Anne Hughes from Glasgow for fiddle – Roisin-Ann learnt to play music at the Irish Minstrels branch of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann in St Roch’s from the age of five. Her greatest influence is Frank McArdle, the musical director responsible for a long line of talented musicians coming from St Roch’s. Roisin-Ann has been Scottish Fiddle Champion 11 times, British Fiddle Champion five times as well as three times All Ireland Mouth Organ Champion. At Celtic Connections 2011 her band Yuptae, with whom she plays accordion, won a Danny Kyle Award and since then have performed at many events around Scotland.
• Rona Wilkie from Oban for fiddle and song – having grown up in a musical family, Rona was introduced to traditional music early and trained in both Highland fiddle style and classical music, and became interested in singing when she attended Gaelic medium primary school. Rona led fiddle group Gizzen Briggs for several years which performed at the opening of the Scottish Parliament in front of the Queen and the First Minister. She has taught at several fiddle camps in the USA and has played alongside many wonderful musicians such as April Verch, Brian Wicklund and Brad Leftwich in cross-genre performances. Rona is currently studying for a Masters degree at Newcastle University and, with the performance aspect, aims to fuse Highland music with that of the Americas, drawing particularly on Appalachian melodies.

The winner of the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician 2012 will be awarded a recording session with BBC Scotland, performance at the Scots Trad Music Awards, one year’s membership of Musicians Union, and all finalists get one year’s membership of the Traditional Music and Song Association of Scotland (TMSA) plus the opportunity to take part in the TMSA’s annual Young Trad Tour.

‘BBC Radio Scotland Neach-Ciùil Traidiseanta Òg 2012 : BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician 2012’ will be broadcast on BBC ALBA on Monday 6th February 2012 from 9 – 11pm and repeated on Friday 10th February at 10pm.

Source: BBC ALBA

There’s plenty who will not need reminding of the hug party on Shetland this week – Up Helly Aa is the annual street festival supported by all kinds of activities running through to the end of the week. But this month is bursting with entertainment across all Scotland’s Islands – and if you’ve been keeping up with the likes of the Pulse, The Daily Record and The Sunday Times in the last week or so you’ll have seen confirmation of just how well people do entertainment on the islands.

Up Helly Aa
31 Jan 2012, Shetland Mainland

This is just the big day itself. It involves a series of marches and visitations, culminating in torch lit procession and Galley burning. There’s stand-up comedy, folk music and hours of performing acts and dancing in halls throughout the evening and early morning. This truly is a day you will never forget!

‘Auto Portraits’ and ‘Traces, Elements, Atmosphere’
7 Jan 2012 – 5 Feb 2012, Shetland Mainland

Once you’ve recovered, things to do include this striking exhibition of work by two artists at Lerwick’s stunning modern Museum and Archives.

Stand Up Comedy with Josie Long
4 Feb 2012, Mull

Just a short ferry hop across the sound. “Josie Long’s new show couldn’t be any better. It’s honest, intelligent, funny, and it’s exactly what Britain needs right now… Josie Long is poised to become the most important voice in British comedy” The Skinny*****

Papay Gyro Nights 2012 Art Festival
6 – 13 Feb 2012, Papa Westray, Orkney

An international contemporary art festival, originating from the ancient Papay tradition of the Night of The Gyros. An extraordinary week-long programme begins with a fire lit procession and includes theatre, video, film, workshops and a book launch.

Concert with Mike McGoldrick, John McCusker and John Doyle
14 Feb 2012, Skye

Michael McGoldrick, John McCusker and John Doyle are three members of the acclaimed Transatlantic Sessions. With Mike and John McCusker having just finished a tour with Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler, it’s a rare chance to see three of the world’s finest musicians share a stage together.

Sally Magnusson’s Talk – ‘From Harris Tweed to Electric Cars – The Extraordinary History of Pee’
21 Feb 2012, Lewis

We’ll let broadcaster and journalist Sally Magnusson tell the stories that explain this, ahem, interesting title.

Rachel Sermanni with Special Guests
24 Feb 2012, Skye and 25 Feb 2012, Lewis

After months of anticipation, 20-year-old singer-songwriter Rachel Sermanni unleashes her debut ‘Black Currents’ EP on January 30th. Check-out the track “Breath Easy” on Joe Whiley’s January 24th Radio 2 show. A concert NOT to be missed!

Arran Bike Club Night Rides
2, 9, 16, 23 Feb 2012, Arran

Mountain Bike runs are off-road as much as possible, using forest tracks and single-track. Anyone is welcome to join, young or old, fit or not so fit – nobody gets left behind! This is a whole other way to see and sense the island landscape. Rides finish at around 8.30 or 9.00 pm. Just visiting? Hire your bikes locally…

Contact:
Scotland’s Islands,c/o Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Development Department, Sandwick Road, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, HS1 2BW
Tel: 01851 822693
Email: info@scotlandsislands.com
Web: http://www.scotlandsislands.com/

This event will be a gathering around the theme of the cliffs of Hoy, with an award winning film, an exhibition opening and a choir!

Head for the heights of Hoy -

The Long Hope film Showing:
Professional rock climber Dave MacLeod will tell the story of his first free ascent of the famous Long Hope route on St John’s Head. Dave spent three summers visiting Hoy and attempting the climb which was documented in a new film. Dave will talk about his adventures on St John’s Head and then present the film which has already been picking up awards in mountain film festivals around the world.

The Long Hope route now stands as one of the most difficult rock climbs of it’s type in the world. St John’s Head has recently been nominated as one of the world’s top ten ocean views by the National Geographic.

The man who never was a boy:
The Old Man of Hoy exhibition opens, celebrating Hoy’s most famous resident. This exhibition will be an on-going show and people are invited to add to the collection of material about the Old Man and hitting the high notes, The Stromabank Pub Choir will be singing – for the first time- a new composition celebrating the Old Man of Hoy.

Refreshments will be provided.

Join the Hoy heritage e-newsletter by visiting www.hoyheritage.co.uk and clicking the subscribe button under ‘follow us’

For any further information please contact hoyheritage@btinternet.com or call on 01856 850459

For those traveling from the mainland – travel couldn’t be easier, catch the 5.45pm boat from Stromness Pier to Moaness Pier in Hoy. The journey is a half hour ferry ride (passenger ferry, no cars) and Hoy Kirk is a short lift or 20 mins walk from the boat. The organisers will get you back down to the pier in time for the 10 o’clock boat back to Stromness.

This event is funded by the Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership Scheme. The Friends of Hoy Kirk heritage project has been funded by LEADER, Heritage Lottery Fund, Orkney Islands Council Community Development Fund, The Hoy Trust and Graemsay, Hoy and Walls Community Council.

Source: Rebecca Marr

Inverness Bothy Song and Storytelling Club is taking place upstairs at La Tortilla Asassina, Castle Street, Inverness on Thursday 2nd February 2012 at 8:30pm (then the first Thursday every month).

It will be hosted by Brian Ó hEadhra and George Livingstone, and Bob Pegg will be the guest. 

No entry fee; donations kindly accepted.

Go along and join in the craic. A guest performer and local artists will be performing every month.

Links:

• www.brianoheadhra.com
• www.youtube.com/anamcommunications

Source: Bob Pegg

Film Submissions now open:

goNORTH are delighted to accept submissions for films to this years festival. Yesterday goNORTH announced nationwide that together with a curated features strand, they have a call for submissions open to any filmmaker – new talent, student or seasoned director for any genre up to 20 minutes.

Filmmakers will have the opportunity to screen their films at goNORTH on Wednesday 6th and Thursday 7th June 2012 across venues in Inverness. Following on from the success of last year’s screening tour taking in Celtic Media Festival, Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival, Tiree Music Festival, Knoydart Festival, The Wickerman Festival and Loopallu we are building on these partnerhips to include some new European film festival partners. Details will be announced later in the year.

The programming of the films at goNORTH 2012 will be designed to get maximum audiences and exposure with ScreenHI showing films before workshops and training sessions as well as alongside curated features.

