Shifting Patterns: Scottish Ensemble opens 2025/26 fusing music by Anna Meredith and Henryk Górecki with animations by Ewan Jones Morris

Scottish Ensemble at Celtic Connections in January 2025 with Donald Grant and Friends (Photo: Tom Lovatt)

The Scottish Ensemble opens its 2025/2026 season with Shifting Patterns, a programme of music by Anna Meredith and Henryk Górecki which promises to be a striking fusion of sound and visuals. Touring to Eden Court in Inverness, Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall, Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh and Perth Concert Hall during October, the programme will explore the emotive power of sonic patterns being transformed through kaleidoscopic repetitions using bespoke projections by animator Ewan Jones Morris as a stunning visual backdrop to Anna Meredith’s works.

The programme features Henryk Górecki's Quasi una Fantasia. This work is the second of Górecki's three quartets, all of which were premiered by the Kronos Quartet. Quasi una Fantasia was written in 1991 and the work invokes Beethovenian parallels not just from the title but the composer acknowledged that Beethoven’s piano sonatas and string quartets had provided the impetus for his first two quartets.

The programme will also feature eight works by Anna Meredith including works for string quartet which have been newly arranged for the thirteen musicians of Scottish Ensemble, offering a chance to hear these surprising and enlightening works for expanded forces.

Taking a multidisciplinary approach to filmmaking, Ewan Jones Morris combines live action, collage, stop motion and CG to transform the ordinary and explore imagined inner worlds, you can explore his work on Vimeo (including a sample below)

Full details from the Scottish Ensemble's website.

Glasgow Cathedral Festival: celebrating the city's 850th anniversary with a poetic imagining of the story of St. Enoch, mother of the city's founder

Evening concert at Glasgow Cathedral Festival 

Glasgow Cathedral Festival returns from 18–21 September 2025, for its ninth edition bringing life to Glasgow’s medieval cathedral with site-specific live music, film, theatre, art, talks and tours, and this year also celebrating the city's 850th anniversary.

This year’s festival draws together cultural and scientific influences across a range of art forms: from established classical music favourites to cutting-edge contemporary sounds, and intimate theatre to immersive, cult cinema.

Maiden Mother Mage brings a poetic reimagining of the legend of St Enoch to the imposing surroundings of the quire. St. Enoch is in fact a corruption of St. Teneu, a legendary Christian saint who was venerated in medieval Glasgow. Traditionally she was a sixth-century Brittonic princess the mother of Saint Mungo, apostle to the Britons of Strathclyde and founder of the city of Glas Ghu (Glasgow). She and her son are regarded as the city's co-patrons, and Glasgow's St Enoch Square allegedly marks the site of a medieval chapel dedicated to her, built on or near her grave. 

Created and directed by Rebecca Sharp, Maiden Mother Mage is the tale the exiled Brittonic princess which weaves dramatic verse performed by three Scottish actors with a live score by composer Alex South. The performance is supported with new iconography by artist Frances Law—presented as part of a multi-sensory exhibition crafted by Scottish community groups that will be displayed throughout the festival.

The festival's silent film series continues with Fritz Lang’s genre-defining Metropolis (1927) paired with the UK premiere of a live score for percussion by sisters Linda and Irene Buckley—presented in association with Cork International Film Festival. There will be opportunities to catch the film at both early evening and late-night screenings.  

Another film link sees organist Roger Sayer performing his arrangement of Hans Zimmer's score for the film Interstellar 10 on the cathedral's 140-year-old pipe organ. And the festival will feature the first complete performance of Roxanna Panufnik’s Cum Jubilo Organ Mass, performed as part of a vibrant and eclectic programme by organist Katelyn Emerson.

The Twilight in the Crypt programme offers moments of quiet listening and personal contemplation, as violinist Emma Lloyd presents a programme of new music exploring the expressive depths of her instrument, and artistic duo Ollie Hawker and Zoe Markle create atmospheric soundscapes with double bass and electronics.

There are free, daytime events. Joining forces once again with partners across the precinct, a free Thursday lunchtime performance by the acclaimed Resol Quartet is given in collaboration with the Friends of Glasgow Royal Infirmary Museum—featuring new works inspired by the hospital’s cultural and historic context. Free talks and tours also return in 2025, continuing the Glasgow 850 celebrations in collaboration with Glasgow Life, Historic Environment Scotland and St Mungo Museum.

Full details from the festival website.

Lammermuir Festival 2025: Laura van der Heijden in residence, complete Ravel piano music, Walton/Ravel opera double bill

This year's Lammermuir Festival runs from 4 to 15 September 2025, your chance to hear some of the world’s finest musicians in the historic venues and stunning landscape of East Lothian The festival's artist in residence this year is cellist Laura van der Heijden, with six appearances as both soloist and ensemble musician across the 12 days. Among her appearances are a recital with Jâms Coleman, a chamber programme with the Maxwell Quartet ranging from Schubert’s C major quintet to Gaelic psalms of the western isles of Scotland; a programme of dances and duos with friends which includes the Hungarian cimbalom in a journey through folk, jazz, baroque and contemporary music; and as soloist alongside Maria Włoszczowska in Brahms’s Double Concerto for Violin and Cello with Royal Northern Sinfonia.

I Fagiolini will also be in residence with performances of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610. A regular visitor to the festival is Scottish Opera and this year they bring an intriguing double bill of two contrasting comedies, Ravel's L'heure espagnole and Walton's The Bear, the one featuring a married woman keen to explore pastures new and the other featuring a widow who is anything but keen.

Continuing the themes of Ravel and Monteverdi, Rinaldo Alessandrini and Concerto Italiano will be performing music from Monteverdi 7th Book of Madrigals alongside Barbara Strozzi and others, whilst French pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet performs Ravel's complete piano works and tenor Joshua Ellicott explores Ravel’s influence on song. In addition to Ravel's 150th, this year is the centenary of both Berio and Boulez, and Scotland’s Hebrides Ensemble will be celebrating both.

