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| 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.
