JOURNEYS NORTH & SOUTH Last summer, two visiting musicians from Denmark walked into the Crail Museum and were thrilled to find the name Thomas Kingo on a display. It turns out that he was a Crail weaver who left Scotland to work at the Danish Court in the 1580s. His grandson, also called Thomas, was to become one of the most important poets and composers of his age. Few Scots know his story but all around Scandinavia his hymns are still sung every week. Some of his tunes have merged with folk traditions, others can be performed like Baroque motets. We have commissioned a new piece inspired by Kingo’s story from Norwegian composer Henning Sommerro, who is best known in Scotland for his collaboration with Aly Bain on a piece for fiddle and string orchestra called Follow the Moonstone. He has his own links to our man, as Kingo Jr married a woman from Sommerro’s home village. For us he is writing a kind of musical journey that will take you from Scotland North to Scandinavia in the company of Shetland fiddler, Chris Stout, harpist Catriona McKay and the endlessly inventive Mr McFall’s Chamber. Once that project fell into place we wondered why we should stop there… so we didn’t! We invited a duo of very special Norwegian musicians, fiddler Nils Økland and bass player Mats Eilertsen, to come and perform alongside the Scots. The Norwegians are often called ‘the Irish of Scandinavia’ and they bring warmth, humour and wonderful music. Once that project fell into place we wondered why we should stop there… so we didn’t! Talking to violinist Stephanie Gonley about what she would like to perform with the SCO Strings gave us the next step. She will lead the strings in a journey that starts in Orkney, travels to Norway (for Grieg), Finland (Sibelius), and Sweden (Dag Wirén), before finally returning home to the East Neuk. They will then bring the 2017 Festival to a fizzing close by turning South in the company of Tchaikovsky and his exhilarating Souvenir de Florence. It may have been inspired by a holiday in Italy, but it is pure full-blooded Russian in spirit, one of his most exciting and festive scores.
6 Tickets: +44 (0)131 473 2000 or hubtickets.co.uk/eastneukfestival