Other complete cycles at the festival include the Van Baerle Trio, who return after last year’s successful debut, to play all of Brahms’s piano trios, and the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam bring all of Tchaikovsky’s quartets. The Kaleidoscope chamber ensemble perform two concerts ranging from Brahms and Bartok, to Duruflé and Poulenc.

Scottish composer Stuart MacRae’s atmospheric, folk-influenced song cycle Earth Thy Cold is Keen will be performed by mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean. And there is a chance to experience three events at Robert Adam's Gosford house, with The Lammermuir Basset Horn Ensemble, a lecture recital on the house's incredibly rare instrument the Claviorganum which combines the harpsichord and organ in one; and finishing with a recorder recital from Tabea Debus in the Saloon.

This year’s festival includes two children’s concerts. Flock from Red Note Ensemble in Musselburgh opens with a sonically and visually captivating musical performance, gently encouraging children to become more involved until, through their collective effort, a chirping flock comes into being. Saint-Saens' is Carnival of the Animals features Roger McGough and NYCOS National Girls Choir in Dunbar. 

After a successful pilot in 2024, Lammermuir Festival builds on Front Row to offer even more 12 – 18 year olds opportunities to attend rehearsals, meet artists and enjoy the best free front row seats. Free tickets are also available for school students attending certain concerts with an adult. 

There is a lot more besides. A trip to the festival offers the possibility of an action packed few days with nearl 40 events on offer. Full details from the festival's website.

Maxim Emelyanychev celebrates 7 seasons with Scottish Chamber Orchestra in a year that includes new music by Jay Capperauld, Helen Grime, Jörg Widmann and Magnus Lindberg

Maxim Emelyanychev and Scottish Chamber Orchestra

Amazingly, 2025/26 will be Maxim Emelyanychev's seventh season as principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and he will be presenting ten programme with the orchestra during the season, along with Andrew Manze as principal guest conductor. Emelyanychev's programmes include Strauss' Metamorphosen, Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, contrasting Glorias from Vivaldi and Poulenc, Berlioz' L'enfance du Christ , Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker and Mozart's final three symphonies. The orchestra's principal cellist, Philip Higham joins him for Schumann's Cello Concerto, and violinist Nicola Benedetti joins Emelyanychev and the orchestra for Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto.

Earlier this year, I had an enjoyable chat to the orchestra's associate composer Jay Capperauld [see my interview]  and the season will feature three of Capperauld's works. Andrew Manze conducts The Language of Eden, a choral work that reimagines the birth of language itself, and a second work will also feature the chorus, The Winter's Brightening, whilst Stylus Scarlatti reimagines Scarlatti’s keyboard sonatas for the bright colours of the orchestra. Whilst Capperauld's The Great Grumpy Gaboon will be returning too.

Other new music includes the UK premiere of Scottish composer Helen Grime’s River, performed by the orchestra and director/percussionist Colin Currie, the UK premiere of Jörg Widmann’s affectionate homage to Schumann, Albumblätter, and Magnus Lindberg’s Viola Concerto, dedicated to its performer here, Lawrence Power. The SCO Chorus will be performing on of Roderick Williams' works, O Adonai, as part of their seasonal concerts, whilst the baritone himself will be performing Berlioz and Butterworth with the orchestra.

Violinist Alina Ibragimova will be the soloists in Hartmann’s Concerto funèbre, a work she has long championed. Andrew Manze and the orchestra's clarinettist Maximiliano Martín present three iconic works by John Adams, Shaker Loops, Gnarly Buttons, and Fearful Symmetries as part of the New Dimensions series which also includes Colin Currie in Steve Reich and Joe Duddell along with Helen Grime's River, and saxophonist Jess Gillam in Anna Clyne, George Walker and Caroline Shaw, as well as two works written especially for her, by John Harle and Dani Howard.

SCO Tea Dance Concerts

The orchestra’s Creative Learning activities reach over 10,000 people across Scotland every year, and this year the season includes multisensory family concerts, Immerse concerts for secondary schools, tea dance concerts and a continuation of their Craigmillar Residency. They will be celebrating five years of the Craigmillar Residency with Tapestry - a showcase featuring performances by the SCO Seen and Heard Ensemble and SCO Craigmillar Voices choir, including a 25-minute work curated by Jay Capperauld.  

Full details from the orchestra's website.

Bruckner's obsession with death, Scottish Gaelic folk poetry & a grumpy gaboon: I chat to Scottish composer Jay Capperauld, currently the Scottish Chamber Orchestra's associate composer

Jay Capperauld (Photo: Euan Robertson)

The Scottish composer Jay Capperauld is currently the Scottish Chamber Orchestra's (SCO) Associate Composer and this month he has two sets of performances of his works. On 19 February SCO premieres Jay's new piece, Bruckner's Skull in Dumfries with performances in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Written as a death-mask homage to composer Anton Bruckner in the 200th Anniversary year of his birth, Bruckner’s Skull is inspired by Bruckner’s obsession with death, and in particular the two alleged occasions when Bruckner cradled the skulls of both Beethoven and Schubert when their bodies were exhumed and moved to Vienna’s Central Cemetery in 1888.

Before then, SCO revives Jay's work for children, The Great Grumpy Gaboon, and later in the season, they will premiere Jay's Carmina Gadelica for wind dectet, inspired by the Gaelic incantations, hymns, and songs collected by Alexander Carmichael in his work of the same name.

