Music
Caird Hall Christmas concert premieres on Sunday
THE first of two Christmas concerts recorded at the Caird Hall in Dundee will have its premier on YouTube on Sunday. The first concert – which will begin showing on Leisure & Culture Dundee’s YouTube Channel at 2.30pm – features the venue’s Steinway concert grand piano played by Christina Lawrie, with Marcus Barcham-Stevens on violin.…
Read MoreWriting in harmony
Alison Martin, chair of Crieff Choral Group, shares the story behind a new song that her choir will perform. CRIEFF Choral Group has a very special announcement to make – we have a beautiful poem by a Victorian Scottish poetess, composed into a wonderful original song by two brilliant Perthshire musicians, and then specially arranged…
Read MoreSir James MacMillan marks Eric Liddell Centre’s 40th anniversary
COMPOSER Sir James MacMillan will take part in an online broadcast next week to mark the 40th anniversary of the Eric Liddell Centre in Edinburgh. The centre is a care charity and community hub, providing specialist dementia support together with a carers programme and befriending service. Sir James’s younger brother, John, is chief executive at…
Read MoreScots folk band releases US book shop tour album
A FOLK band that takes its inspiration from book shops has released its latest album. The Bookshop Band’s Live in American Bookshops long-player has been released as a limited edition vinyl record. Folk duo Beth Porter and Ben Please are from Wigtown, Scotland’s national book town. They have forged their reputation by creating songs inspired…
Read MoreStudents learn from composer Errollyn Wallen
MUSICIAN Errollyn Wallen has been appointed as the visiting professor of composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) in Glasgow. Her role includes one-to-one teaching, as well as leading seminars and workshops. Born in Belize, Wallen gave up her training at the Dance Theater of Harlem in New York to study composition at the…
Read MoreThe very model of a modern music library
SCOTTISH Opera has bought a library full of Gilbert and Sullivan works, which it will hire out to performers across the UK and continental Europe. The D’Oyly Carte music hire library sold 86 crates of music to Scottish Opera. It’s taken the Scottish team three weeks to sort through the crates. Some rarer items are…
Read MoreFinalists named in shinty music contest
THREE musicians have been selected as the finalists in a unqiue composition competition. Ewen Henderson, Chris Gray, and Mary Ann Kennedy will compete for the top prize. The contest has been organised by the Royal Celtic Society (RCS), the Glasgow Celtic Society, and the Camanachd Association, shinty’s governing body, to mark the absense of the…
Read MoreScottish Opera’s outdoor performances begin
GREENOCK plays host to Scottish Opera this afternoon as its series of autumn pop-up operas begins. The programme shifts to East Lothian on Sunday, followed by Ayr, Stirling, Easterhouse, Glasgow, Inverness, Dundee, Edinburgh and St Andrews during the rest of the month. This season’s pop-up operas feature extracts from The Gondoliers and Don Giovanni, along with The…
Read MorePupil hears her rap recorded by the army
A RAP written by a 12-year-old school pupil and inspired by the Windrush generation has been recorded by army musicians. Leila McPhate, from Larbert High School in Stenhousemuir, wrote The World Is A Dark Place as her entry for Never Such Innocence, an international arts competition to give children and young people a voice on conflict.…
Read MoreBenedetti hits No 1 with Elgar
SCOTTISH violinist Nicola Benedetti has taken the number one slot in the official classical artist chart with her Edward Elgar record. The physical disc was launched on 7 August, following its online release back on 15 May. The album features Elgar’s vast Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61, alongside three short works for violin…
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