For more information and submit your film here: http://www.gonorth.biz/screen/ . Deadline for submissions 30th March 2012.

Music Submissions: Apply To Showcase From 27/1/12

goNORTH are delighted to announce that the submission window to showcase at goNORTH will open on Friday 27th January 2012. The goNORTH live showcases will take over Inverness city centre across the 6th and 7th of June this year, with over 70 bands showcasing to a broad range of music industry delegates and a large public audience.

Please note, the submission window will open on the afternoon of Friday 27th January 2012 at: www.sonicbids.com/gonorth

“The response to last year’s submission window was fantastic and the live programme was one of the strongest we have seen at goNORTH ” said Director for Music, Shaun Arnold. “The event has proved a great platform for a number of acts to go on to further success, and the live showcases always bring enormous energy to the city”.

A  significant volume of artist invited to showcase at goNORTH will also secure additional slots on the goNORTH Festival Tour, with our 2012 schedule including Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival, The Wickerman Festival, Summer In The City 2012, B-Fest and Loopallu.

The submission window will open on Friday 27th January 2012. For full submission details, please click on the Music Submissions function on the right hand side of the gonorth website. Deadline for submissions 30th March 2012

goNORTH radio

For this year’s festival, a new online radio station, goNORTH radio, will be launched. This will be a live streamed radio station broadcasting interviews with guest speakers and delegates, clips from films, live gigs, highlights from the workshops and seminars and specially recorded performances.

The Festival Radio will be managed and delivered by ScreenHI’s radio and media partner Dabster Productions along with 10 trainees from the across the Highlands and Islands who will learn how to run a radio station, developing key industry skills transferable to most genres and platforms.

“This year will see a bigger and better screen and broadcast strand for goNORTH 2012 and we hope many people from across the Highlands and Islands, Scotland and internationally are able to attend this important creative industries festival.

Something I’m really excited about this year, is the launch of Radio goNORTH, another way we’re showcasing our talent here in Scotland while also developing our industry practitioners in the Highlands and Islands”. Amanda Millen, Screen and Broadcast Director, goNORTH and Director, ScreenHI

goNORTH Festival Tour: 2012 Schedule Confirmed

Last year the goNORTH Festival Tour was introduced, an exciting development which saw  goNORTH go back to its roots and support emerging talent across a range of top independent festivals. The inaugural tour proved a massive success and goNORTH are delighted to confirm that the 2012 schedule will include Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival, The Wickerman Festival, Summer In The City 2012, B-Fest and Loopallu. They are also working hard to make further additions to this year’s tour and will release full details over the coming weeks.

The introduction of the Festival Tour means a significant volume of artist invited to showcase at goNORTH will also secure additional slots across the touring schedule.

“The Festival Tour proved an excellent addition to our 2011 campaign and generated over 50 additional slots, adding enormous value for our showcasing artists”, said Director for Music Shaun Arnold. “We have worked hard to achieve geographic diversity across the tour and are really excited to have developed the schedule to include B-Fest in Wick”.

The Excite Project: Play Three Top European Festivals

goNORTH are delighted to have developed their Excite Project to include three top European festivals. This development means that one act selected to showcase at goNORTH will also secure the opportunity to play the following three festivals in association with their partners on the Excite Exchange Project: Play Festival (Belgium), Freeze Festival (Netherlands) and SPOT Festival (Denmark).

Source:
Amanda Millen & Shaun Arnold
Directors, goNORTH

Exclusively using poems by female Scottish writers, the collection of songs, dubbed Fiere (a Scots word for companion or friend), is a collection of new songs by the trio who met via twitter, showcasing the creative output of Scottish women through fresh and innovative compositions.

The unique collaboration explores the the lives, loves and experiences of women in Scotland and will be released as an album, in March as part of a UK spring tour.

Drawing from a mixture of Gaelic, Scots and English texts, Fiere includes poetry from a wide range of esteemed writers such as Carol Ann Duffy and Morag Montgomery and also features a traditional Gaelic waulking song and a poem by Sheila McLeod commissioned especially for the project.

Joy Dunlop said: ‘This is the first time that these poems have been put to music but as soon as we read each one, they just cried out to be sung. There was something unique in each poem that caught our attention but they all had one thing in common, an ability to touch the reader and therefore, the listener. From a musical perspective, poems are perfect songs in the making due to the flow or rhythm of the language, in many cases it was as though the tune was already in them.”

One of the poets involved with the project is Meg Bateman who has written work in both Gaelic & English. She said: “Walter Pater wrote in 1873, ”All art aspires towards the condition of music.” There are probably many poets who write because they can’t sing very well.

“A musical delivery is able to make more of the mood and dynamics than the spoken word ever could.  It was through Francis George Scott’s settings of Scottish poems that I came to internalise poems by MacDiarmid, William Soutar and Campbell Hay. It is an honour and a treat that our poems have been taken up and it will be an even greater honour if they slip unnoticed into the tradition to be sung for years to come.”

A prominent figure in the Scottish music and Gaelic scene, Joy Dunlop was nominated as ‘Gaelic Singer of the Year’ at the Scots Trad Music Awards in 2010 and 2011. She also won the Fatea ‘Tradition Award’ in 2010 and her critically acclaimed solo album “Dùsgadh” (Awakening) won the ‘Roots Recording’ Award at the 2011 Scots New Music Awards.

Twelfth Day is at the forefront of innovative, modern British folk music.  With a fresh, open minded approach to song and tune writing, the duo create an entirely unique sound, interweaving masterful fiddle and harp playing with beautifully harmonised vocals in stylish and dynamic arrangements.

From opposite ends of Scotland, Orcadian Catriona Price (fiddle/vocals) and Peeblesshire Esther Swift (harp/vocals), knew of Joy through her pianist brother Andrew, who studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester with the girls. Initially communicating through twitter, they recognised a shared passion for musical exploration and decided to work on a song together. This proved to be an exceptional meeting of creative minds, which generated the idea of producing more work together. Their enthusiasm for Scottish culture, in particular traditional music and literature soon evolved into the idea of a song circle based upon poetry created by Scottish female writers.

Masterminded solely by the trio, the project is completely self-funded and all of the ground work was undertaken by the musicians themselves, including approaching the writers.

Joy said: We knew which poets were on our wish list but that’s exactly what it was – a wish list. When we first contacted them we fully expected a lot of hard work and even some knock backs when it came to persuading these talented women to let us use their material and explaining what Fiere is all about.

“These writers are some the most acclaimed and respected in Scotland and their response was overwhelming. Every single writer that we approached gave us their permission and some are even hoping to come to see us perform on tour. “To be able to bring together a body of work that celebrates the experiences of Scottish women in a completely new and unique way has been a privilege.”

The trio will be touring the new material from March with six of ten venues confirmed to date including Glasgow, Orkney and Manchester.

Follow the link for a preview of one of the songs featured in Fiere:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6NxJFxBdQs

Tour Dates

23^rd March 2012 – St Andrew’s in the Square, Glasgow

24^th March 2012 – Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh

26^th March 2012 – Sandwick Hall, Sandwick, Orkney

27^th March 2012 – Hoy Kirk, Hoy, Orkney

29^th March 2012 – Eastgate Theatre, Peebles

31^st March 2012 – Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester

Source: Joy Dunlop & Twelfth Day

Brahms’ Love Song Waltzes will be performed along with love songs by Britten, Fauré, Quilter & Vaughan Williams with the perfect accompaniment of complimentary champagne and chocolates.

The dates of these performances are as follows:

• Saturday 18th February 2012, 7.30pm – The Town House, Inverness, Tickets minimum donation of £12 to Highland Hospice
• Sunday 19th February 2012, 3.00pm – The Drawing Room, Foulis Castle, Evanton, Tickets minimum donation of £12 to Highland Hospice

The events are organised as part of the fundraising efforts of seven local people taking part in a cycle for the Hospice in Vietnam and Cambodia in October this year.

