EMS News January 2015

ENTERPRISEMUSICSCOTLAND

EMS NEWSPILGRIM OF CURIOSITY

The world premiere of ‘Pilgrim of Curiosity’ took place on Sunday 26th October at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow. The project was funded by Creative Scotland as part of the Promoting Equalities Programme and was devised to explore different ways of engaging with new and existing audiences by providing diverse platforms for audiences to experience chamber music.

Composed by Oliver Searle for EMS Residency Project ensemble Athenaeum Winds, ‘Pilgrim of Curiosity’, explored amalgamations of culture through a number of musical memories and references inspired by visits to places of worship all over the world. The piece incorporated elements of movement by the musicians, and artist/lighting designer Trent Kim collaborated with Oliver on the project, installing television screens which projected accompanying images, designing lighting for sequences, and making dyed pieces of cloth which members of Athenaeum Winds offered to the audience in between movements.

“It has been a fantastic experience to work on Pilgrim of Curiosity. The quintet are an open-minded, and inspiring group of musicians and the resulting direction of the final piece has given me much to think about for future projects.” - Oliver Searle

The event succeeded in attracting a diverse audience with 71% of those attending being between the ages of 18 and 34. 18% of audience members had not attended a chamber music concert before. The work was very well received

with 100% of audience members saying they would attend, and recommend, another event like ‘Pilgrim of Curiosity’. Further performances are currently being planned at the Edinburgh Fringe this summer, and the work has received interested from a number of festivals.

A brilliant video of the performance, including interviews with Oliver Searle and members of Athenaeum Winds can be viewed online: http://vimeo.com/111513197

‘Fine suite of music, imaginatively staged’

‘I loved this!’

‘Very atmospheric’

Watch other audience reactions to the event online: http://vimeo.com/111407595

JANUARY 2015

RESIDENCY PROJECT

We are delighted to announce that the Aurea Quartet (Gongbo Jiang,Wen Wang, Christine Anderson & Abby Hayward) has been selected as EMS Residency Project Ensemble 2014-16. Based in Glasgow, the Aurea Quartet comprises four prize-winning graduates of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

During their first year performing together, they achieved joint first prize at the 2011 Cavatina Intercollegiate Quartet Competition in London, and won all of the chamber music prizes at the RCS. They gave their Wigmore Hall debut in February 2012 as part of the Pro Corda Musical Encounters Programme. Later that year, they were finalists in the 1st Sándor Végh International String Quartet Competition in Budapest where they were awarded a special prize for their outstanding performance of Lajtha String Quartet No.7.

The Aurea Quartet recently won the St Martin-in-the-Fields chamber music prize 2014 which has resulted in concert engagements across the U.K. and the quartet has recently been selected as St. John Smith’s Square Young Artists 2014/15.

“We are delighted to have been selected as the EMS ensemble in residence for 2014/16! It will be a really exciting two years for us as we develop our playing and repertoire further and embrace the opportunities for collaboration and guidance that the project brings.”

For more information please visit www.aureaquartet.co.uk or watch the quartet perform live:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-VBpwMB9VU&list=PL4684E64F23304396&index=3

RESIDENCY PROJECT ALUMNI NEWS

Sax Ecosse are delighted to be celebrating their 10th season in 2014/15, which began with a concert in their home city of Glasgow at Renfield St Stephens Church in October.

“I don’t think any of us can quite believe ten years have passed since we first began rehearsing as students at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2004. We owe a great deal to EMS and the fantastic Residency Project in 2008/09, introducing us to music societies around Scotland, training us to deliver education workshops, getting us business savvy and providing dedicated coaching sessions with world class chamber musicians at breathtaking venues such as Crear.”

Celebrations continue with more concerts across the U.K throughout 2015. www.saxecosse.com

High Heels & Horse Hair are in their second year of the Residency Project and recently completed their first EMS tour, visiting Lochaber, Skye and Aberdeen with a programme including works by Fennessy, Bartok and Kodály. They have enjoyed Residencies in Glasgow and Ediburgh working with theatre director Ben Twist and cellist Robert Irvine. The duo’s own project TRANSPLANTED was very well received in a variety of locations across Scotland last autumn.

‘Pilgrim of Curiosity’ was the culmination of Athenaeum Wind’s participation in the EMS Residency Project. They performed a smaller scale version of the work in concerts for Westbourne Music, Corstophine Music, Tornaveen Hall and Kirkcaldy Music Society.

