Blog
Gingerbreadmen make a visit to the office!
To get everyone in a festive mood, the SCO staff and a few players spent a tea break icing gingerbread men. Here is a gallery of our efforts!
Season's Greetings from all at the SCO!
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Season's Greetings from the SCO
As the festive season approaches, SCO musicians wish everyone a good holiday with Ding Dong Merrily on High arranged by the late Kevin McCrae.
Here's to a joyous Christmas and best wishes for the New Year from all of us at the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
If you can't watch the video please try here
Out of the Mouths of Babes
The dust may be settling after the SCO's 'Big Ears, Little Ears' pilot series of concerts for parents/carers with babies, but in the meantime we've been busy gathering the audience's reaction to the whole thing.
As part of this, we asked some audience members at Glasgow, Edinburgh and Stirling to offer a few thoughts on camera; and we're delighted to be able to share the resulting short videos with you. Just click on any of the videos below to view. (And keep an eye out for the particularly cute sneezing baby...!)
GLASGOW
EDINBURGH
STIRLING
Richard Egarr and Bach's Christmas Oratorio
If the weather is anything to go by, it definitely feels like the run up to Christmas.
What better way to celebrate the start of the Festive Season than with the SCO's performances of Bach's wonderful Christmas Oratorio in Edinburgh and Glasgow this week (1 and 2 December).
Baroque expert Richard Egarr directs the Orchestra, SCO Chorus and a glittering array of soloists, including soprano Mhairi Lawson, and mezzo Clare Wilkinson in Cantatas 1, 3, 5 and 6, which will be sung in German.
In the short video below, he talks about the magic of Bach's choral work and returning to the SCO.
Richard Egarr's next performances with the SCO are the Baroque Greats concerts in St Andrews, Edinburgh and Glasgow in April.
Musical Mondays
SCO Violinist David Chadwick has been working with SCO Connect on a new project: Musical Mondays
My new favourite way to spend a Monday is to have a ‘Musical Monday’ at the Scottish National Gallery. This is a new joint project from SCO Connect and the National Galleries of Scotland, enjoying the inexhaustible cross-fertilisation between art and music.
At 10am, with today’s P6 class from Juniper Green Primary School itching to get started, our session kicks off with a walk through the gallery to the two paintings we are to focus on, Nasmyth’s A View of Tantallon Castle with the Bass Rock and William McTaggart’s The Storm. Paula and Rosie from the National Galleries lead us on an adventure into the paintings, immediately sparking 30 young imaginations. I’ve probably spent several hours looking at these two paintings by now but still with each session I discover more, thanks to Paula and Rosie, not to mention today’s P6 class. Throughout, Paula and Rosie ask us to describe how the scenes might feel and sound, providing fuel for the next part of the session.
Then it’s time for some music-making. After a brilliant body-percussion warm-up (my co-ordination is slowly improving...) with Jo Fenna and a quick demo of my violin, we set out to learn how Beethoven went about depicting a storm in his Pastoral Symphony. Next, we split up into five small groups, each tasked with a different aspect of the McTaggart Storm upon which to base a short piece. Armed with selections from the vast array of SCO Connect percussion instruments as well as more body-percussion of course, our five groups set about creating a soundscape (or perhaps I should say stormscape).
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Soon it is time to come back together to whip up an impressive musical storm in the gallery. We have musical representations of accelerating heartbeats, flashes of lightning and deep rumbles of thunder, the boat creaks and splinters, the wind howls and the sea rages. Whirly tubes fly above heads, ocean drums roll and feet stamp – in each group, the narrative is as convincing as in Richard Strauss.
Each group appoints one amongst their number to be the conductor and it is wonderful to see each brand-new conductor coming up with their own method of starting and stopping, as well as communicating changes in tempo and dynamics through gesture. What a talented bunch!
So, if you’re in the Scottish National Gallery on a Monday and hear a rumble of thunder but the sky outside is blue, chances are it’s a Musical Monday.
Leon Fleisher - Keyboard Titan Part Two
Legendary American pianist Leon Fleisher joins the SCO this week for a programme of Mozart and Beethoven, which marks his UK conducting debut. He is joined by his protégé, Nicholas Angelich, for Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 2 at the concerts in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.