Download a booking form here: Songs of Love Booking Form Feb 2012

Source: Highland Hospice

With over 2100 artists performing in 300 events taking place in 20 venues across 18 days, Celtic Connections 2012 features an outstanding line up of theatre, including a vibrant dramatization of the life of fiddler and composer Captain Simon Fraser, a celebration of the hugely influential Woody Guthrie and the world premiere of a very special Scots play for all the family.

Highlights include:

The Captains Collection

Wednesday 25^th– Thursday 26^th January, 8pm, Tron Theatre

Originally the brainchild of Blazin’ Fiddles’ Bruce MacGregor, Dogstar Theatre Company’s award-winning music theatre production Captain’s Collection vibrantly dramatises the life and work of Captain Simon Fraser – fiddler, composer, publisher, dispossessed laird and Empire soldier – whose 1816 collection The Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland and the Isles, preserved a wealth of ancient Gaelic songs and tunes for posterity. The cast comprises Matthew Zajac (winner of Best Actor at the 2009 Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland) and Gaelic singer/actress Alyth McCormack, with live music from Jonny Hardie and Ingrid Henderson. Written by Hamish MacDonald and directed by Alison Peebles

Woody Sez

Sunday 29^th January – Thursday 2^nd February, 8pm, Tron Theatre


The political strand within Celtic Connections’ 2012 programme overlaps wholly organically with the festival’s centenary celebration of Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (1912-1967), the “dust bowl troubadour” who both chronicled and protested the Great Depression, “singing for the plain folks and getting tough with the rich folks.” Named for his Daily Worker newspaper column, this dynamic production features four multi-talented actor-musicians – playing guitars, fiddles, banjo, mandolin, dobro, autoharp, dulcimer, jaw harp and spoons – who bring to life both Guthrie’s own colourful, arduous story and the rich cast of characters who shared in it. The show features around 30 classic Guthrie songs, from desolate ballads to defiant rallying-calls, paying tribute to a towering folk icon. Produced by Mary Cossette Productions in association with UK Arts International

The Boy and The Bunnet – World Premiere

Friday 3^rd February (2pm) – Saturday 4^th February (7pm), Tron Theatre

This ambitious new Scottish production receives its world premiere in its Scits version during Celtic Connections and is hailed as Scottish traditional music’s answer to ‘Peter and the Wolf’.

The Boy and the Bunnet unites the talents of Booker-nominated author James Robertson and pianist/composer James Ross. Robertson’s Scots text, narrated by Gerda Stevenson, tells the tale of a wee boy who gets lost in the woods, and encounters an array of real and supernatural creatures, each characterfully conjured by Ross’s typically imaginative, lyrical score.

Originally premiered in Aonghas MacNeacail’s Gaelic translation at the 2011 Blas festival, this inaugural Scots performance again features Ross with Corrina Hewat (harp and voice), Patsy Reid (fiddle), Neil Johnstone (cello), Angus Lyon (accordion) Fraser Fifield (pipes) and Signy Jakobsdottir (percussion). Bring all the family wearing their bunnets and your family ticket will be £31!

Source: Celtic Connections

The Project

The project takes place in two phases:

1) 10-17 March 2012 – a group weekend at Watercolour, one of Scotland’s finest recording studios, in the company of experts and writers who’ll help develop your songwriting skills. There’s also an opportunity to work on your own material, new on ‘in progress’, and to collaborate with the other participants.

2) 30 March-2 April 2012 – A day and a half in the studio with one other participant to hone your songs and demo record them to a high standard. The sessions will also be videoed to accompany the songs and all your finished material will be made publicly available online on FnG’s ana Watercolour Music’s sites. You’ll leave Watercolour with a CD/DVD of your work, free to use it in any non-commercial way you wish.

The Team

Mary Ann Kennedy – broadcaster and musician who has been immersed in Gaelic music and song since she was born. A regular music presenter on TV and radio, from BBC Radio 3 to BBC Alba, with many years’ experience in music production, her work with world music and new roots gives her work with Gaelic music a breadth of knowledge and experience.

Nick Turner – co-writer of the songs of Findlay Napier and the Bar Room Mountaineers, and producer of their albums. Nick has been involved in music his whole life, and he’s recorded a huge range of musical genres, from hip-hop to classical. His purpose-built , brand-new studio in Ardgour has attracted musicians from an impressive roster of bands including, Mount Desolation (Mumford & Sons), Rachel Sermanni, Admiral Fallow and Sorren MacLean.

Norrie ‘Tago’ MacIver – Singer of the Year and lead singer with Mànran, winners of Album of the Year at the Scots Trad Music Awards 2011. Norrie has taken his traditional roots and sought new directions for Gaelic song with his partnership with beatboxer Ruari Sutherland, and his song, ‘Latha Math air an Eilean’ was highly-acclaimed.

Alasdair Whyte – one of the finest young Gaelic songwriters on the scene today. A Mòd Gold Medallist in 2006, Alasdair has been taking Gaelic songs into the new century with his poetic and expressive songs. He’s currently recording his debut album at Watercolour, which will feature many of his own songs.

Findlay Napier – lead singer with the Bar Room Mountaineers, and co-writer of their songs. Findlay is also the brains behind Hazy Recollections, the influential Glasgow indie songwriting collective. With long experience across a range of musical genres, he’s also in demand as a tutor at the Royal Consevatoire of Scotland

Get In Touch!

If you’re interested in the project, get in touch with your name, address and some information on your experience to date. If you have any existing demo material we can watch or listen to, send us a CD, DVD or weblink (soundcloud, myspace etc.). And if you can put us in contact with someone (producer, tutor, music leader etc.) who can tell us more about your music, send us an email address where we can contact them.

Send all the information to:

Calum Ailig MacMillan
Fèisean nan Gàidheal
111 Academy Street
Inverness
IV1 1LX

or by email to calumailig@feisean.org 

If you need more information, send an email to mak@watercolourmusic.co.uk  or calum@feisean.org, or phone Watercolour Music (01855-841320) or Fèisean nan Gàidheal (01463-225559).

You must get your application to us before the 17 February 2012.

Source: Watercolour Music

Mackenzie launches into 2012 on the back of another strong year, which saw the young Highland artist continue to develop his craft and build on his impressive live CV. Particular highlights included his main stage performance at Scotland’s second largest festival RockNess, appearances at Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival, Insider Festival, Loopallu, and receiving media support from the likes of Jim Gellatly, BBC Introducing in Scotland, STV and BBC 3.

To support this release, Mackenzie will be live throughout the UK this February.

Thursday 9th: EDINBURGH, Sneaky Pete’s

Friday 10th: ABERDEEN, The Tunnels

Saturday 11th: THURSO, Y-Not

Sunday 12th: GLASGOW, Captain’s Rest

Thursday 16th: HAMMERSMITH, LONDON, The Regal Room

Friday 17th: LEEDS, Milo

Saturday 18th: BEDFORD, Esquires

Friday 24th: AVIEMORE, The Stairway Stage, 2 Hoots Club, MV Festival

This tour is co-headlined by Belfast duo The 1930s.

Source: Steve Robertson

Scottish Opera’s inaugural composer in residence has revised Dance ‘til the Sun Sets especially for the annual 15 date whistle-stop tour. It will be performed alongside arias and ensembles from well-known operas including Bizet’s Carmen, Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, as well as a sprinkling of lesser-known works from the likes of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sadko and Britten’s Paul Bunyan.

A cast of four talented young singers will bring the eclectic programme to life in venues from Jedburgh to Mull, Arran to Lochinver, Glenrothes to Livingston, Largs to Musselburgh and back again – they are baritone Marcus Farnsworth (with Riccardo Simonetti singing for the final six performances), soprano Anita Watson, mezzo-soprano Rosie Aldridge and tenor Robert Anthony Gardiner. Packing up her piano to accompany them on the 5 week tour is Susannah Wapshott.