Bruckner's Totenmaske (Death Mask), 1896

Jay admits that he is rather drawn to strange stories and is interested in story-telling in music, the challenge of how to create a musical narrative with a story in wordless form. Bruckner's Skull is inspired by the great composer's deathly fixations. Some of the stories are anecdotal, but Bruckner did spend time in a sanatorium for what we would now call OCD. The symptoms of OCD manifest in a way in which a person experiences uncontrollable, intrusive, distressing and recurring thoughts (obsessions) which are alleviated by engaging in repetitive behaviours and actions (compulsions) that are attributed to a specific fear of dire consequences (to themselves, loved ones or others) if those behaviours and actions are not completed to a perceived satisfactory degree.

Bruckner's reported fixations included giving specific instructions on his own burial under the organ that he played at St Florian Monastery and the keeping of lists of his female students to whom he would continually propose well into his old age. The duality in his hyper-religious grandiose sense of divine musical purpose coupled with his extreme shyness and debilitating low self-esteem. Jay is interested in these fixations, not only how to convey the story in music but also what does it say about Bruckner himself. Who was the man and how do we deal nowadays with the more problematic elements of his fixations?

Jay intends his piece to humanise Bruckner and get to the crux of the man from a more empathetic perspective. Musically, Jay is interested not so much in what is happening but in why, for instance, the oboe interacts in the way it does. For Bruckner's Skull, Jay uses snippets of Bruckner's music which he treats in a hyper-fixated way, making the music feel as if we are hearing it through Bruckner's obsessive qualities. Through the compositional process, Jay tries to reflect Bruckner's mind.

Celebrating 20 years, the East Neuk Festival welcomes old friends in a programme with Schubert and Beethoven at its core

The audience at Crail Church at the East Neuk Festival, 2024 (Photo: Neil Hanna)

The 20th East Neuk Festival will fill some of East Fife’s most stunning seaside locations with line-up of classical, jazz, folk, and experimental music from 25 to 29 June 2025.The Scottish Chamber Orchestra, which has played at every festival since it began, returns to open this year's festival, conducted by Andrew Manze in a programme including Schubert's Symphony No 6 in C major and Rodrigo's Concierto d’Aranjuez with guitarist Sean Shibe. 

Sean Shibe will also give three solo concerts in Anstruther, spanning five centuries in the evolution of the guitar from lute to electric guitar. Scottish and French lute music collected in manuscripts from over five centuries ago; music by Bach and Thomas Ades on acoustic guitar; and his own joyous rendition of Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint on electric. Still with chordophones, celebrated Oud player Nizar Rohana gives a rare solo performance on this ancient mesmerising instrument that is the ancestor of all European guitar-like instruments.

All five of Beethoven's late string quartets are spread across the festival, performed by Elias Quartet, The Pavel Haas Quartet, Castalian Quartet and the Belcea Quartet, along with music by Mozart, Schubert, Ades and Beamish. Over 20 years ago, Beethoven's Septet was performed in Elie Church at a taster event that led to the creation of the festival,  and the Septet returns this year with some of the original players plus  principals of the SCO, Berlin Philharmonic and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, English National Opera, and the Nash Ensemble.

Schubert at the festival this year features his three song cycles performed by tenor Mark Padmore and baritone James Newby, and pianist Joseph Middleton.

To close this 20th festival, all four quartets join forces to form a ‘mega-star’ chamber orchestra and play Sibelius’s Andante Festivo alongside the world premiere of Field of Stars by Sally Beamish commissioned specifically for these 16 players and inspired partly by the many nations from which they come.

Full details from the festival website.

Community, creativity, the power of music and the importance of brass banding: Martin Green's play KELI debuts in 2025

Martin Green at the National Mining Museum Scotland, in Newtongrange (Photo: Sandy Butler)

Marking 40 years since the miners' strikes and featuring a sharp, hilarious script and live brass score by Ivor Novello winner Martin Green, KELI is a gripping show about community, creativity, the power of music and the importance of brass banding. 

In 2022, having immersed himself in the world of the brass band, the communities, the competition and the legacy of coal and Martin Green created a documentary on BBC Radio 4, Love, Spit And Valve Oil, where he explored the world of brass bands, discovered why banding in Britain has outlasted the pits, the picket lines and the closures.  For generations, the self-contained world of the bands has been a refuge, a community-building practice and a source of healing.

Inspired by the conversations Green had with people during the creation of the Love, Spit and Valve Oil series on Radio 4 he created an audio drama, KELI which was released last December, along with an album, Split the Air.

This has now developed into a stage play, with Martin Green making his playwrighting debut. The play, KELI, will be performed by the National Theatre of Scotland and will be touring Scotland during 2025. KELI explores the world of Scottish brass bands and the ex-mining communities they serve, and explores this through the character of Keli, a teenage horn player - a fiery, sharp-witted teenager living in a former mining town. Coal means little to Keli, but the mines left music in the blood of the town. As the best player her brass band has ever had, music is easy. Everything else is a fight. Feeling trapped in small-town life, pressure mounts.

Martin Green is perhaps best known amongst lovers of folk-music as the virtuoso accordionist in the visionary folk trio Lau. He has also written the music for KELI, which will feature brass band music from his album Split the Air. Through collaboration with Whitburn Band, and other local brass bands around Scotland, this production continues to sustain ongoing relationships with Scottish brass bands and the communities they represent.

KELI will preview in Stirling before opening at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh in May and tour to Dundee Rep Theatre, Perth Theatre and Tramway, Glasgow in 2025, 40 years after the miners’ strike of 1984-85 and will reach audiences across the country who belong to communities that were hugely affected by strike.  

Full details from the National Theatre of Scotland's website.

