EUSO Orkney Tour
Published by Aaron June 15th, 2006 in Editorial.
For those of you who care (this being a band website) … I came to Orkney this month with the Edinburgh University String Orchestra on our Highlands and Islands tour. This orchestra are one of the University’s many (I’d say the best) ensembles and perform regularly in Edinburgh and throughout Scotland, conducted by some of Scotland’s most promising young conductors and seasoned professionals.
Our annual Summer tour has proved to be a highlight of the year’s activities and this year was no exception. Exciting repetoire ranged from Vivaldi’s double cello concerto (with soloists Helen Edwards and Pete Harvey) to Grieg’s Holburg Suite and Elgar’s Serenade for Strings. We were delighted for Michael Bawtree (post-grad conductor at the RSAMD) to return as conductor of the ensemble, especially with his expertise on contemporary music: this tour included the World Premiere of Dominic Floyd’s ‘Cloud Pieces’.
The two Orkney concerts were a resounding success. The first took place in Stromness Church of Scotland. This old building has an ideal acoustic for the ensemble: square shaped and resonant. The lack of space proved to be a bonus in one respect: the two soloists had to sit higher up on the pulpit, rather than the usual front-of-the orchestra set-up. Overall, an intimate setting and appreciative audience (members of the congregation even put us up for the night).
The second concert took place in St. Magnus Cathedral and was definitely a highlight of the tour. I was surprised at the very sizeable audience here (the whole thing wasn’t well advertised, though my mum made some valiant efforts) and again, very well received and a lot of fun.
I’ll hopefully be returning with my string quartet in late August, which should be a laugh. Any ideas for venues? Was thinking of going to some of the smaller islands.
I’m not really Marianne, but I’m going to write something here to make Aaron seem more popular (no one cares about his little orchestra…)
Well I am really Marianne, Aaron dont you realise how SAD it is pretending anyone cares? lol im only joking! You could never pretend to be me Aaron your no where near cool enough! xxxxxxxxxxxx