In charge of hand-picking the Opera Highlights programme for over a decade, Scottish Opera’s Head of Music Derek Clark is at the helm once again, and can’t wait to get the show on the road. He says:

‘It’s great to be able to include a new piece of work in the Opera Highlights programme, particularly as Gareth has worked closely with the singers on revising the piece, it’s been an exciting challenge for them, and will make for a real treat for audiences. It fits beautifully into the programme too, which is a real mixed bag of familiar favourites and lesser-known gems, so even if you’ve never tried opera – or if you’re an opera-buff – I’m sure you’ll find something in there to love.’

Opera Highlights Tour Dates

Source: Scottish Opera

‘Sederunt, an all-male group of singers drawn from Inverness and Ross-Shire, concentrate on 14^th – 17^th century works by composers such as Perotin, Tallis and Dowland’ said musical director Reno Troilus, ‘and there is a huge canon of this early work, much of which is extremely beautiful but unfortunately rarely performed. We are interested in bringing it to a wider local audience – and giving its members an occasional opportunity to perform more ‘modern’ material’.

Troilus, himself a professional opera singer, believes that one way to widen local appreciation and enjoyment of early music, is to perform it within a diverse programme which will also include more widely known and loved operatic and lyrical pieces.

‘Our two February concerts are titled ‘Sederunt and guests’ said Troilus, ‘and will include works by Handel, Schubert, Mozart and – bringing in the 20^th century – two solos from ‘Les Miserables’

‘Sederunt’ will be joined by sopranos Julie Keen and Liz McLardy, with musical accompaniment from James Ross.

The ‘Sederunt’ late winter/early spring concerts will take place on Sunday 5^th February at 4pm in St John’s church at Arpafeelie by Tore; and on Sunday 12^th February at 7pm in St Andrew’s in Fortrose. Tickets, including interval refreshments, are £6 at the door.

Source: Sederunt

Hosted by esteemed presenter and musician, Mary Ann Kennedy, ‘Rabbie agus Caileagan Nashville – Burns and the Nashville Lassies’ will bring viewers exclusive performances from popular country and Gaelic singers, as the nation celebrates the 253rd birthday of the great life and works of Robert Burns.

Filmed at the iconic Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, USA, this specially staged concert for BBC ALBA celebrates the songs and poetry of Rabbie Burns with a mix of traditional melodies and especially composed pieces bringing Burns’ poetry and songs to a new audience with a unique blend of Gaelic, Country and Bluegrass styles and influences.

From the Isle of Barra, Cathy Ann MacPhee one of Scotland’s best loved Traditional Gaelic singers reveals her love of country music when she performs ‘Green Grow The Rushes O’ (‘Chan eil ach Cùram air gach Làimh’) and ‘Ae Fond Kiss’ (‘Aon Phòg Ghràidh’) in Gaelic. Backed by top Nashville session musicians and using new arrangements by the artists and musical director Phil Ferns from Scotland, Nashville stars, Beth Nielsen Chapman and Suzy Bogguss also give their country take on Burns classics like ‘Ye Banks and Braes’ and ‘Westlin Winds’. Beth Nielsen Chapman was especially touched by Burns’ sensitive lyrics on ‘The Highland Widow’s Lament’ with her own experience of being widowed three years ago.

Tayside born fiddle player and singer Laura McGhee, who’s taking America by storm, joined the bill performing her own versions of songs like ‘McPherson’s Farewell’ and ‘To The Weavers Gin Ye Go’ as well as adding superb fiddle accompaniment to the other songs. The backing vocals for the concert are provided by Bluegrass singers The McCarter Twins who have previously performed with Dolly Parton.

Produced by Demus Productions for BBC ALBA, ‘Rabbie agus Caileagan Nashville – Burns and the Nashville Lassies’ will be broadcast on Burns Night, Wednesday 25th January 2012 at 9pm and repeated on Thursday 26th January 2012 at 10.30pm. The programme will also be available to view via the BBC iPlayer.

Source: BBC ALBA

The 17th HebCelt (11-14 July) continues to set high standards for music, and as a key attraction. It pulls in visitors from around the world and already early bird tickets have been snapped up by people from across Europe, USA and Canada.

The early programme announcement reflects the ever-increasing demands the festival faces for news. It also comes at a time when the HebCelt is making a fundamental change to its already successful format.

Festival Director, Caroline MacLennan, said: “We are delighted to reveal The Proclaimers and The Waterboys will be returning by popular demand. Both have been massive crowd-pleasers in the past and we look forward to seeing them again. We also have a lot of new acts appearing and are very pleased to be welcoming Kassidy to the event. We have concentrated on providing a wide range of choice for our festival-goers with exciting acts and a great deal more music than in past years.

“As well as a repeat of last year’s successful second stage in the grounds of Lews Castle, we are extending the festival experience by nearly doubling the number of acts on the Friday and Saturday with festivities kicking off from 2pm on those days. With this new format and the excellent range of artists we have coming to play, we are greatly looking forward to staging a fantastic HebCelt in 2012.

“We have a number of tremendous acts, hailing from Scotland, Ireland, the USA and Canada. They include Roddy Woomble from Idlewild, Skerryvore, our very own Manran, Washington Irving, Iain Copeland’s new project – Sketch featuring Maeve Mackinnon, the award winning Canadian duo Qristina & Quinn Bachand, and Irish representation from Beoga and also The Long Notes. We will have more to announce soon and would urge everyone to keep an eye on the website for further details.”

Andrew Dixon, Chief Executive of Creative Scotland said: “In the Year of Creative Scotland, HebCelt’s programme is a real highlight in the calendar. This festival goes from strength to strength.”

Weekend tickets are available from www.hebceltfest.com . Day tickets for all venues will be on sale in March when the programme is completed.

Source: Hebridean Celtic Festival

Source: The Moray Council

A community meeting in January set up a steering group for the festival, which has already met to discuss themes, events and funding and agreed that the festival will run 3-10 October 2012. Historic Assynt has been chosen as the community organisation to be the lead body in management of the festival.

Gordon Sleight, chairman of the steering group and projects leader for Historic Assynt said, ‘We want everyone in Assynt to benefit from this festival and to include everyone who wants to take part. Lots of local organisations are planning to run events during the festival week. It will be a culmination and celebration of the many projects going on throughout the year here.’

Events already jostling for position in what will be a packed programme include guided walks, an archaeological dig, raft and cart races, a day of music through the ages, Gaelic song workshops and language lessons, craft fairs, artist demonstrations and a grand ceilidh. This will be the first event of its kind in Assynt and the community hopes that it will become an annual feature.

Roger Glover, chairman of the Assynt Tourism Group said, ‘This is a brilliant opportunity for us to extend the tourist season in Assynt by giving visitors a programme of fascinating events that will really show off our community and its heritage. We hope lots of people will choose to take an autumn break and come to see or discover Assynt at its most vibrant.’

Another public meeting to discuss the festival will be held at 8pm Thursday 9 February 2012 in Stoer Village Hall. Local people are encouraged to come along, share ideas and have their say on the ideas so far.

For more information see the website: http://www.assyntfestival.org.uk/

email: info@assyntfestival.org.uk

like the Assynt Festival facebook page

follow @assyntfestival on twitter

or contact Gordon Sleight, gsassynt@gmail.com , 01571 855207

Source: M Haggith

Rewind Scotland will take place from Friday 20th July until Sunday 22nd July at Scone Palace, Perthshire, Scotland (www.scone-palace.co.uk). Tickets go on sale to the general public at 9am on Friday 20th January. Details of ticket outlets and prices are available from the official website:

www.rewindfestival.com.

Saturday 21^st July will be headlined by Ali Campbell’s UB40 with support from Average White Band, Jimmy Somerville, Midge Ure, Five Star, Go West, Sinitta, Chesney Hawks, Katrina (ex-Katrina and the Waves), Limahl, Right Said Fred, and Les McKeown’s Legendary Bay City Rollers.

Sunday 22^nd July will be headlined by Holly Johnson, supporting line-up includes Village People, Squeeze, The Lightning Seeds, Marc Almond, ABC, Roland Gift, The Straits, Wang Chung, John Parr, Altered Images, and The Christians.

