Since June 2017, the Scottish Government have been speaking to artists, cultural organisations and communities across the country in the first stage of developing a culture strategy for Scotland. The culture strategy will create an overarching framework to support the long term development of culture in Scotland.
News
Post date: Tuesday, 5 December 2017 - 4:52pm
Composer Edmund Hunt looks back on his first rehearsals with Newcastle-based choir The Singers for the Adopt a Composer project.
Post date: Monday, 4 December 2017 - 4:50pm
When we speak to new adult pupils we always hear stories of ‘I used to play when I was younger and I’ve always wanted to get back into it’. Perhaps you feel the same but ‘getting back into it’ feels too daunting a task. Sure, it takes a bit of confidence to make the initial enquiry but most music schools will wrap you up in a big warm welcome to put you at ease.
Post date: Tuesday, 28 November 2017 - 4:25pm
What a great evening we had when Peter Yarde Martin (composer) and Jenni Pinnock (mentor) ventured to Honingham for a Thursday evening practice session!
Post date: Tuesday, 28 November 2017 - 12:59pm
We have had a few enquiries recently about the new data protection regulations –GDPR– due to take effect from May 2018. It is good to know that groups are thinking about this.
Most people like to know that any data someone holds on them is safe, and used in a fair way. If you are running a music group it is reasonable that anyone you work with would expect the same of the data you hold on them.
So considering how you collect and use data is a good thing to be doing in general - and GDPR is an excellent opportunity to review your practices.
Post date: Monday, 27 November 2017 - 3:52pm
Dorothy Wilson, Chair of Making Music, presented Clare Edwards with the Lady Hilary Groves Prize for 2017 at a concert this Saturday.
Awarded to one individual in the UK each year, the Prize is presented for outstanding contribution to music in the community.
Post date: Wednesday, 22 November 2017 - 3:35pm
In June 2017, the Scottish Government began writing a Culture Strategy for Scotland, which is due to be completed in 2018, and will ‘position culture as having intrinsic value and contributing both directly and indirectly to the health, wealth and success of our nation’.
At the launch in Glasgow, Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop emphasised that the process will be “part of an ongoing debate around the role that culture has in all our futures. We are keen to take the conversation to as many people as possible”.
A chance to be heard
Post date: Wednesday, 22 November 2017 - 12:40pm
St Sepulchre’s, a church in the City of London, was in the headlines this summer. Known as the National Musicians' Church, it houses the Musicians’ Chapel with the grave of Sir Henry Wood, founder of the BBC Proms who started his musical career at the church, and keeps the Musicians’ Book of Remembrance. Annual services are held to commemorate British musicians.
Post date: Tuesday, 14 November 2017 - 5:09pm
I am on the train from Glasgow to Manchester, on my way back from my first meeting with Merchant Sinfonia for the Adopt a Composer project. The hills are surfing in and out of view, crested by turbines. I am listening to Kaija Saariaho’s Verblendungen, and it syncs up uncannily with hundreds of slowly-rotating white blades.
Suddenly I am obsessed with wind turbines: Scotland is blazing ahead with renewable energy and there is both a beauty and a practicality to the machines, just like much of Scottish culture as I have experienced it.
Post date: Tuesday, 14 November 2017 - 12:59pm
I've rounded off the past year with an absolute treat of a concert with KEMS Concert Band. We've experimented with new instrumental effects that can be played on wind instruments, I've devised workshops and games that have introduced the band to new ways of counting time (tricky at first, but doable in the end!) and we've had a lot of fun along the way.
