Music
Burns & Beyond festival goes online
EDINBURGH’S “Burns & Beyond” festival is returning for a third year, with a series of free online events. The fesitval will begin on 23 January and run until Burns Night. Singer KT Tunstall will perform “Ae Fond Kiss”, while Aidan O’Rourke from musical trio Lau has selected artists to deliver music and poetry during a…
Read MoreOnline Celtic Connections opens on Friday
CELTIC Connections’ virtual festival begins on Friday, with more than 30 online performances spread across 19 days. The programme includes concerts by artists including Blazin’ Fiddles, Kathleen MacInnes, and Shooglenifty. Their performances were recorded in venues around Glasgow and further afield. The festival would normally draw more than 100,000 visitors to the city during January.…
Read MoreFormer Red Hot Chilli Piper gives free online chanter lessons
FORMER Red Hot Chilli Piper Craig Muirhead is taking to YouTube to deliver chanter lessons to pipers in lockdown. Muirhead said: “The piping community is struggling right now and has been since the first lockdown last year. “There is no cost for the lessons, we just want to share our passion for piping with anyone…
Read MoreCrieff Hydro continues Christmas piping tradition
CRIEFF Hydro Hotel boss Stephen Leckie and his family continued their tradition of ringing in Christmas day with a pipes and drums performance. Leckie has played the pipes at the family’s hotel at Christmas and Hogmanay for the past 47 years. He was joined this year by his children – Charlie, Richard, and Louisa –…
Read MoreCaird 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…
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