Soprano Barbara Frittoli, pianist Caroline Dowdle & actor James Garnon in public masterclass at Marchmont House with Samling Artist Programme

Samling Masterclass at Marchmont House (Photo: Mark Pinder)

On Saturday 30 November 2024, Italian soprano Barbara Frittoli, pianist Caroline Dowdle and actor James Garnon will guide eight rising stars from the Samling Artist Programme through a lively mixture of song and opera in a public masterclass at Marchmont House, a Palladian house in Berwickshire, Scotland.

This masterclass comes at the end of the Samling Artist Programme, an intensive weeklong residency for early-career singers and pianists and is followed by performance and professional development opportunities as participants join a global family of over 400 artists. Over the course of their week together, the Samling Artists and their leaders build up a unique trust and rapport, making this final public event a masterclass like no other

The ticket price includes tea and homemade cakes with the artists and leaders during the interval in the beautiful public rooms at Marchmont House and a bus transfer from Berwick-upon-Tweed station is available for an additional charge.

Full details from the Samling Institute's website.

Shining a light on the work of women composers & performers: Illuminate Women's Music's debut Scottish tour

Established in 2017 by Dr Angela Elizabeth Slater, Illuminate Women’s Music is a touring concert series aim to shine light on the work and creativity of women composers and performers. During December 2024, January and February 2025, Illuminate will be in Scotland for the first time, presenting events in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee, Paisley and Kinlochard. There will be concerts, talks, workshops and family friendly events, with free-to-attend events as well as online resources.

The series will feature works by composers-in-residence, Ruta Vitkauskaite and Angela Elizabeth Slater who have organised the series, along with newly commissioned works by Scottish composers Simone Searles, Sonia Allori, Kate Sagovsky which will be performed alongside historical and established works by women including little performed works by Scottish composers Alicia Ann Spottiswoode (19th century), Marie Dare, Geraldine Mucha (20th century), Emily Doolittle, Lisa Robertson, and Gemma McGregor (contemporary).

For the series in Scotland, performers in residence are soprano Stephanie Lamprea and cellist Jessica Kerr.

Things begin on 11 December with a Livestreamed workshop at Scottish Music Centre, Glasgow followed on 12 December by a concert at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow. Full details from the Illuminate website.

 

Word of Mouth: Nordic Music Days comes to Glasgow as the festival leaves the Nordic region for only the 3rd time in its history

Nordic Music Days was established in 1888 by the Council of Nordic Composers; curated by composers and creators, Nordic Music Days now presents almost entirely contemporary classical music and sound, featuring artists from Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland with partnership and exchange being key to the festival’s legacy which is also focused on sustainable practice and social responsibility.

For only the third time in its history, Nordic Music Days is taking place outside the Nordic countries. From 30 October to 3 November, the festival will be taking over Glasgow, and this year's curator team includes, Tróndur Bogason (Faroe Islands), Lauri Supponen (Finland), Guoste Tamulynaite (Norway), Gillian Moore (Scotland) and Pippa Murphy (Scotland). The Festival is an initiative of the NKR (Council of Nordic Composers) which works in collaboration with the lead partner in Scotland, Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

The festival sees concerts, sound installations, talks, screenings and participatory events as well as a wide-ranging industry programme happening across the city – from Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and The Old Fruitmarket, through the Centre for Contemporary Arts and City Halls to Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and Glasgow Film Theatre.

The theme running through the festival is Word of Mouth. It invokes something personal, informal and close: the passing on, movement and the spreading of ideas, stories, knowledge and traditions. Highlights include:

• the opening concert, Qullaq, features the Scottish Ensemble and fiddle player Aidan O’Rourke alongside musicians from Norway, Finland, and Greenland, with music by Jukka Tiensuu (Finland), Seyoung Oh (Scotland), Anna Thorvaldsdottir (Iceland), David Fennessy (Scotland), and a collaboration between Aidan O’Rourke (Scotland), Nive Nielsen, Hans-Henrik Suersaq Poulsen, and Mikè Fencer Thomsen (Greenland)
  
• the closing concert, Echoes on the Edges, paired with a programme in the Glasgow Cathedral Festival, will bring the drama and philosophy of the Faroe Islands’ Klæmintsgjógv sea cave
  concerts to St Mungo’s Cathedral. A concept pioneered by Kristian Blak
  
• a world-wide, mass-participation project phōnḗ, a new work for massed choirs by Finnish composer Tytti Arola, underlining the importance and value of communication between people and cultures
• major orchestral concerts featuring:
• BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with An Extraordinary Voyage! including Maja S K Ratkje’s trombone concerto Considering Icarus and music by Britta Byström, Faroese composer Eli Tausen á Lava and a choral work from Hildur Guðnadóttir
  
• Scottish Chamber Orchestra with Borealis with Swedish composer Anders Hillborg’s Viola Concerto and music by Madeleine Isaksson, James MacMillan and Jay Capperauld
  
• Royal Scottish National Orchestra, conductor Thomas Søndergård in Rune Glerup’s Dark to Light, plus music by Errollyn Wallen, Aileen Sweeney, and Bent Sørensen along with new work from Lisa Robertson, where the RSNO is joined by the young musicians of Big Noise Govanhill
  
• Hebrides Ensemble performing alongside Sámi vocalist Ánnámáret and Scottish composer / performer Clare Johnston
• the Vienna-based Chaos String Quartet make their first visit to Scotland, joining soprano Stephanie Lamprea and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s principal double bass, Kai Kim, for the UK premiere of a new work from Greenland’s Arnannguaq Gerstrøm, plus music by Danish composer Sandra Boss
• RSNO’s viola player Katherine Wren founded Nordic Viola in 2016 with the goal of exploring cultural connections between Scotland and the North Atlantic region. Arctic Edgelands is a collaborative music project featuring Katherine Wren, Greenlandic composer and flautist Arnannguaq Gerstrøm and Shetland-based percussionist, composer and sound recordist Renzo Spiteri.
• Finnish composer Anna Näkkäläjärvi-Länsman’s Bálvvosbáiki (meaning place of worship) is a work in which indigenous Sámi yoik is combined with electronic music, Carelian bowed lyre, and video art. Based on the yoiks of the Sámi artist Ánnámáret, this work explores and expresses how the Sámi relationship with nature, the ancient religion of nature, and the Sámi worldview continue to manifest themselves in Sámi life today
  
• From shops to concert halls to galleries and Glasgow’s parks, Nordic Music Day pops up across the city and across lifestyles to reach audiences on their doorsteps and in their daily lives

The is alos a daily programme of industry focused discussion and presentations, rooted in the concept of sustainability – both environmental and artistic – called NordEX which, among others, will bring Scotland, the Nordics and our neighbours in Canada, Ireland and the Baltics together to look at sustainability in the music sector

Full details from the festival's website.