Fleisher talks about his amazing career, and the disease which almost brought it to an abrupt end, in this interview which was broadcast on the US PBS Newshour in July.
Leon Fleisher - Keyboard Titan
American pianist Leon Fleischer has had a fascinating life; from child prodigy (and the impressive ability to trace his teaching lineage back to Beethoven), to being struck down by a debilitating illness that nearly ended his career, to his painstaking recovery and perseverance in regaining and reshaping his career.
The octogenarian makes his UK conducting debut with the SCO this week with a programme of Beethoven and Mozart in Edinburgh (24 November, sponsored by Lumison), Glasgow (25 November) and Aberdeen (26 November).
Read The Independent's 2010 interview and profile with the legendary keyboard maestro.
Joining him for Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 2 is another American keyboard titan and Fleisher's protégé, Nicholas Angelich. The concerts also feature Beethoven's Coriolan Overture and Mozart's dramatic Symphony No 41 'Jupiter'.
We hope you can join us for
St Abbs Music Project Update
The St Abbs Music Project has come to the end of stage one of working with the local communities. Since June Coldingham and Eyemouth Primary Schools have been working with composer, Howard Moody, to write songs in response to the St Abb’s Head National Trust for Scotland (NTS) site.
Howard has also been working with the Eyemouth Fishermen’s Choir and Mission Crew on a song he wrote for them with the text from an email he received from a keen local historian about the wonderful legends that lurk in the area, especially round the rock known as Waimie Carr.
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This work culminated in two days of performances in the area in earlier this month, with an ensemble of SCO musicians. The first performance was for parents and guests at Eyemouth Primary School and the second at the St Abbs Visitor Centre. The new visitor centre is a beautiful venue overlooking the St Abbs bay and it was a special and fitting end to the project to take the material back home to St Abbs.
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All of the work for the St Abbs Music project will feed into the piece that Howard Moody has been commissioned to write by NTS in response to the St Abb’s Head site for our South of Scotland Tour in May 2012. |
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View more pictures from the project
Read about the project on the 
Read about the project in the Berwickshire News
Work Experience - Grace Reid
Re-draft after re-draft of my application form, it was finally ready to post off to Lucy Lowe in the hope I would be successful in achieving a work experience placement at the orchestra I had heard so much about.
Being part of the exciting new adventure for SCO Connect with the concert series for parents/carers and babies there was never a dull moment. All go from the moment I arrived at the Queens Hall Edinburgh (19th September 2011) I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. Much to my relief I started talking to the first person I saw, who conveniently turned out to be Louise – a key member of the SCO connect team. Not only hearing the fantastic rehearsal of the orchestra itself, meeting the guest conductor Howard Moody; his views put a new perspective on my way of thinking about music. Although I was fascinated by the orchestra as a whole, it was the double bass that caught my attention the most – constant staring in that general direction was unavoidable!
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Although, I had gotten into Edinburgh fairly easily I had a new mode of transport to master – trains! Kirsten Hunter being extremely accommodating to a newbie of Edinburgh walked me to the train station and basically sat me down on the train. Having plenty of time to talk throughout the week we spoke about everything from top gear and the funniest comedians around at the minute to the advantages and disadvantages of studying at university from home!
Meeting the majority of the people from the SCO offices I had plenty to see and experience! As well at the cute babies and mums in Glasgow, Stirling and Edinburgh I attended an Exploring Music class. Generally discussing the many different forms of music and realising that the person sitting right next to you in a room may have heard/ interpreted something completely different to the way you visualised it. Although I don’t think I will be taking up the regular attendance of this class it was a very good way of seeing how music can be easily accessed by all.
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Highlight of the week was feeling part of the SCO and being involved with all those who made the week a success. Lucy, Kirsten and Louise are all very easy to get along with and for only three people they get an awful lot done! I much appreciate the time Lucy in particular has taken to answer my seemingly endless list of questions. Meeting everyone I could and having great fun with the different aspects of the SCO I would definitely advise to anyone to send in an application and who knows! You may get to experience what the SCO has to offer.
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