“The last two years on the Enterprise Music Scotland Residency programme has been a phenomenal journey and the experience we have gained as a chamber ensemble and also individually has been invaluable. We have had many memorable concerts in places such as Skye, Stranraer and Corstorphine, and the time granted to us for rehearsal weeks in such a beautiful location as Crear was greatly appreciated. Every tutor that we worked with brought some new idea to the group and we now regularly recall advice they gave us throughout our rehearsals. To have such intensive coaching from musicians of international calibre like Will Conway, Mark O’Keefe and Jackie Shave would have not been possible without the help of EMS and we thank them for this opportunity. For us the highlight of the residency was working with Oliver Searle and Trent Kim on Pilgrim of Curiosity. It resulted in a wonderful new piece for us to add to our repertoire and was enjoyed by both us as the performers and the audience.

I think we can safely say that without the EMS residency, our quintet would definitely not have achieved half of what we have in the last two years and we will be eternally grateful for everything they have done for us. Thank you!”

TOURS CONFERENCE 2014

The annual Tours Conference took place on Saturday 22nd November 2014 at the Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA) in Glasgow. Following a welcome address by EMS Chairman Roy Alexander, General Manager Paul Tracey presented a round-up of EMS activity during the year and Helen McVey, EMS Creative Director, updated promoters on the recent Creative Scotland funding announcement. There were enjoyable performances by EMS Residency Ensembles, Aurea String Quartet and Athenaeum Winds, and the Tours Planning sessions gave promoters the opportunity to discuss ensembles they had booked for the forthcoming season. Interesting and informative workshops on Digital Media (Dianne Grieg, Cultural Republic) and Fundraising (Helen McVey and Emma Campbell, Creative Scotland) were inspiring and encouraging.

“We greatly enjoyed it and want to thank you all for organising it. It is such a good way of meeting members of other Music Clubs, and we appreciated the chance to hear the Aurea Quartet and Athenaeum Winds.”

WORKSHOPS UPDATE

In the 2013/14 academic year EMS workshops reached more young people than ever before with 3800 participants in 98 workshops across Scotland. High levels of activity have continued in the current academic year with 42 workshops taking place in Autumn 2014. This included SAX ECOSSE who gave workshops and concerts at Moffat Academy and West Kilbride Primary School and ARCTIC WINDS who worked with 65 children in a Wind Band workshop at Crieff High School. Inspirational young pianist YUANFAN YANG visited Campbeltown Grammar school where he performed, lead a masterclass and Q&A session and then improvised on the spot with themes suggested by students!

“We had a fantastic workshop with Yuanfan this morning. The kids had a great time and took lots of selfies etc. at the end. We are very grateful to EMS for providing this opportunity. Many of these kids would never have been to a classical concert before, let alone met a musicians of this calibre so we were thrilled to have this opportunity to offer them.”

The CASTALIAN QUARTET, ATALANTA PIANO QUARTET and ATHENAEUM WINDS took part in primary and secondary school workshops organised by Perth Chamber Music, Aberdeen Chamber Music and Kirkcaldy Music Society and TRAVELLING BY TUBA gave a workshop and performance to over 300 people at the Fife Festival of Music Family Funday.

The SCOTTISH CLARINET QUARTET gave workshops in Rannoch Primary School, organised by Music in Rannoch, and Marianne Rawles of the FELL CLARINET QUARTET provided a

report on their workshops in Inverurie, which were organised by Inverurie Music:

“We thoroughly enjoyed visiting two local schools on Friday, and presenting workshops for some of their young musicians. We played to instrumentalists of all year groups at Alford Academy in the morning, and to music classes from a variety of year groups at Inverurie Academy in the afternoon. The quartet introduced the pupils to our range of instruments, and demonstrated how the clarinet works, with the help of some B and Q wastepipes! We explored a variety of musical genres, including a number of pieces which we would be performing in our recital on Saturday. The pupils were very receptive throughout the workshops, and seemed particularly to enjoy Eddie McGuire’s Chinese Knotwork, and Vent by Graham Fitkin. They were also interested in the extended techniques, which we described and demonstrated before playing a Klezmer arrangement, Mazeltov. The students asked some pertinent questions about the music, and our lives as musicians.”

Several exciting projects are taking place in spring 2015. Internationally-acclaimed violinist CHLOË HANSLIP will give a workshop for Perth Chamber Music whilst the SCOTTISH WIND ENSEMBLE plan to work with over 350 students in Peebles organised by Music in Peebles. The Badenoch & Strathspey Music Festival host DANIEL’s BEARD who will perform Jabberwocky at 10 primary schools in March. Please check www.enterprisemusicscotland.com/education/workshops for regular updates on education activity happening across Scotland.

AREA PRESENTATIONS 2015

All promoters are encouraged to attend this year’s Area Presentations. It’s a wonderful opportunity to discuss matters with EMS staff and meet with other promoters working in your area.

