SoundCloud for Poetry

'Whittaker' is getting quite excited about SoundCloud -an excellent way of sharing audio recordings.  And not just music, either.  Today, Twitter notified us that the Scottish Poetry Library has a SoundCloud page,

"featuring many of our Best Scottish Poets 2012 reading their work soundcloud.com/scottishpoetry…"

MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards

2012 Awards - nominations requested.

More here on Scottish Culture Online website.  Do it now - before 12th October 2012!

"The Scots Trad Music Awards nominations process runs from the 1st – 12th October and the public are invited to nominate their chosen four in each of 15 pre-arranged categories. eg Best Album to Best Club, Best Instrumentalist, Best Folk Band, Dance Band and Pipe Band ranging right across the many strands that encompass Scotland’s vibrant traditional music scene. These nominations are then taken to a panel of industry experts who decide the final 4 to go through to the voting process which starts on Monday 29th October."

Trad on the Tyne

Traditional music festival, Haddington

Haddington, 31 Aug - 2 Sept 2012

Find out more here.

"The headline event at this year’s Trad on the Tyne festival in Haddington (31 August-2 September) is to be ‘Steele the Show’, the outstanding tribute concert to the late, great Prestonpans singer and songwriter Davy Steele, who died in 2001."

Portugal - Summer Orchestral Course 16-29 July 2012

Orfeao de Leiria: Conservatorio de Artes

International Orchestra Summer Academy

16-29 July, at Leiria, Portugal

More info here.

This posting can also be found on our Summer Schools and Courses page.

Sensory O, opera initiative

Calming the savage [little] beasts?

While you're practising your arias, you may wonder if the fruits of your labour could have anything pertinent to parents with toddlers.  (Screams, tantrums, trainer pants - ah, the happy memories!)

According to the Sensory O initiative, it might be more relevant than you think.  Here's a BBC report about it:- click here.  (Feature by Pauline McLean.)

• Scottish Opera Sensory O website (Rachel Drury, composer to the project, is also a doctoral student and member of staff at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.)
• Opera Scotland website - details of the Sensory O Tour.
• Last year's Tete a Tete, the earlier Baby O project, again featuring our own Rachel Drury.

You might also be interested in the work of another of our students, Ben Fletcher-Watson, Theatre for Babies.  (This link tells you about Oily Cart's latest production: 'Oily Cart: how to prepare your toddler for a trip to the theatre')

Burns an a' that - Festival, Ayrshire

Burns an a' that

Festival , 30 May - 3 June 2012

http://www.burnsfestival.com/

Scottish Album of the Year Award - now vote!

Spartacus Records is keen for everyone to go to the hustings today! 

VOTE for your Scottish Album of the Year - you have to do it today, so why not do it right now?  Just ten seconds out of your day. 

Click here. 

'Whittaker' has voted.

A PLUG composer - Richard Ayres

Following on from our PLUG new music festival last month, we've now got some more scores by Richard Ayres, one of the composers whose works were represented in the festival.

His works all have numbers as titles, so ... we now have:-

• no.8 piano solo (1991)
• no.37b for orchestra (2006)
• no.38 : three small pieces for string quartet (2003)
• no.44 (diary pieces) (2009)
• We are hopeful that we may also be able to make some downloads available for consultation by our staff and students - watch this space!
• And we have a CD of Ayres' works, too, thanks to Schott publishers. 

Catalogue details here

Our PLUG Festival 2012 page

Life Beyond the PhD - Cumberland Lodge Conference

Life Beyond the PhD 28^th – 31^st August 2012

www.cumberlandlodge.ac.uk

The 5^th Annual Cumberland Lodge PhD conference is taking place this August.  It's a great event, held in fabulous surroundings on the Windsor Estate.

Personally recommended!

Enterprise Music Scotland conference: Chamber Music Matters

Chamber Music Matters

Conference in Glasgow, 25 and 26 May 2012

• More info can be found on the Enterprise Music Scotland website.  The Royal Concert Hall hosts the event, and the speakers include senior staff from the Conservatoire of Scotland, not to mention some of Scotland's most prestigious ensembles.
• And here's the link directly to the conference.

Musica Scotica

'Whittaker' attended the Musica Scotica conference yesterday, and very good it was, too.

Some of Kenneth Elliott's output

Musica Scotica is a trust promoting and publishing Scottish music.  The conference explores all aspects of Scottish music, old and new.  For example, Kirsteen McCue and David Hamilton performed a tribute recital of old Scots songs, transcribed and arranged by Kenneth Elliott, the Glasgow musicologist who founded Musica Scotica and died recently. 

Kenneth Elliott (from Scotsman obituary)

Sally Beamish - British Council website

There was also a fascinating conversation with contemporary Scottish composer Sally Beamish - and a whole host of papers, mostly in parallel sessions, covering Scottish music from every angle and period.

