Contents A place for new music 2 Spotlight on… Elena-Fischer Dieskau 3 Two minutes with two musicians 3 The gift of music 4 Putting the fun in fundraising 4 What’s the score? 5 Primary school players 6 Beyond the school door 7
A place for new music Originally conceived by Paul Stubbings as a way to celebrate the School’s 50th anniversary in June 2023, The Seven Hills Project is now spreading musical waves across Scotland. Dr Valerie Pearson explains more about this joyful celebration of musical creativity and collaboration.
What’s the project’s inspiration and who’s become involved?
STOP PRESS!
SUMMER CONCERT GOES ONLINE This year’s summer concert is destined to be a variety of delights, combining a hint of Eastern promise with repertoire from Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky as well as the premiere of Theory of the Earth by Jay Capperauld, the first of The Seven Hills Project commissions.
Filmed in multiple locations with an audience of pupils and staff only, due to the restrictions in place, the final concert will be aired online on Webinarjam on July 2nd. If you miss it or would like to see it again, catch it on the School’s YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/stmarysmusicschoolscotland
Sign up for our e-newsletter! Keep up to date with everything that’s happening at St Mary’s Music School, including concerts, masterclasses, open days, auditions and advisory auditions, by signing up to receive our regular e-newsletter at www.stmarysmusicschool.co.uk/sign-up
1
The project was initially inspired by the School’s desire to celebrate Edinburgh as the wonderful home of our music making through the topography of its seven hills and the way they connect culture, community and heritage. Importantly, the project was also seen as an opportunity to commission new music, something that the School hasn’t done in a while, and for our own students to perform these new pieces. We invited Alexander McCall Smith to compose seven poems, one for each hill, and then we invited seven composers, each with a close link to the school, to write a piece inspired by the hill and the poem. Alexander introduced us to Ryan Rutherford, a young filmmaker, who created cinematographic films for each of the hills, and the illustrator, Ian McIntosh, who created fantastic logos for each of the seven hills.
Does performing new music pose any challenges for the School’s pupils? Our senior students are at a stage where they’re experimenting with their playing and the sounds they’re producing in standard repertoire. They haven’t established their specialisms yet as professional players so every path is open to them and it’s exciting to see them respond to pieces which are not traditionally structured. Jay Capperauld is the composer of Theory of the Earth, a piece inspired by Arthur’s Seat and the first to be performed. From the outset, he and I had conversations about which students would be best suited to play his composition, and what would be manageable for them. It’s a bit like Stravinsky starting off his violin concerto by working with Dushkin to see what was possible! Nobody in the world knows how Theory of the Earth should sound, we’re giving the very first version of the piece, which is incredibly exciting, so it’s vital that we have Jay’s insight and input. The piece doesn’t follow a straightforward score – there are lots of places where the parts have no shared pulse and are working independently, so it’s been really good fun working with the pupils to help them coordinate their response. Despite lockdown restrictions, it’s been a true collaboration. I’ve been recording rehearsals and sending files to Jay and he came into the School for a final rehearsal before
we broadcast the piece. I think if you present a lot of new music together it can make it difficult to create a frame of reference, so each composition will premiere individually, over our end-of-term concerts between now and June 2023.
“St Mary’s Music School has very clear connections with professional music organisations across Scotland, but the bigger picture of our outreach work is engaging young people. If audiences can see our students performing this new music, what better inspiration for young musicians across Scotland?” What will the project’s impact be, for the School, for Scotland, for music? We want to promote new music in Scotland, to celebrate music and creativity and, ultimately, to use creativity as a way of engaging young people with new music. Next academic year, we’ll run composition workshops with Higher and Advanced Higher Music pupils in regions across Scotland. Jay Capperauld will lead the workshops and pupils will be encouraged to compose new pieces inspired by a topographical feature or historical building in their own region, which our own pupils will then perform. It’s about creating something that has resonance with individual identities and means that there will be satellite ‘Seven Hills’ projects taking place all around Scotland. Our website will be a platform not just for the School, but for all sorts of hill and community groups to use. We need to take a project inspired by the seven hills out of the concert hall so we’re exploring ways to bring events to the hills – not only live, but digitally too, perhaps using QR codes. Just imagine if you could tap into listen to Jay Capparauld’s Theory of the Earth as you’re out walking on Arthur’s Seat? Jay Capperauld & Arthur’s Seat | Online, 2nd July 2021 Tom David Wilson & Blackford Hill | St Cuthbert’s Church, 13th December 2021 Neil Tòmas Smith & Calton Hill | St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, 23rd March 2022 Helen Grime & Braid Hills | Queen’s Hall, 27th June 2022 Ailie Robertson & Craiglockhart Hill | Venue TBC, October 2022 Simon Smith & Corstorphine Hill | St Cuthbert’s Church, December 2022 David Horne & Castle Rock | St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, March 2023 Sir James MacMillan | 50th Birthday Celebrations | Usher Hall, June 2023
2