A festival for and of its local community: Sir James MacMillan's The Cumnock Tryst celebrates its 10th birthday with five days of events in the East Ayrshire town

This year, the Cumnock Tryst is presenting five days of events to celebrate its 10th birthday. 

Founded by composer Sir James MacMillan, the festival runs from 2 to 6 October 2024. MacMillan, who grew up in the East Ayrshire town, remains the festival's artistic director and takes his inspiration from models such as Peter Maxwell Davies’ St Magnus Festival in Orkney and Benjamin Britten’s Aldeburgh initiative. The Cumnock Tryst has established itself as a festival for and of its local community.

Beyond the five day festival in October, The Cumnock Tryst continues its year-round work in the local community, and this year also sees the inaugural International Summer School for Composers – an opportunity for young composers from across the globe to come to East Ayrshire and work alongside Sir James MacMillan and Anna Thorvaldsdottir.

The festival this year features the debut of the newly formed Cumnock Tryst Ensemble. This new chamber group is directed by cellist Christian Elliott and consists Scottish musicians who have had an association with The Tryst over the last 10 years. The ensemble will have a commitment to the local community and a special focus on composers of our own era, with performances, in Cumnock and elsewhere, and will participate in many of the festival's community and education projects spearheaded. The inaugural recital includes music by Olivier Messiaen, Elliot Carter, Rebecca Clarke, James MacMillan and Frank Bridge.

Music of Land Reclamation, on the second day of the festival, will be the culmination of a composition project for Higher and Advanced Higher Music students at Robert Burns Academy. In a project led by Sir James MacMillan and Ayrshire composer Gillian Walker, the composers have responded to photographs of the local area from photographer Simon Butterworth’s series Abstract Excavationism: The Art of Industrial Land Reclamation.

Over the years the festival has developed a number of ground-breaking music projects for children and adults with additional support needs, and this year James MacMillan has been working in Hillside School and the nearby Riverside Centre alongside Drake Music Scotland and the Hebrides Ensemble. With the belief that disability should never be a barrier to a deeply engaging involvement with music, the performance of The Unbroken Thread, follows a series of creative workshops where all involved devised their own music and modes of expression.

The Cumnock Tryst Tenth Birthday Gala Concert, All the Hills and Vales will feature local ensembles with international visitors for a birthday celebration of brass, strings and voices. The main work is All the Hills and Vales Along, an oratorio which James MacMillan composed for the 2018 festival to mark the centenary of the WW1 Armistice. Scottish emerging composers Gillian Walker and Erin Thomson will hear the world premieres of their recent Tryst commissions.

Other performers at this year's festival include pianist Steven Osborne, the Maxwell Quartet, the Gesualdo Six, Joshua Ellicott, guitarist, flautist and singer Seán Gray, the Euan Stevenson Trio, Ayshire fiddler Alastair Savage and the Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra.

Full details from the festival's website.

Reconsider the Familiar: Glasgow Cathedral Festival returns with its eighth season

Glasgow Cathedral Festival in 2022

Glasgow Cathedral, the city's oldest building, is hosting the eighth Glasgow Cathedral Festival from 19 to 22 September 2024, featuring a diverse programme of live music, film, art, multi-media collaborations, talks and tours, all offering audiences the chance to reconsider, rediscover, reimagine, to expand their imaginations, explore beneath the surface and refresh their senses.

The first stone cathedral was dedicated in 1136, in the presence of King David I. Fragments of this building have been found beneath the structure of the present cathedral, which was dedicated in 1197, although much of the present cathedral dates from a major rebuilding in the 13th century. The cathedral is dedicated to Saint Mungo, the patron saint of Glasgow, whose tomb lies at the centre of the building's Lower Church, and following its foundation in 1451, the University of Glasgow held its first classes within the cathedral's chapter house.

The festival opens with a recital from Scottish mezzo-soprano Rowan Hellier and pianist Jonathan Ware. She Represents sees fashion and song intersect; exploring the role of symbolism and sensuality in the modern female identity, Hellier and Ware perform music by French composer Rita Strohl (1865-1941), Francis Poulenc, Kurt Weill, Arnold Schoenberg, Mischa Spoliansky (including the wonderful Ich bin ein Vamp), and Cathy Berberian's amazing Stripsody, with outfits created by designer Rebekka Dornhege Reyes.

Silent film has become a popular part of the festival's programme and this year it is the American horror classic Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1920), with a live soundtrack from Odeon Leicester Square’s organist Donald MacKenzie.

Image by Kirsty Matheson

The Hebrides Ensemble will be performing Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire with soprano Stephanie Lamprea, alongside Helen Grime's Pierrot Miniatures and the Scottish premiere of Brushstrokes of Nightmares and Dreams by Electra Perivolaris and an exhibition of new paintings by Kirsty Matheson, an artist in whose work music and art intertwine and who has done a sequence of 21 paintings for the 21 movements of Schoenberg's work.