• 2012 Conference programme (pdf)

If you weren't there, you missed a treat.  But there will always be next year!  Keep a look-out for it.

Easter arrangements

Whittaker Library

at the

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

Easter closing:

We close at 3 pm on Friday 6 April.

Re-open at 9 am onTuesday 10 April 

• Drama Librarian Alan Jones has been on vacation this week, but is back on Tuesday 10 April.
• Music and Academic Services Librarian Karen McAulay is on vacation from Tuesday 10 -Thurs 12 April, and attending the IAML(UK and Irl) Annual Study Weekend from Friday 13 to Mon 14 April. 
• Whittaker Library colleagues will help any way they can whilst their colleagues are away.   Phone and email contact details available on the library webpage.

Karen will represent the Library when she receives our Excellence Award at the Annual Study Weekend.  She's also looking forward to delivering a paper entitled 'Crowdsourcing the Celtic Bard' - revealing an intriguing mix of ancient sources and modern technology!

Red Note calls for Scores

Here's an opportunity for our composers! Click on the link for more info.  Quoting from the Red Note website ...

FOR THE NOISY NIGHTS EVENT

28 May @ Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh

“New music in 4/4”

Composers from anywhere are invited to submit scores and materials for performance at this event with the following stipulations:

1. *The ensemble will be Violin, Cello and freebass Accordion. Please contact us if you have any questions regarding how to notate for any of these instruments.
2. *No scordatura (re-tuning of the strings) is allowed.

* All of the music must be written in pop music’s favourite time signature - 4/4 - throughout.

1. *Preference will be given to submissions supplied with a backing track, in true pop style.
2. *The backing track should be 2 channels: Left channel click track (for in-ear headphones for the players), Right channel mono audio (for front-of-house playback), in mp3 format (192 kbps or higher preferred)
3. *The maximum length of all submissions is 5 minutes.
4. *All materials (score and parts at time of submission, please) supplied in pdf format (with a download link for click track audio if necessary via e.g. dropbox) by 5pm on Monday 14th May to john (at) rednoteensemble.com.
5. *Late submissions will not be considered.

Norwegian archival recordings for Easter

Anyone with a liking for historical recordings - audible bumps, scratches and all - may enjoy this offering from the archivists at the Norwegian Institute of Recorded Sound:-

'The Norwegian Institute of Recorded Sound (NIRS) follows up the great feedback we got over the last few years for our musical Advent Calendar with more old, old… old  recordings, for the second edition of our Easter Musical Calendar!

Every day from Palm Sunday until Easter Monday. we will present a vintage recording from 1942 (!), with its original historical noises, where legendary singers and musicians interpret St Matthew’s Passion.

Do you wish to receive a daily reminder with the day’s link(s)? – just answer this email! and/or you can also “like” our Facebook page and thereby get notifications from there.'

Edinburgh International Festival

'The Edinburgh Festival'

(actually, the Edinburgh International Festival)

9 August - 2 September 2012

The programme for this summer is available now.  Here ...

Sound Thought - Annual Festival

Sound Thought 2012

Glasgow University Music Department celebrates mould-breaking music, sound and performance research.  Visit the blog to find out more.

Sound Thought 2012

Fri 2nd - Sat 3rd March, The Arches, Glasgow

The annual festival of mould-breaking music, sound and performance research returns.

Brought to you by Glasgow University postgraduate music students and the Arches, Sound Thought is two days of interdisciplinary compositions, performances, installations, presentations and provocations - across disciplines, between genres and way beyond expectations... Sound Thought presents new composition, performance and research work from Glasgow University's diverse and vibrant music department, within a programme of cutting edge sound and performance from the UK's most exciting new artists.

This year, performances will focus on the idea of music as gift: what’s offered, and what’s returned? What’s at stake in the exchange? Do gifts require justification, or is it the thought that counts?

Expect blindfold journeys through dark corridors, noise, argument, pop song endurance and outright murder, lost correspondence to Chris De Burgh, ultra-minimal improv, the most exciting chamber ensemble in the country, stupidity, seriousness, and music for understanding, transgression and change…

Margins Book and Music Festival 2012

Books from Scotland:

Margins Book and Music Festival

This weekend

Margins Books and Music festival is organised by the people behind Cargo Publishing and Octavius and Gutter magazines.

Want to know what else is on this weekend?  Visit the festival website.  Hear Roddy Woomble, Alasdair, and lots more Scottish writers.

Fanfare! British Trombone Society CD released

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And now in the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland's Whittaker Library. Find out more here.

FifeSing 2012

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Peter Shepheard advises:

The FifeSing website is updated with Booking Form in place.  The Brochure will be available to download within a day or so. If you would like a printed brochure sent by post, let Peter know.

Go to the webpage for full details:
www.springthyme.co.uk/fifesing

BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 8th February 2012

BBC weblink - THIS WEDNESDAY!