Violin Competition - Concours Long Thibaud Crespin 2014

'Whittaker' has received another poster about a forthcoming violin competition, this time in France:-

15-20 November 2014
Finale at the Champs-Elysees Theatre

Deadline: 15 March 2014

• Details: www.long-thibaud-crespin.org 
• Contact: contact@long-thibaud-crespin.org

Wigtown: Scotland's Smallest Theatre up for Sale

News snippet spotted in The Stage:-

48-seat Swallow Theatre, Wigtown, is on the market for £320K.  Read more here.

Historic Gaelic Dance in Highlands - paper by Michael Newton

Do you study historic Scottish or Gaelic dance?

Michael Newton has uploaded his recent paper so that you can read the full text via Academia.edu:-

“Dannsair air ùrlar-déile thu”: Gaelic evidence about dance from the mid-17th to late-18th century Highlands

International Review of Scottish Studies 38 (2013)

Michael Newton is Technical Lead at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in American Studies.  Michael's Academia.edu page is here.

Become an Activist! Sign a Petition for Deaf People to have Regulated Communication Support

The majority of us have the good fortune to have good or adequate hearing. Not everyone does, though.

We have been sent an email asking for your support by signing the petition for the right for Deaf people to have regulated communication support. Click on the link below if you wish to register:-

"Signature support the British Deaf Association’s call on the government to lead an initiative to ensure that all public bodies and agencies, whether national or local, are required by law to provide a deaf person with a registered communication professional

"Regulated communication support is vital for deaf people. We urge you to sign the petition, if you haven’t done so already, by supporting the campaign you will be ensuring full access for everyone.

Find out more and sign the petition"

Funded AHRC Music Research Studentship - Fabulous Opportunity

We're sharing this information at the request of our music librarian colleagues in the British Library:-

"AHRC Collaborative PhD Studentship: Music, print and culture in the 16th and early 17th centuries

"Applications are invited for an AHRC collaborative PhD studentship, held at Royal Holloway, University of London, and The British Library, on the theme of 'Music, print and culture in the 16th and early 17th centuries'. The studentship commences in autumn 2014. Full details are here: http://www.rhul.ac.uk/music/news/newsarticles/newcollaborativephdfundingscheme.aspx

"The deadline for receipt of applications (including two references) is Thursday 13th March 2014. Interviews will be held at the British Library on Friday 28th March and Wednesday 2nd April 2014.

"Informal enquiries to Stephen Rose (stephen.rose@rhul.ac.uk)."

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Lecturer joins Sponsored Improvisation Gig for Charity

For the third year, lecturer Colin Broom is going to be taking part in an Epic Sponsored Free Improvisation to raise money for Polyphony, a charity offering people in Glasgow with mental health problems access to musical activities. He joins a number of other musicians, (including some from the Conservatoire) playing for a total of 9 hours, this time on 5-string bass guitar.

If you'd like to sponsor him in this endeavour, it'd go a long way to helping Polyphony continue their work. The link is here: 

 https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/theimprovisingbroom 

There's also still time if you want to get in involved by playing. All instruments welcome. If you're interested, do contact Colin for more details. 

If you want to know more about Polyphony, here's a video that shows some of what they do.

Home and Away: Summer Music Courses and Competitions

Thinking about your summer activities?

Whittaker's post today included brochures for music courses and competitions in the UK and Italy. Visit the websites of Knuston Hall (Northamptonshire, England) and Val Tidone for further details.

• Knuston Hall:- www.knustonhall.org.uk
  (including an annual event with the British Banjo, Mandolin, Guitar Federation, not to mention singing, flute and clarinet courses, saxophone, accordion, jazz, early music and music appreciation.  Maybe one to recommend to your own instrumental pupils?)
• Val Tidone:- www.valtidone-competitions.com (piano prize, accordion prize, chamber music prize, young talent competition, composition competition, pop singer competition, and a summer camp).

The Black Angel: Empire Strikes Back short to be shown at Glasgow Film Festival thanks to an Archivist

Never let it be said that archivists don't have an exciting life: an American archivist recently found the supposedly lost short movie, The Black Angel, and it is only thanks to this discovery that Glasgow film-lovers will be able to see it at the forthcoming Glasgow Film Festival.

Read about it on the BBC News pages, here.

Our thanks to our own Archive Officer, Stuart Harris-Logan, for spotting this epic story!  What will he unearth next?

How can you tell we're librarians?!

CILIP, the librarians' professional body, sent us a link to 6 Terms that Instantly Reveal You as a Librarian.  We must be atypical - I don't think many of us have ever used these words in conversation with our readers.  Except ephemera, maybe.  Karen does like her ephemera.

The List: Festival Guide 2014 (What's on in Scotland?)

A helpful link passed on by Creative Scotland - 

Guide to Scotland's Festivals

BBC Desert Island Discs Archive - "Find every castaway from 1942 to the present. Listen to over 1,500 programmes."

This sounds as though it could amuse us all for many hours!  You know the format - a celebrity is asked which recordings they would take with them if they were marooned on a desert island.

Here's the link:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs

If you had to choose three recordings from the Whittaker Library's collection at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, what would you choose?

Orchestra Stereotypes

Just a bit of end-of-week fun, folks!  

Orchestra Stereotypes, from the Trumpet Angst blog!

Bridge Week at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

 Bridge Week begins on Monday 3rd February 2014 - the week when our students embark on their own ambitious projects.  (For a start, they have their own radio station - Bridge Radio - http://radio.rcs.ac.uk/)

BUSINESS AS NORMAL IN THE LIBRARY!!

The Whittaker Library remains open the normal hours:-

Monday to Thursday, 9 am - 8.30 pm
Friday, 9 am - 5 pm
Saturday, 10 am - 4 pm.

We're here to offer support in sourcing information to help you get those Bridge Week projects under way!

Library Website: http://www.rcs.ac.uk/aboutus/libraryandit/

Composition Marathon at the Scottish Music Centre

Further details of this exciting annual event here:-

http://compositionmarathon.com/

Just Another Tune - Website about Popular Folksongs and Ballads

Interested in Traditional Music? 

Just Another Tune.com
We found this website the other day. It's by Jürgen Kloss, a trained folklorist (M.A, University of Bonn 1991).  You might find it useful for tracing the history of some popular folk-songs and ballads.

Celtic Revival in Scotland - Call for Papers

Call for papers - The Celtic Revival in Scotland (1860-1930)

1-3 May 2014, Edinburgh

This interdisciplinary conference (1-3 May) will be organised by the University of Edinburgh’s department of Celtic and Scottish Studies and part-hosted by the National Galleries of Scotland.

The department of Celtic and Scottish Studies is now accepting paper proposals for their upcoming conference, The Celtic Revival in Scotland (1860-1930). Click here for details.

Gun at the Temples! Music Librarian Challenged to Write a jingle "On Air"

A bit taken aback, 'Whittaker' was challenged to improvise a jingle, on air, for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Bridge Week.  Well, it rhymed.  Can't say more than that!  It was live on air, and pretty much about air, but we were allowed to use a computer to write the words down first ...

The students who went on the bridge

Declared that it felt like a fridge

The Cowcaddens chill

Gave them all quite a thrill

And no sign of the whine of a midge.

To be honest, 'Whittaker' writes better musical limericks than that.  No instrumentalist is safe .... check them out here!