Fiddle/harp duo Twelfth Day will be presenting their unique blend of classical skill and folk roots in the cathedral's cloister in an event aimed at families, whilst in the evening the crypt is the location for Twilight in the Crypt with saxophone improvisations from Scottish jazz legend Tommy Smith, and Octandre Ensemble making their Scottish debut with time-space-sound-light, a reflective sequence of music by Christian Mason.

The festival ends with another family-friendly lunchtime event: a recital from organist Katherine Dienes-Williams, Director of Music at Guildford Cathedral, whose programme evokes everything from Hollywood glamour to Scottish folk songs—with a sighting of some penguins along the way!

There are tours of the cathedral and wider Glasgow including the necropolis, and which links up with the museum of Glasgow Royal Infirmary across the precinct.

Full details from the festival's website.

Concerto Copenhagen makes its Scottish debut as Ensemble in Residence at the Lammermuir Festival

The Collegiate Church of St Mary the Virgin

Concerto Copenhagen, led by Lars Ulrik Mortensen, will be making its Scottish debut on Monday 9 September 2024 when it gives the first of four concerts as Ensemble in Residence at the Lammermuir Festival, the first ensemble that the festival has invited from outside the UK.

All four concerts are in St Mary's Church, Haddington. The first focuses on Dietrich Buxtehude and composers in his circle, with names - Tunder, Erben, Kirchhoff, Schmelzer, Weckmann - that are probably unfamiliar but help us understand the musical culture. Their second concert, Stylus Phantasticus focuses on Heinrich Biber, along with Buxtehude, Schmelzer and more, then focus turns to Georg Muffat (whose ancestors were Scots named Moffat!), with four sonatas (in fact they are more like concerti grossi) from his Armonico Tributo. 

Finally, they focus on violinist Johan Helmich Roman, young Swedish violinist who left the German orientated musical scene of Stockholm and came to London where, with Handel newly arrived from Rome, musical taste was much more Italian. He played in Handel’s orchestra and met composers from all over Europe, returning to Stockholm in 1721 where he worked in the Royal court for the rest of his career.

Concerto Copenhagen's concerts take place in The Collegiate Church of St Mary the Virgin, one of the great ecclesiastical buildings of mediaeval Scotland, founded in 1380 and known for centuries as The Lamp of Lothian. Severely damaged in the 16th Century, after the Reformation only the nave was used as a parish church, with the choir and tower remaining roofless.  It was finally restored to its former glory in the 1970s, and is Scotland's longest church as well as one of its most beautiful, with a wonderfully warm, resonant acoustic.

And there is more! The festival's delights range from Veronique Gens in concert to Scottish Opera in Britten's Albert Herring.

Full details from the festival's website.

Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Scots Opera Project team up for Scottish Gaelic & Scots Language version of 'Dido and Aeneas'

Now this is intriguing. Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Scots Opera Project are teaming up for a production of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in an exciting new Scottish Gaelic and Scots Language version! David Douglas directs with a Scots translation by Dr Michael Dempster and Gaelic translation by Marcas Mac an Tuairneir. And no, I'm not clear how they plan to make the mix of languages work, but Scots Opera Project debuted this version in 2018 and in 2019, was nominated for both a Scots Language and a Scottish Gaelic Award for Dido and Aeneas.

The outdoor performances run at Pitlochry Festival Theatre from 31 August to 15 September, and will feature a professional cast including Kilmarnock-based tenor David Douglas, Perthshire based soprano Coleen Nicoll, Edinburgh based Northern Irish soprano Emma Morwood, Glasgow based baritone Colin Murray and Stirling based Austrian mezzo-soprano Ulrike Wutscher, and community chorus. 

In 2022, Scots Opera Project gave the Scottish premiere of Granville Bantock and Marjory Kennedy-Fraser’s The Seal-Woman.

Further details from the Pitlochry Festival Theatre's website.

New music, traditional Scottish fiddle music, puppets and more: Scottish Ensemble's 2024/25 season

The Scottish Ensemble

Collaboration is at the heart of the Scottish Ensemble's recently announced 2024/25 season. A season that includes new work by Hannah Kendall, a new collaboration with fiddle player and violinist Donald Grant, concerts with Héloïse Werner as both composer and singers, a programme with puppeteer Mark Down and further performances of their collaboration with Mish-Mash Productions.

The season begins with Resound (September 2024 – Arran, Kirkcudbright, Perth, Mull, Seil, Glasgow), five centuries of mind-expanding music curated by the ensemble's violist, Andrew Berridge, intended to explore how music can transport and inspire, lifting spirits and strengthening connections. The ensembe will also be travelling down to London to feature in opening weekend of the Southbank Centre’s 2024-25 classical season, with a programme, that includes Philip Glass’ Symphony No. 3 and the ensemble's collaboration with Mish-Mash Productions, in Sync, will be popping up at the Southbank Centre and in Nottingham.

Their Concerts by Candlelight tour (December 2024 – Perth, Inverness, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dunblane) includes a new work by Hannah Kendall, the second composition supported by Scottish Ensemble’s Calder Commissioning Fund, created through a transformative donation, made in memory of Scottish Ensemble’s late founder John Calder.  The Law of Gravity (February 2025 – Edinburgh, Dundee, Glasgow) sees the ensemble collaborate with master puppeteer Mark Down and his team at Blind Summit to explore what puppetry can reveal about music, in a programme that features Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night and Philip Glass’ Symphony No. 3.

April 2025 finds them joining forces in Edinburgh, Inverness, Aberdeen, Findhorn with Donald Grant, with whom the ensemble collaborated at Celtic Connections 2024. Their new project features traditional and contemporary string music that bridges genres and tells of life in the Highlands, through Grant's new work Thuit an Oidhche Oirnn (The Night Overtook Us).  Then in Concerts for a Summer’s Night (June 2025 – Perthshire, Strathpeffer, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee),  singer and composer Héloïse Werner features as both soloist and composer.