Rewind Scotland Festival will once again take place at the historic setting of Scone Palace in Perthshire; home of The Earls of Mansfield and the crowning palace of the Kings of Scotland. The festival includes additional festivities ranging from Silent Discos to Live Karaoke bars along with various Camping and Glamping (Glamorous Camping) options.

Source: Rewind Scotland

There are only 30 places available so pre-booking is essential, tickets are £10 (including a glass of wine & cheese & biscuits). Tickets are available by emailing admin@kilmartin.org or calling 01546 510278.

Linsey Aitken:  A highly regarded cellist and vocalist crossing genres from classical to folk. Trained on cello and piano at the RSAMD, she has performed professionally all over the UK from The Royal Alber Hall, to the sands of Calgary Bay in Mull. Collaborating regularly with composer Alan Craig, flautist/composer Louise Burnet, member of classical trio “Trois Femmes” and various quartets,he has taught at Edinburgh University, teaches Kodaly singing methodology working with young musicians from 3 years through to RSAMD. Founding member of folk band “The Cross Border band” she played and sang her way round Scotland, the Edinburgh Festival and other International festivals before joining The Ideal Band.

Ken Campbell:  Scottish singer/songwriter with a well established pedigree over 25 years, with five albums to date, festivals, concerts, TV and radio throughout Europe and beyond. Starting with Glasgow band “Molindinar”, then a much commended duo with Chris Miller [“Pipers Maggott” - Topic Records, London] he then established the highly successful “Ideal Band” following in the footsteps of Glasgow’s “Bob Smith’s Ideal Band” of the 1930’s. He subsequently toured with Cauld Wind Piper Hamish Moore, recorded two solo albums [“Going Solo” - Fellside & “Hand Pict” - Watercolour] whilst also working with cellist, singer, Wendy Weatherby, Stevie Lawrence [Rallion/Red Hot Chilli Pipers/Iron Horse] and Blair Cowan [Lloyd Cole and the Commotions] before reforming The Ideal Band in 2009.

Find out more by visiting: www.theidealbandscotland.co.uk

Kilmartin House
Kilmartin
Argyll
PA31 8RQ
Tel:  01546 510278
Email: museum@kilmartin.org
Web: www.kilmartin.org

Celtic Connections

The Fèis Rois Ceilidh Trail is performing alongside a group of young musicians from Glasgow/Irish group, Comhaltas at this year’s Celtic Connections. The concert is at 2pm on Saturday 21st January 2012 in the Strathclyde Suite of the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. Tickets cost £11 and are available from the Box office on 0141 353 8000 or online at www.celticconnections.com

Full details of the concert can be found here: http://www.celticconnections.com/whatson/event/119614-Feis-Rois-and-Comhaltas

New Feis Rois DVD

Fèis Rois closed its 25th anniversary year with an amazing line-up of musicians at a very special concert in Eden Court Theatre, Inverness on 11th November 2011. Having spent a week in residence with some of Scotland’s most celebrated tradition bearers, eleven young musicians perform alongside Aonghas Grant, Rona Lightfoot, Kenna Campbell, John Carmichael and Fergie MacDonald.

The second half of the concert featured 25 people who, between them, represent the 25 years of Fèis Rois. They include Musical Director, Corrina Hewat, performing alongside Rachel Walker, Fraya Thomsen, Rachel Newton, Louise Mackenzie, Olivia Ross, Gillian Stevenson, Ronan Martin, Lauren MacColl, Fiona Dalgetty, Mairearad Green, John Somerville, Angus Binnie, Mike Bryan, Barry Reid, Colin McLean, Ruairaidh Campbell and young musicians currently attending Fèis Rois classes and workshops. They are joined by poet, Aonghas MacNeacail.

You can purchase a DVD of this concert for £10 plus £1.50 P&P by visiting www.feisrois.org.

Weekly Classes for young people

Please remember to enrol and pay online for the new term of classes starting next week (week beginning 16th January 2012).

Full details of classes in Avoch, Evanton, Lochcarron and Ullapool can be found by visiting www.feisrois.org and clicking on “Weekly Classes (P5-S6)” on the panel on the left-hand side of the homepage. This is a 10 week term running from 16th January to 30th March 2012.

Music Box at Inverness Caley Thistle

In addition to the regular programme of weekly classes, Feis Rois also has a special music project running in partnership with the SPL and Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club. Music Box is open to secondary school pupils only. After an initial 6-weeek pilot project, they have tweaked the project so that they will be now be offering the following workshops for free on a Monday evening from 16th January onwards…

6.00PM – 6.45PM – Beginners – An opportunity to learn to play guitar, keyboard, percussion and vocals

7.00PM – 8.30PM – Advanced Performance Group. With a focus on traditional music, any musician playing to an upper intermediate or advanced level is welcome to come along. Feis Rois hope that this will grow into a year-round version of groupwork at the Senior Fèis so make sure you come along and join in the music-making fun! There will be lots of performance opportunities throughout the year.

For more details, or to reserve a place, please phone the office on 01349 86 2600 or e-mail fiona.dalgetty@feisrois.org

Weekly Classes for Adults

Feis Rois still have some spaces available on their new programme of workshops aimed at adult learners.

Starting on Wednesday 18 January 2012 and running for 10 weeks… A slow jam led by Bob Massie in the bar at Tulloch Castle Hotel, Dingwall from 8 – 10pm. This is an informal opportunity for adult learners to get together to share and learn songs and tunes. All instruments and ability levels welcome. Free! No need to book!

Starting on Thursday 19 January 2012 and running for 10 weeks… A range of fiddle classes with Gillian Stevenson (Rhythm n Reel) to suit all levels of experience at Dingwall Community Centre.

Complete Beginners, 6.30pm – 7.15pm, £60 for the term Improvers, 7.30pm – 8.30pm, £70 for the term Intermediate +, 8.30pm – 9.30pm, £70 for the term

Starting on Monday 13th February 2012 and running for 7 weeks… New workshops led by Val Bryan at the Macphail Centre, Ullapool Complete Beginners Guitar, 6.30pm – 7.30pm, £49 for the term Beginning to Play Together, 7.45pm – 8.45pm, £49 for the term
Book any of these classes online at www.feisrois.org

Sing Out - A new programme of monthly singing workshops for adults. Fèis Rois is delighted to let you know that they are launching a new programme of monthly singing workshops for adults. This is one strand of the new Lifelong Learning project supported by the Jubilee People’s Millions.

The workshops include Gaelic, Scots and Harmony song.
All workshops cost £15 and run from 11am to 4pm with a one hour break for lunch.
Pay on the day for each workshop but please reserve a place in advance by calling 01349 86 2600 or emailing morag.mcdonald@feisrois.org
Tea and coffee are provided. Bring your own packed lunch.
No previous knowledge of Gaelic is needed for the Gaelic singing workshops

Saturday 25th February 2012
Two of the Mackenzie sisters, Fiona and Eilidh Mackenzie, both highly thought of singer/songwriters, will lead you in sparkling Gaelic harmony singing
Venue: Strathpeffer Community Centre

Saturday 31st March 2012
Join Siobhan Miller, gifted young traditional singer (Traditional Scots Singer of the Year at the Trad Awards 2011) in a varied programme of Scots songs
Venue: Dingwall Community Centre

Saturday 26th May 2012
Highly respected Lewis Gaelic singer and tradition bearer Mary Smith MBE will share her extensive knowledge of Gaelic song
Venue: Macphail Centre, Ullapool

Saturday 23rd June 2012
Renowned singer, harpist and composer Corrina Hewat promises a dynamic day of harmony singing. No previous experience necessary, all songs will be taught by ear.
Venue: The Old Stables, Cromarty

Saturday 28th July 2012
A day of lively waulking songs is guaranteed with South Uist’s own Gaelic tradition bearer Rona Lightfoot, who has been described as a ceilidh personified!
Venue: Glachbeg Croft Centre, North Kessock

Saturday 18th August 2012
For some tongue-twisting fun, get along to this day of Gaelic puirt-a -beul with Maggie MacDonald, singer with Cliar & member of the Campbells of Greepe singing dynasty
Venue: Dingwall Town Hall

Saturday 22nd September 2012
Scots song with Mairi Campbell, accomplished singer/composer & musical director of Sangstream folk choir (named Tutor of the Year at the Trad Awards 2011)
Venue: Ardross Community Hall

More details are available at www.feisrois.org by clicking on “Lifelong Learning” on the drop down panel on the left-hand side of the home page.

