Want to trace your family tree, but not sure where to start?
Come along to our beginners’ #FamilyHistory session @edcentrallib to find out about the free library resources that can help.
Next session is Thursday 25 August at 2pm.
Book by emailing informationdigital@edinburgh.gov.uk
Tuesday the 21st of June will be Make Music Day and Edinburgh City Libraries are calling out to all musicians, groups, ensembles, choirs, orchestras to join us. The service will be putting together a varied program to fill midsummers day with music:
‘In 2019 we ran successful programs of events in Central, Morningside, Craigmillar and Stockbridge Libraries (see poster below).
With a range if groups performing Opera to Klezmer, recorder solo’s to the Rolling Hills Chorus. In 2020 and 2021 we were forced online with a curtailed but no less interesting program of events with choirs, instrumentalists and the Libraries staff singing the Make Music Day anthems Bring Me Sunshine and Stand By Me.
Make Music Day started life 40 years ago in 1982. In France under President Mitterrand’s Socialist Party Maurice Fleuret , was appointed as Director of Music and Dance at the French Ministry of Culture with a responsibility for festivals and events.
He immediately saw that there was a discrepancy in the number of children and adults able to play musical instruments and the numbers who actually participated in any form of music making.
Fete da la Musique was born. His, Fleuret’s, statement rang loud “Music is everywhere and the concert is nowhere” and mission statement for day became, amateur and professional musician should give of their time freely and that all performances should to be free to attend, forty years on those statements are pretty much the same.
Year on year the festival grew and not just in France, by the early 90s the festival had become an event in approximately 80 countries and this year that number stands at 126 countries around the world. The 21st of June was chosen as it is normally the longest day of the year or the summer solstice.
If you wished, and some people do, you could have musical events from the early hours when the sun rises to when it sets late in the evening, and those performances could be anywhere street corners, driveways, concert halls, Libraries, Bandstands, telephone boxes. Anywhere and everywhere, performed and watched by anyone and everyone.
In that spirit, this year we are back and able to welcome musicians into the building to perform and we will welcome audiences to the Library to watch live music.
Please get in touch with us and give us a description of what you do or what you would like to do on the 21st of June, if you are able to link us to any online examples of your previous work, would be useful, but certainly not essential.
* Calling All Musicians * Calling All Musicians * Calling All Musicians!
We look forward to hearing from you. Thank you
0131 242 8050
central.music.library@edinburgh.gov.uk
The Rolling Hills Chorus
Calling all musicians!
Make Music Day 2022 will be back in our library buildings and we’d love to have you perform with us. All skill levels are welcome!
If you’re interested, please get in touch with the Music Library before Saturday 23rd April.
Writing to get your teeth into?
Edinburgh City Libraries have paired up with Apex Hotels to offer a unique literary experience. Gourmet Reads gives you the opportunity to meet some of Scotland’s best-known authors during an evening of fine dining at the Waterloo Place hotel.
Guests will be able to meet novelists in person to chat about their lives, work and inspiration, as well as being given the chance to mingle with fellow diners.
This is the second Gourmet Reads evening, following theinaugural event in October, when best-selling author Ian Rankin entertained a small crowd with conversation and stories from his past.
And this month the event will return with an appearance from writer, journalist and musician, Doug Johnstone, author of six critically acclaimed novels including, most recently, The Dead Beat, an Edinburgh-set thriller.
Councillor Richard Lewis, Culture and Sport Convener, welcomed the addition to Edinburgh’s literary calendar. He said: “Literature is about more than just solitary reading, and can also form the basis of a vibrant, social activity like Gourmet Reads.
“This event adds to a packed literary programme in the capital, as well as a fantastic range of libraries and archives. I would urge anyone interested in spending an evening learning about new – or familiar – writers in Edinburgh, to book now and avoid missing out.”
Doug Johnstone will host on Wednesday 25 February and is the first of three writers to appear at the Apex Hotel as part of Gourmet Reads’ 2015 programme.
He will be followed by Daily Record columnist Shari Low, best-selling author of ten novels, on Thursday 13 March, and on Thursday 30 April by Alex Gray, whose latest book ,The Bird That Did Not Sing, is set against the backdrop of 2014’s Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
Each event will cost £50 per person and will include a three course meal and half a bottle of wine, or an alternative drink. Income will be put into the Libraries revenue budget for use on resources and service.
Find out more about Gourmet Reads and how to book tickets on the Council website.
