Tag: The Queen’s Hall

Tradfest 2024 headliners announced

Edinburgh Tradfest is delighted to announce the first of its headline acts for 2024

Opening this year’s Festival on Friday 3 May, thanks to support from the National Lottery through Creative Scotland, will be Daniel Docherty and Martyn MacDonald whose band VALTOS has taken the trad and electronic music world by storm.

Valtos’ music has been described by Folk Radio UK as “like nothing you’ve heard before,” blending influences from electronic and folk music.

Inspired by artists like Martyn Bennet, Peatbog Faeries, Odesza, Madeon, and Bicep, Valtos creates a unique and genre-defying sound. Their self-titled debut album, released in June 2022, drew inspiration from the breath-taking beauty of their home in Skye, infusing their recordings and live performances with a profound sense of place. The album achieved over 100,000 streams in its first few weeks alone.

Joining them onstage at the Queen’s Hall for an energetic and unforgettable live experience will be Lana Pheutan, Eilidh Cormack, and Euan McLaughlin, plus a host of special guests.

Valtos’ talent and innovation have garnered recognition, earning them the Up and Coming Artist of the Year award at The Scots Trad Awards 2022. Their dedication and boundary-pushing artistry continue to impress critics and fans alike.

Also playing over the Festival’s opening weekend is multi-award winning solo artist Martin Simpson (Saturday 4 May) who is renowned for his magnificent acoustic, finger-style guitar playing.  

At the very top of his game, Martin is without question a true master of his art. He is universally acclaimed as one of the finest ever acoustic and slide guitar players in the world. Martin is a remarkable storyteller, and a fine banjo-picker who performs traditional English folk songs, American folk and blues and his own compositions with rare subtlety, intensity and honesty. 

Martin Simpson “One of the virtuoso instrumentalists of the English music scene” ‘Sounds better than ever’ **** 4 Stars The Guardian – photo credit Geoff Trinder

Rounding off the opening weekend on Sunday 5 May will be fiddle trio The Nordic Fiddlers Bloc (Kevin Henderson (Fiddlers Bid), Olav Luksengård Mjelva and Anders Hall)– a solid gold Edinburgh Tradfest favourite, masterfully blending the traditions of Norway, Sweden and the Shetland Islandswith their unique rich sound – not to be missed!

In Traverse 2 also performing on the opening weekend will be LA-based singer-songwriter Alice Howe, and the multi-award-winning singer /harpist / composer Rachel Newton.

Finally, on Monday 13 May, one of Scotland’s best loved traditional music stars, Julie Fowlis will perform with her band at what will be the festival’s biggest ever closing concert at Edinburgh’s Assembly Rooms.

Julie Fowlis who will close this year’s festival on Monday 13 May at the Assembly Rooms. Photo credit Wild Soul Photography 

Douglas Robertson and Jane-Ann Purdy, co-producers of Edinburgh Tradfest said: “Every year we look to up our game at Edinburgh Tradfest so we are very excited to share not one but two BIG venue concerts for 2024.

“With Valtos and Special Guests at the Queen’s Hall to open and Julie Fowlis at the Assembly Rooms to close this year’s festival we know we are looking forward to a bumper year. Our opening weekend is also chock-full of superstars and gives a fine taster of what lies ahead for the rest of the programme. We can’t wait for it to start.”

Creative Scotland’s Head of Music, Alan Morrison commented: ““Spring has arrived early for music fans with news that Valtos, Martin Simpson, Julie Fowlis and The Nordic Fiddlers Bloc will soon be coming to the capital’s stages.

“In recent years, Tradfest has transformed Edinburgh’s festival calendar with a world-class programme that celebrates the rich past and exciting future of folk and traditional music. If the opening weekend is anything to go by, the 2024 edition is going to be one of the best yet.”

The full programme for this year’s Edinburgh Tradfest will be launched in March and will include an unmissable line-up of live music, talks, new commissions, and traditional storytelling thanks to continued support from Creative Scotland and the William Grant Foundation.