SINFONIA CONCERTANTE

With Lawrence Power, viola

Fri 17 February 2012

Haydn: Symphony No.44 in E minor ‘Trauer’

Luke Bedford: Wonderful Two-Headed Nightingale (world première performances)

William Alwyn: Pastoral Fantasia

Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante in E flat K 364

The Scottish Ensemble will give the world première of their latest commission, Wonderful Two-Headed Nightingale by young British composer Luke Bedford at Eden Court on Friday 17 February 2012. The Ensemble will be joined by unparalleled star viola player Lawrence Power in this concert, pairing with Scottish Ensemble Artistic Director Jonathan Morton as soloist in the new work and in Mozart’s famous Sinfonia Concertante.  As part of the Ensemble’s £10:11/12 Season, all tickets for this concert are £10.

One of the freshest voices in British composition, 33-year old Bedford has won several major prizes for his music and is Composer in Residence at London’s prestigious Wigmore Hall. The Ensemble commissioned Bedford to create a companion piece to Mozart’s famous Sinfonia Concertante using the same forces as the earlier composer’s work. Audiences in Inverness will be the very first to hear this brand new work for solo violin, solo viola, strings, oboes and horns before the piece receives its London premiere at Wigmore Hall on 24 February 2012.

On his Scottish Ensemble commission, Wonderful Two-Headed Nightingale, Bedford says: “I am delighted to have been invited to create a new work for the Scottish Ensemble. In particular, I am looking forward to the challenges of writing a new piece to stand alongside the work of Mozart and his Sinfonia Concertante. The Scottish Ensemble has a strong reputation for commissioning exciting new music, and I am very proud to join the rank of contemporary composers to have had works performed by this unique group.”

The rest of the programme of this concert features the Ensemble’s trademark blend of established classics of the string repertoire performed alongside new and unusual works for the unique forces of the UK’s only professional string orchestra. From Mozart, one of the early masters of chamber music, to Luke Bedford, audiences will hear how composers across the centuries have employed the individual characteristics of the viola, demonstrated by violist Lawrence Power.

Power is in demand across the world as a solo viola player and as a chamber musician and will be joining Scottish Ensemble Artistic Director Jonathan Morton as soloist in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, famous for its beautiful melodic phrases, and in Bedford’s Wonderful Two-Headed Nightingale. Power will also introduce audiences to an unfairly neglected 20th-century British composer: William Alwyn. Power will bring the idyllic pastoral scenes of Alwyn, reminiscent of contemporaries Vaughan Williams and William Walton, to life in a performance of the composer’s Pastoral Fantasia. Composed in 1939, Alwyn’s piece paints a nostalgic and poignant portrait of a landscape about to be altered forever.

From 7.15pm audiences in Inverness are invited to join soloist Lawrence Power to find out more about the challenges of preparing a brand new work for performance and about his life as a touring soloist.

The Scottish Ensemble’s £10:11/12 Season gives audiences the opportunity to experience first-class music making for the special flat-rate of £10. The Ensemble is committed to delivering first-class musical experiences to everyone, even in the current climate of economic uncertainty. Offering one of the best-value nights out available, audiences have the opportunity to try out for themselves the powerful and rewarding performances that this enterprising group is known for.

Source: Scottish Ensemble

Announcing 14 eclectic bands that represent at least 10 different nationalities, this year’s line up is looking to be as internationally diverse as its predecessors.

Four incredible acts are crossing the Atlantic to put in an appearance, including two from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Favourites J.P Cormier & The Elliot Brothers are set to wow audiences with their cornucopia of hot club talent and fancy finger work as they showcase their dazzling Bluegrass, Folk and Celtic compositions.

Also lingering somewhere amidst the rich, soulful roots of traditional Cape Breton music and the grooves of a thousand branches of rock and funk, come Sprag Session, a five piece act featuring award winning fiddler Colin Grant. From further to the south travel Richmond based The Hot Seats who are a ‘bubbling fountain of virtuosic insanity’ as they move seamlessly between bluegrass, ragtime, old-time, jug band and Klezmer injecting humour and sharp-witted commentary along the way.

Also from the United States but making her fourth Festival appearance is the internationally renowned banjo virtuoso Alison Brown, who in 1991 picked up bluegrass music’s highest accolade for an instrumentalist of International Bluegrass Music Association Banjo Player of the Year.

Scotland is also well represented with four particularly energetic bands on the lineup.

For one night only, the 12-piece Treacherous Orchestra will take to the stage, whose sophisticated and explosive musical arrangements have earned them a fearsome reputation as an incendiary live act. Also booked after their first full on debut year in 2011 is the 6-piece outfit Mànran. They have quite literally rocketed to the top of the Scottish music scene with their powerful Folk-rock and first-class technical prowess combining Gaelic and English songs with funk and reggae grooves. Also relatively new as a touring act and from diametrically opposed ends of the UK are the fiddle and guitar duo sensation, Ross Couper and Tom Oakes. Now based on mainland Scotland, they originally hail from Shetland and Devon and together have struck up a musical harmony while retaining their fiercely distinctive styles. Completing the Scottish contingent is Lori Watson and Rule of Three. A beautiful singer and fiddler, Lori’s musical roots lie firmly in the Borders of Scotland while her interpretation of Scots and worldwide traditions are undeniably resonant.

Continuing with a Scottish link, the Festival is excited to invite KAN – an act featuring the front men of two of the most revered bands ever to have thrilled the UK Folk Scene. With Brian Finnegan of Flook and Aidan O’Rourke from Lau joining forces with England based Ian Stephenson on guitar and Jim Goodwin on percussion, this four piece create an enthralling and exciting new band that are already creating a supersonic buzz in the folk scene. BBC Young Folk Award winning multiinstrumentalist Ian Stephenson will also appear at the Festival with Baltic Crossing, a band consisting of five award winning musicians from Finland, Denmark and the UK, bringing us fiery Scandinavian tunes, bubbling Northumbrian pipes and a driving guitar and double bass rhythm section.

Two brilliant Scandinavian musicians, Perry Stenbäck and Steffan Sørensen, will accompany the Australian Alt Country/Blues singer songwriter, Rory Ellis for his second visit to the Festival. Centered around Rory’s distinctive deep, lusty and rumbling voice, this newly formed trio is the direct outcome of performing and partying together at the 28th Shetland Folk Festival – a further demonstration of how Shetland’s special annual event is responsible for forging many new musical (and occasionally more intimate) partnerships!

Bringing a truly international feel and the traditional sound of the most remote equatorial African villages are London based Kasaï Masaï, whose sound is rooted in the healing power of the driving percussion and singing combined with the majestic Congolese guitar and jazz saxophone. Written in Swahili, Lingala and Kimongo, their lyrics reflect the cultural diversity of a region where more than four hundred languages are still spoken.

Completing the provisional visiting artiste lineup and bringing a further international dimension to the 32nd Festival is KV Express – a trio centered on the band’s founder Sophie Cavez, who is one of Belgium’s most prolific accordion players. Together they create a fresh sound combining folk, jazz and rock with world styles from the southern parts of the European and American continents.

As in previous years, most visiting musicians will be in Shetland for the Festival’s duration playing at different venues throughout the isles alongside fantastic local acts. There will be dedicated events for our younger audience members, featuring acts such as multi award winning Scottish Children Entertainers, Allansmagic, who the organisers are bringing up specifically from Aberdeen. The Festival will conclude with the famous “Festival Foy” events on Sunday the 6th where most visiting musicians will play three separate 15-minute slots in three different venues! Foy tickets continue to be the fastest selling ticket of the weekend, with virtually all being consumed by advance members in 2011.