Friday 10th April: The Spectrum Centre, Inverness

Friday 17th April: The Tolbooth, Stirling

Friday 24th April: Eastgate Theatre & Arts Centre, Peebles

TRAD ARTS SMALL FUND

In 2014/15 EMS was given an allocation of £35,000 by Creative Scotland to distribute to support small projects involving Scottish Traditional Dance, Music or Storytelling. With only one application deadline in October 2014, EMS received 38 applications requesting a total of £92,618 and were able to support 17 exciting projects with a geographical spread across Scotland, from Barra & Uist to Kirkcaldy and Glasgow to Fochabers.

Enterprise Music Scotland c/o A9 Partnership Ltd, Abercorn School,

Newton, Broxburn EH52 6PZ

Tel: 01506 834700 Fax: 01506834710 Email: [email protected]

www.enterprisemusicscotland.com

Scottish Charity No. 20803

BOARD UPDATE

EMS welcomes two new directors to the board, Morag Campbell (who joins as Vice-Chair) and Manus Carey.

Morag has been Chief Executive of the National Youth Choir of Scotland since 2012 and has overall strategic and operational responsibility for the organisation. Morag has combined careers as performer, teacher and senior manager and prior to joining NYCoS was Associate Principal of the Creative Arts Faculty at Stevenson College.

“In May I attended the Music Education Matters conference organised by EMS. It was a great day of sharing and learning and I am delighted to be joining the Enterprise Music Scotland Board at this exciting time in the development of the organisation and am looking forward to playing my part in the further growth.”

Manus’ broad studies from an early age in piano, violin, clarinet and as a cathedral chorister laid the foundation for a deep love of and fascination with music and live performance. Prior to moving to Glasgow he spent six years as Head of Creative Programming at Manchester Camerata overseeing the orchestra’s programming and planning in addition to developing innovative digital and cross-Arts work. His present role as Executive Producer at RSNO involves overseeing all the programming and artistic strategy for the orchestra.

STAFF CHANGES

John Slack joined the EMS team in July 2013 as Projects Assistant and a year later took on the post of Education & Projects Officer for an interim period. During this time he worked closely with promoters throughout the EMS network organising events such as the Tours Planning Conference and he supported EMS education activity throughout Scotland. Later this month, John takes up a post with the Hebrides Ensemble as Concerts and Administration Manager and will continue to run his own group, the Berkeley Ensemble whilst working as a freelance clarinettist and educator.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed being part of such a fantastic team at EMS and meeting so many wonderful promoters who are doing so much to ensure chamber music continues to flourish in Scotland. I very much hope that our paths cross again before too long!”

EMS is delighted to welcome Angela Gray to the newly created post of Learning and Development Manager. Angela comes to work for EMS from Creative Scotland, where she managed the CashBack for

“I am delighted to be joining the Board of EMS. The work which EMS does is crucial to the support and development of chamber music, its musicians and promoters throughout Scotland, and I am excited to be part of supporting this into future years”.

Creativity programme and prior to that was involved in running of the Edinburgh Mela Festival as Engagement Project Manager. Angela has also worked internationally with organisations including the British council in Spain and charities and NGOs in Sudan and is passionate about engaging with diverse communities through the arts, believing that the arts can be an invaluable catalyst for change.

“I am really pleased to be joining the EMS team at this exciting period of development for the organisation. This is a wonderful opportunity to build upon the success of the wide-ranging education programme and I am keen to utilise my skills and expertise to help ensure the fantastic work EMS does is accessible to as many people as possible.”

EMS would like to thank outgoing directors Anne Cumberland (Vice-chair) and Roy Alexander (Chair) who have both been strong supporters of the organisation over what has been a transformative period. Anne has provided an important link to the Higher Education sector and played a significant role in developing EMS Education work. Anne also served as a Director of the Chamber Music Forum prior to its merger with EMS. Roy served as Company Secretary as well as Chairman and has been a constant source of professional expertise, providing guidance and support to several chairmen before taking over the role himself.

“On behalf of the entire board of directors, and chamber music fans in music clubs all over Scotland, I would like to express a very sincere and heartfelt vote of thanks to both Anne and Roy for showing exemplary commitment, wise counsel and diligent governance. Being an unpaid Trustee Director is not for the idle or faint-hearted. Both Anne and Roy have put in substantial hours of work to make EMS into the successful and widely recognised organisation that it now is. We wish Anne well for the future and hope that she will stay in touch. I am pleased to report that Roy will stay in the EMS team as Company Secretary, and I look forward to continuing to work closely with him.“ - Tom Chadwick, Incoming Chairman