The ensemble’s work with a new generation of musicians also continues with its Young Artists programme, in partnership with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. As well as supporting talented young string players through a week-long residency in January, selected Young Artists are offered the opportunity to join one of the ensemble’s Scottish tours as a performer in 2025.

Full details from the Scottish Ensemble's website.

Dunedin Consort 2024/25: Three premieres, Handel's Susanna, chamber-scale tours of Scotland, side-by-side with Royal Academy of Music & Royal Scottish National Orchestra

The Dunedin Consort has announced its 2024/25 season with concerts across Scotland, a continuation of its residency at Wigmore Hall as well as other London appearances. Contemporary music continues play an interesting role in the group's seasons. 2024/25 features the Scottish premiere of David Fennessy’s Bog Cantata in Edinburgh as part of a programme featuring music by Zelenka, Telemann and Bach with Fennessy using similar orchestration to the Baroque works, and An Italian Christmas at Wigmore Hall includes a second new commission from composer Caroline Shaw. 

Singers from the group join forces with the Hebrides Ensemble for James MacMillan's Since it was the day of Preparation, his extraordinary setting of the Resurrection story. Whilst players from the group join forces with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra for a further collaboration, a world premiere from Edinburgh-based composer Neil Tòmas Smith [see my 2023 interview with Neil]. 

The season opens in September with countertenor Alexander Chance joining Matthew Truscott and the group in a programme of Vivaldi, Tuma and Zelenka in St Andrews and at the Lammermuir Festival. Then soprano Carolyn Sampson sings Bach with John Butt directing in a programme that includes Locatelli, Morlock and Handel in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Perth.

Christmas sees Messiah returning with Butt directing soloists Rachel Redmond, Helen Charlston, Samuel Boden and Matthew Brook, plus a BSL interpreter in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Antwerp. There is more Handel at St Martin in the Fields, London, and Vienna with Butt conducting Susanna with Anna Dennis in the title role, plus Alexander Chance, Matthew Brook and Joshua Ellicott. April 2025 sees John Butt directing Bach's St Matthew Passion with Hugo Hymas as the Evangelist.

Nicholas Mulroy directs a chamber tour of Purcell around Scotland visiting Cumbernauld, Musselburgh, Motherwell, and Greenock, and an a capella choral tour to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, and Aberdeen.

Butt will direct the group performing side by side with students from the Royal Academy of Music Baroque Soloists in Purcell's Hail, Bright Cecilia plus Sir John Clerk of Penicuik’s cantata, Leo Scotiae irritatus c.1700. This Cantata for solo soprano and orchestra depicts Scotland’s ambitious (and unsuccessful) venture to set up an empire in Panama! The group's Bridging the Gap programme also provides early career development opportunities for singers, whilst the Intrada programme provides opportunities for young instrumentalists.

The group's family-friendly concerts has expanded with Family Vivaldi, Enchanted Snake, and the popular Children’s Messiah in Glasgow and Edinburgh. There is also a wide-ranging Learning and Participation programme, encompassing instrumental and voice clinics for non-professional musicians, choral workshops, and choral weekend for all ages and abilities, open rehearsals, relaxed performances, and schools' workshops.

Full details from the Dunedin Consort's website.

Accordionist Melia Simonot announced as winner of inaugural BBC Radio Scotland Young Classical Musician of the Year

Melia Simonot, winner of inaugural BBC Radio Scotland Young Classical Musician of the Year

21-year-old accordion player Melia Simonot was announced as the winner of BBC Radio Scotland's inaugural Young Classical Musician of the Year competition, held in association with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. At the final on Saturday 8 June 2024 four finalists competed, accordion player Melia Simonot in music by Mikołaj Majkusiak , harpist Gina Gallacher in Ginastera's Harp Concerto, pianist Vita Hofinger Mihelič in Paderewski's Piano Concerto, and oboist Chris Vettraino in Martinu's Oboe Concerto, performing with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor Martyn Brabbins at Glasgow's City Halls.

Melia Simonot is in her final year of Bachelor studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in the class of the distinguished Serbian teacher, Djordje Gajic. In addition to the title of BBC Radio Scotland Young Classical Musician 2024 and a trophy (designed by Simon Baker), Simonot will receive a recording session with BBC Scotland and a special feature on the station’s Classical Now programme.

The Young Classical Musician of the Year competition aims to encourage and highlight the wealth of talent in Scotland's vibrant classical scene. It joins the ranks of Radio Scotland’s other music competitions, including the Young Traditional Musician of the Year, the Young Jazz Musician of the Year, and BBC Introducing Scottish Act of the Year. 

The current winner of the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year, announced in February, is singer, mandolin, and guitar player Calum McIlroy from Aberdeenshire. Pianist Michael Shankland from Edinburgh holds the title of BBC Radio Scotland Young Jazz Musician of the Year, while Bottle Rockets from Glasgow were named BBC Introducing Scottish Act of the Year 2024 in March.

See the BBC website for more information about finalists, and you can hear all the finalists on BBC Sounds.

Scottish Young Musicians Solo Performer of the Year 2024.

Euan Kemp, winner of
Scottish Young Musicians Solo Performer of the Year 2024
(Photo: Ian Georgeson)

Euan Kemp, 17-year-old Saxophonist from East Dunbartonshire has won the Scottish Young Musicians Solo Performer of the Year 2024 the final of which took place at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland on 26 May 2024. Kemp, an S6 pupil from The Music School of Douglas Academy, has been playing Saxophone since he was 11 years old and performed music by Ryo Noda and André Jolivet.