Advance Festival membership will go on sale on 27th January and until the 2nd March, with membership forms/info available on the Festival’s website and through The Shetland Times. For more information, including all the visiting acts’ biographies with sound samples please visit: www.shetlandfolkfestival.com

Source: Shetland Folk Festival Society

The Captain’s Collection was written by Hamish MacDonald from an idea by Bruce MacGregor and in 2012 the production is again directed by the celebrated actor and director Alison Peebles.

The Captain’s Collection is an acclaimed theatrical production, designed by Ali MacLaurin, and performed by some of Scotland’s finest actors and traditional musicians. It sees the return to Scotland of the sublime singer Alyth McCormack, CATS Award winner 2009 Matthew Zajac as Captain Simon Fraser, regular Dogstar artist Jonny Hardie as Musical Director and multi-instrumentalist Ingrid Henderson.

The story is set around a published collection of Highland music, the family inheritance of Captain Simon Fraser of Knockie. In the era of Sir Walter Scott and Waverley, when Highland Scotland was becoming viewed as the Romantic ideal of Europe, Captain Fraser attempts to win fame by publishing his Highland music.

In order to gain the favour of elitist Regency society, Captain Fraser is forced to remove the Gaelic verses, often of Jacobite and virulently anti-Royal sentiment, from his collection, to be presented as refined chamber pieces fit for the drawing room.

Visiting Captain Fraser in old age, as he draws his final breath, he is visited by the ghosts and dreams dwelling within the pages of his collection, transported through the legends of the music itself and back through his own turbulent existence as composer, British Army captain, dispossessed laird and imprisoned bankrupt, through a story where ambition to succeed has been thwarted at every turn.

The triumphs and tribulations of Captain Fraser’s life are played out through a tapestry of moving and rousing tunes and songs that lie at the heart of traditional Gaelic and Scottish music. The music from the play was commissioned as a CD on the Greentrax label and highly acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic. The play was also adapted into an international award-winning radio series for BBC Radio Scotland. Dogstar’s last appearance at Celtic Connections was with Matthew Zajac’s fantastically successful solo show The Tailor of Inverness in 2009.

The Captain’s Collection is the recipient of a Creative Scotland Redistribution of Existing Work Investment Award.

www.dogstartheatre.co.uk

Tickets are £11.25 (£9.25), £6 under 18s and are available now from Brunton Theatre Box Office on 0131 665 2240 or online at www.bruntontheatre.co.uk.

TOUR DATES

North Edinburgh Arts, Preview: performance Tuesday 24 January 7.00pm

Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Wednesday 25 & Thursday 26 January 8.00pm

Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Friday 27 January 7.30pm

Perth Theatre, Tuesday 1 May 7.30pm

Eden Court Inverness, Wednesday 2 – Friday 4 May 7.30pm

Craignish Village Hall, Tuesday 8 May 7.30pm

Cove Burgh Hall, Wednesday 9 May 7.30pm

Byre Theatre, St Andrews, Thursday 10 May 7.30pm

Dundee Rep Theatre, Saturday 11 May 7.30pm

An Lanntair, Stornoway, Tuesday 15 May 8.00pm

Cumbernauld Theatre, Saturday 12 May 7.30pm

Eastgate Theatre, Peebles, Thursday 17 May 7.30pm

Woodend Barn, Banchory, Friday 18 May 7.30pm

Macphail Centre, Ullapool, Saturday 19 May 7.30pm

Traverse Theatre, Cambridge Street, Edinburgh, Tuesday 22 & Wednesday 23 May 7.30pm

Druimfin, Tobermory, Thursday 24 May 7.30pm

Source: Brunton Theatre

Feeling The Rhythm Workshop
Sunday 29th January 2012 (2 – 5pm)
Newbold House, Forres
Cost £25 (Includes use of instruments, teas, coffees)

Easing into rhythm, using gentle movement, the body and the voice as well as drums and percussion we will explore rhythm, building up confidence in listening and playing along with some simple technique on the djembe, congas, bass drums and percussion.

Some concessions available also part NMLets, please ask before.
Places limited £5 deposit secures place.

West African Drum Workshop
Saturday 25th February 2012 (1pm – 5pm)
Dance Drama Studio, Findhorn Foundation, Moray
Cost £35 (Concessions available)

Master Drummer Mockolou Sawane from Senegal coming to teach the traditional rhythms of his Mandinka Culture – rich in tradition and spirituality. Hear and learn how the djembe can sound with the touch of a master player – and how the rhythms inter act with the deep melodic tones of the Doun Doun (bass drums). With African Dance from Zoe Sawane.

Contact: Zoe 07863966322
Email: zoe72zoe@hotmail.com or Carol 01343 850610 email: cocarol@talktalk.net

Drum and Percussion Classes 2012
Starting Monday February 6th – 26th March 2012 (7.15 – 8.45) in Forres, venue to be confirmed

Pay for the 8 week block:  Cost £56 or £8 drop in plus £1per class drum hire. Playing djembe, congas, bass drum and percussion. Exploring rhythm, playing in a group, some improvising and listening inspired by African and Afro – Latin rhythms . Open to all, newcomers are welcome.

First class £7. Thereafter 8 week block Cost £56 or £8 drop in plus £1 per class for drum hire.

Tuesday Group
February 7th -27th March 2012 (12.30 – 2pm)

For those with some experience. This is a small group focusing on ensemble playing, also soloing techniques and improvising.
8 week block: Cost £56 for block.

For more information about these classes please contact  Carol on 01343 850610 or email: cocarol@talktalk.net

Source: The Moray Council

The Coffee Shop Sessions move from The Strathpeffer Coffee Shop to The Dingwall Greenhouse Coffee Shop (Pew we don’t have to change the name)

The Highland Hot Club Blue Note Nite, goes Green at the Greenhouse too.

Host of The Coffee Shop Sessions, Rock/Blues Guitarist, Song Writer, Singer and Photographer Matt Sillars will be opening for Mike Cullison when The Medicine Show relocates to The Greenhouse in Dingwall on 16th Jan. His Coffee Shop Open Mic Session starts up after its winter break at the same venue on February 4th, and will continue every 2 weeks after that until further notice.

Matt was part of The Belladrum Festival Coffee Shop Blues Revue this year. He said: “It will be great to open for Mike, and to get a feel for the new venue.” Matt is inviting the Belladrum Blues Revue to open up his first Coffee Shop Sessions of the new year in its new Coffee Shop home.

Phil Lee, who stormed Belladrum in 2009, plays The Coffee Shop at The Greenhouse, Dingwall on the 30th, and will be supported by virtuoso Gypsy Jazz Guitarist Steve McKeand, front man and back bone of Django Style Gypsy Jazz Quartet The Highland Hot Club, www.myspace.com/highlandhotclub, who have recently released a debut album. Tonight he will step out from the confine of the band with nothing more than his guitar and a wish to sing a set of his own songs.

However, Highland music fans also get a chance to see the band as they start up a Ross-shire branch of their popular Blue Note Nite at The Greenhouse. Steve said: “We were planning the Blue Note Nite’s for The Coffee Shop in Strathpeffer when we were told it would have to close in the evenings for refurb in the new year, so am delighted to follow the Coffee Shop Sessions to The Greenhouse, with Rob and Matt”.

Source: Rob Ellen

In 2009, playing as an octet, Liquid Architecture earned an award from the Tunnell Trust to make a short tour of Scottish music clubs.  So well received was this ensemble that Inverness Chamber Music has invited them to play the first concert in 2012 in St Stephen’s Church in Southside Road, Inverness at 8.00pm on Tuesday 10^th January.

Liquid Architecture’s co-ordinator, clarinettist Richard Russell has an eclectic group of musicians to call on, depending on the programme being presented.  For the ensemble’s Inverness debut Russell is bringing violinists Tristan Gurney and Emma Parker, violist James Slater, cellist Rosalind Acton and bass player Josie Ellis.  As well Richard Russell himself on clarinet, the wind players will be Stuart Russell on bassoon and John Davy playing French horn.