Second place was shared by pianist Magnus Shanks (aged 16) from Aberdeenshire and accordion player Jake Johnstone (aged 15) from South Lanarkshire, who as accompanied on the piano by his younger sister. There were 31 finalists in all with a range of instruments including saxophone, clarsach, accordion, guitar, pipes, trumpet and more. The day culminated in performances by the winning Scottish Young Musicians Brass Ensemble of the Year, Campbeltown Brass Ensemble and Ensemble of the Year, Belmont Academy Woodwind Ensemble from South Ayrshire. 

The Scotland-wide competition is run by The Music Education Partnership Group who work with every school and local authority to support music education and opportunities. The final is the culmination of individual school and local authority competitions, and the competition this year involved local authorities covering 99% of Scotland’s population.

Singer and broadcaster Jamie MacDougall, who hosted the final, commented, "The way the different Local Authorities have embraced this competition and recognised it across the country has helped to give it the status and importance it deserves. For young musicians to have an opportunity to perform and be heard we must provide appropriate resources to schools and those who work with young people in music – without that there is no future of music in Scotland."

Further information from the Scottish Young Musicians website.

Bruckner’s Skull, Nordic Music Days, New Dimensions and Re:Connect: Scottish Chamber Orchestra's new season

Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Maxim Emelyanychev in Aberdeen (Photo: Christopher Bowen)

The 2024/25 season sees Maxim Emelyanychev returning for his sixth season as principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) with nine concerts, both as conductor and as soloist. Andrew Manze takes up a new role as SCO's principal guest conductor, directing three concerts during the season from Scandinavian contemporary music to Mozart to Faure's Requiem.

The SCO will be giving seven premieres during the season including Bruckner’s Skull by Jay Capperauld, the SCO's associate composer. Bruckner’s Skull delves into Bruckner’s macabre fascination with fellow composers Schubert and Mozart. SCO will also be premiering Capperauld's Carmina Gadelica, inspired by the wonders of Gaelic hymns, incantations and lore, whilst his The Great Grumpy Gaboon, a musical adventure written in collaboration with children's author Corrina Campbell, returns after sell-out performances throughout Scotland in 2023.

Mark Wigglesworth conducts the UK premiere of Péter Eötvös' Aurora with SCO’s principal double bass Nikita Naumov. Eötvös, who died in March aged 80, dreamt up the work while contemplating the Northern Lights aboard a plan high above Alaska. And there will be music from the SCO’s youngest-ever commissioned composer, Georgian teenager Tsontne Zédginidze. 

As part of Nordic Music Days, Andrew Manze conducts Scottish premiere of Anders Hillborg's Viola Concerto with Laurence Power is the soloist, alongside music by Madeleine Isaksson and Sir James MacMillan’s powerful Second Symphony, written for the SCO in 1999. This concert is also part of a new SCO concert series, New Dimensions, with a more informal concert format and programmes designed to encourage audiences to stretch musical imaginations. Other concerts in the series are Ad Absurdum, with Maxim Emelyanychev conducting Jörg Widmann’s Ad Absurdum, Sir James Macmillan’s Tryst and John Adams’ Chamber Concerto, and Parabola where violinist Pekka Kuusisto and pianist/conductor Simon Crawford-Phillips join the SCO for an eclectic programme of music by Thomas Adès, Timo Andres, Sally Beamish and Haydn.

The SCO's long-standing Re:Connect programme for people living with dementia will continue to be delivered at Royal Edinburgh Hospital. Building this, and developing the SCO's ongoing partnership with Alzheimer Scotland, the SCO presents four dementia-friendly concerts in the 2024-25 Season. The performances offer an afternoon of music and light refreshments designed especially for people living with dementia, their friends and carers. 

The SCO will enter the fourth year of its residency in Craigmillar in Edinburgh, continuing to deliver workshops, events and performances across the community through its regular schools’ programme, which sees the SCO working with one local nursery, four primary schools and the local high school throughout the academic year and a programme of community projects with different local partners across the Greater Craigmillar area. And the SCO will also offer a programme of open rehearsals for secondary school pupils so they can discover how a professional orchestra works, see a performance take shape and observe how the Orchestra prepares for a public performance

Full details from the SCO website.

Small but mighty: Music at Paxton 2024

Paxton House

Based at the delightful 18th-century Paxton House in the Borders, Music at Paxton is a chance to hear international, national and local artists in the famous early 19th-century Picture Gallery hung with paintings from the National Gallery of Scotland. This year, Music at Paxton runs from 19 to 28 July 2024, and features a sequence of concerts curated by violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen and pianist Cordelia Williams, including a concert at Duns Parish Church preceded by a guided Festival Walk.

This year's festival Associate Ensemble, the Consone Quartet will be appearing with an array of guests including composer Gavin Bryars, violist Francesca Gilbert, cellist Alexander Rolton, and mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston, with music including the Scottish première of Gavin Bryars’s String Sextet ‘The Bridges of Königsberg’.

Violinist Viktoria Mullova makes her festival debut with Scottish pianist Alasdair Beatson, whilst tenor Mark Padmore and pianist Jocelyn Freeman present an evening of song and host a masterclass. Other artists include Ensemble Hesperi, Kosmos Ensemble, and Mithras Trio who are joined by narrator Gerda Stevenson for Rothschild’s Violin by Anton Chekov and Shostakovich's Piano Trio No. 2.

Northumberland-based Coquet Concert Band plays swing, Scots Singer of the Year 2022 Beth Malcolm and guitarist Heather Cartwright form a modern folk-inspired duo, Roo Geddes, fiddle and Neil Sutcliffe, accordion combine music and storytelling to introduce traditional Scottish tunes and songs to young children and their families. 

And during May and June there are free taster concerts in association with Live Music Now Scotland featuring pianist Matthew Shiel and Silver Keys clarinet quartet.

Full details from the festival website.