This line-up is of course that for the magnificent Schubert Octet in F, D.803 that will form the second half of the concert and brings to fruition a long-held desire by the members of Inverness Chamber Music to bring this work to the Inverness audience.

In the first half, Liquid Architecture will meet another of their aims, that of presenting lesser known works that deserve an airing.  Howard Ferguson’s Octet Op 4 was composed in 1933 and uses the same instrumentation as the Schubert Octet.  At long last it is starting to achieve some popularity, recognition that is very much overdue as it is an absolute gem of a composition.  This will be followed by the Concertini Variations, commissioned by Liquid Architecture from the Glasgow composer Alasdair Spratt.  It is a series of five very short concertos for various instruments in the octet, and each is in its own way a variation on the other four.

Tickets for this concert can be obtained from Eden Court Box Office or on the night at the door of St Stephen’s Church.

Later in the month, on Tuesday January 24^th, At One With Music will be presenting another of the popular lunchtime concerts in Inverness Town House.  Two of Scotland’s leading players, guitarist Allan Neave and cellist Robert Irvine will present a fifty minute recital of works by Geminiani, Mendelssohn, Domeniconi, Zenamon, Fauré, Gnattali and de Falla.  Tickets will be available on the day at the door from 12.30pm.

Source: James Munro

This is a rare chance to hear a live performance of the wonderful Schubert Octet. It will be preceded by an absolute, if lesser known, gem of the Octet written in 1933 by Howard Ferguson (log onto YouTube and listen to parts of it – you will be captivated).

Earlier this month, the Main Hall of Inverness Town House, our usual concert venue, suffered considerable damage and currently it is undergoing restoration work. The Highland Council has advised that it is very doubtful that these repairs will be complete by 10th January, and therefore the Liquid Architecture concert has been moved to St Stephen’s Church in Southside Road where street parking is available.  We are most grateful to St Stephen’s for coming to our rescue. Please note these two changes in your diary.

February sees one of the undoubted highlights of the 2011-2012 Season, a performance of the complete cycle of Beethoven Cello Sonatas in a joint promotion with our sister organisation, At One With Music.

Cellist Robin Michael and pianist Daniel Tong, both highly regarded soloists and chamber musicians on the London music scene, will play Sonatas No 1, 3 and 4 as well as the transcription of the Horn Sonata, at an evening concert for Inverness Chamber Music on Wednesday 15th February at 8.00pm in Inverness Town House.

The following day, Thursday 16th February at 1.00pm in the same venue, At One With Music will present Robin and Michael playing Sonatas No 2 and 5.

ICM is offering a joint ticket for these two concerts which will save you money. Prices are:  Adults (including senior citizens) £15, Eden Court Friends £14, Students etc £4, and ICM Season Ticket holders £4.

This ticket is not available from Eden Court Box Office – contact James Munro (01463 710363 or jamesmunro24@aol.com) for details. Alternatively, the ticket will be available on the door at the Liquid Architecture concert on 10th January, at the At One With Music concert by Allan Neave (guitar) and Robert Irvine (cello) in the Town House on Tuesday 24th January at 1.00pm, and also at the first concert of the cycle on 15th February.

Source: James Munro

FEIS ROIS NAN OILEANACH GAIDHLIG (24 – 26 February 2012, Ullapool)

This is a residential weekend for Gaelic-speaking college and university students from across Scotland to come together to use their Gaelic in an informal setting and to learn skills in traditional music, song, dance and drama. Fèis Rois nan Oileanach Gàidhlig is a partnership project with the University of Glasgow. Tutors for 2012 include Margaret Stewart, Allan Henderson, Deirdre Graham and Arthur Donald.

The weekend is the only Gaelic-medium Fèis for college and university students in Scotland. Participants must have a good level of fluency in the language to take part. Classes on offer include, fiddle, Gaelic song, group music-making, step dance and drama. Beginners are very welcome at all of our events and those who already play and instrument or sing will also find the experience very rewarding.

The weekend costs £50. This is inclusive of: all tuition, B&B in The Ceilidh Place Bunkhouse on both Friday and Saturday evening; dinner on Saturday night; lunch on Saturday and Sunday; entry to the ceilidh.

Book online now at www.feisrois.org  or e-mail fios@feisrois.org  for further details.

WEEKLY CLASSES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

We have a comprehensive programme of after school classes every week in Avoch, Evanton, Lochcarron and Ullapool. There are classes available for everyone from complete beginners through to advanced musicians from P5 – S6. Classes on offer include: fiddle, accordion, guitar, Gaelic song, tin whistle, clarsach, and group music-making.

Classes start week beginning 16th January 2012. This is a 10 week term finishing week beginning 26th March. There is no class week beginning 13th February as this is the half term break.

The cost for the term is £60 and then £40 for any subsequent children from the same family.

PLEASE REGISTER BEFORE 16TH JANUARY 2012 AT WWW.FEISROIS.ORG

Contact our new Informal Education Portfolio Manager, Joan Beattie on 01349 86 2600 or e-mail joan.beattie@feisrois.org  for further details.

MUSIC BOX at INVERNESS CALEY THISTLE

In addition to our regular programme of weekly classes, we also have a special music project running in parTnership with the SPL and Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club.

This is open to secondary school pupils only.

After an initial 6-weeek pilot project, we have tweaked the project so that we will be now be offering the following workshops for FREE on a MONDAY evening from 16th January onwards…

6.00PM – 6.45PM – BEGINNERS – An opportunity to learn to play guitar, keyboard, percussion and vocals

7.00PM – 8.30PM – ADVANCED PERFORMANCE GROUP

With a focus on traditional music, any musician playing to an upper intermediate or advanced level is welcome to come along. We hope that this will grow into a year-round version of groupwork at the Senior Fèis so make sure you come along and join in the music-making fun! There will be lots of performance opportunities throughout the year.

Although these workshops are free, you must book in advance by contacting either:

Michael Lambert, SPL Music Box Co-ordinator on 07522 985 772 and musicbox@scotprem.com

or

Fiona Dalgetty at Fèis Rois on 01349 862600 or e-mail fios@feisrois.org

WEEKLY CLASSES FOR ADULTS

We still have lots of spaces available on our new programme of workshops aimed at adult learners. Why not make it your New Year’s resolution to learn to play the fiddle or the guitar, or to play more regularly if you already play an instrument?

Feis Rois is offering the following opportunities…

Starting on Wednesday 18 January 2012 and running for 10 weeks…

A slow jam led by Bob Massie in the bar at Tulloch Castle Hotel, Dingwall from 8 – 10pm. This is an informal opportunity for adult learners to get together to share and learn songs and tunes. All instruments and ability levels welcome. FREE! No need to book!

Starting on Thursday 19 January and running for 10 weeks…

A range of fiddle classes with Gillian Stevenson (Rhythm n Reel) to suit all levels of experience at Dingwall Community Centre.

Complete Beginners, 6.30pm – 7.15pm, £60 for the term

Improvers, 7.30pm – 8.30pm, £70 for the term

Intermediate +, 8.30pm – 9.30pm, £70 for the term

Book now at www.feisrois.org

Starting on Monday 13th February and running for 7 weeks…

New workshops led by Val Bryan at the Macphail Centre, Ullapool

Complete Beginners Guitar, 6.30pm – 7.30pm, £49 for the term

Beginning to Play Together, 7.45pm – 8.45pm, £49 for the term

Book now at www.feisrois.org

For more information on the Lifelong Learning projects, please phone Project Development Worker, Morag McDonald on 01349 86 2600 or e-mail morag.mcdonald@feisrois.org

JUNIOR AND ADULT FEISEAN

We will announce details of both the Junior and Adult Fèisean in the New Year. The dates are as follows:

JUNIOR FEIS 2 – 6 APRIL 2012

ADULT FEIS 4 – 7 MAY 2012

source: Fèis Rois