Edinburgh Tradfest 2024 will run from Friday 3 May – Monday 13 May.

For tickets and more information visit edinburghtradfest.com 

Scottish Ensemble are joined by Jasdeep Singh Degun for latest ambitious cross-genre collaboration

  • Scottish Ensemble are joined by Jasdeep Singh Degun for their latest ambitious cross-genre collaboration.
  • Scottish Ensemble partner with composer and sitarist Jasdeep Singh Degun, for a collaborative tour across Scotland this October.
  • Jasdeep is one of Britain’s leading voices in the Indian Classical Music tradition, and this tour will see him performing for the first time in Scotland.
  • The performance will feature the premier of a new composition by Jasdeep forsitar, tabla and strings, written specifically to be performed alongside Scottish Ensemble’s musicians.
  • Touring to Dundee, Edinburgh, Inverness, Glasgow and Manchester, this performance promises to spin a music tale of mesmerising melody, not to be missed!

“Showcases the classical music of the subcontinent but also mixes, melds and
modernises it.” – Financial Times, on Jasdeep’s debut album Anomaly

Scottish Ensemble kick off the first collaboration of their 2023/24 season performing alongside Leeds-born sitarist and composer, Jasdeep Singh Degun. Jasdeep has earned a reputation as one of the UK’s leading voices in the Indian Classical Music tradition.

He has performed at a wide range of prestigious and high-profile venues across the UK and abroad, including performing for Prince Harry as part of BBC Documentary Goldies Band; at the UN opening of the Amphitheatre in Doha, Qatar in 2012 in a concert led by composer Vangelis; accompanying Donovan at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool; and in a sell-outperformance of his album Anomaly at the Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room.

Partnering with Scottish Ensemble, Jasdeep will be bringing his unique approach to Indian classical composition to Scottish audiences for the first time. Scottish Ensemble and Jasdeep will tour to Dundee, Edinburgh, Inverness and Glasgow, with an additional afternoon performance at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

Jasdeep began work with Scottish Ensemble in July, when a quintet of string musicians to joined him and tabla player Harkiret Singh Bahra to begin developing this performance.

Together they began to bring together the complex and contrasting traditions of Indian and Western classical music. Scottish Ensemble took this opportunity to get to grips with the uber-tight rhythms and the beautiful balance of structure and freedom at the heart of the Indian classical music.

Scottish Ensemble are well-known for their innovative and ambitious cross-genre and crossartform collaborations. They strive to create exhilarating musical experiences through working with musicians from a wide array of genres and musical traditions. The development of this work has tested their musicians’ skills and challenged how they think about music and performance.

These moments are where collaboration flourishes, pushing the boundaries of form and genre, and challenging conventional musical labels or categorisation.

This performance will feature a number of compositions by Jasdeep Singh Degun, including works from his album Anomaly, alongside work by medieval German composer Hildegard von Bingen, and American contemporary composer Terry Riley.

These pieces of western repertoire are rooted in minimalism, drones, and improvisation, and were selected to complement and enhance the experience of Jasdeep’s compositions.

Hildegard von Bingen was a 12th-century abbess and polymath and is one of the most well known and most recorded composers of sacred monophony – Christian religious music which follows a single melodic line.

Drawing a contrast with this ancient music, is Terry Riley’s Sunrise of the
Planetary Dream Collector written for the Kronos Quartet in 1980.

This work allows its performers to “co-compose” a version of the piece. It is composed of 24 repeating modules designed to be combined, juxtaposed, and overlapped freely by the musicians in performance.

A highlight of the concert will come with the world premiere of a new work by Jasdeep, commissioned by Scottish Ensemble specifically for this tour.

This new work, composed for sitar, tabla, and string quintet, draws upon the creative collaboration between Jasdeep and Scottish Ensemble’s players from their initial rehearsals. Jasdeep spent two days with Scottish Ensemble’s musicians, sharing knowledge and experience, rehearsing arrangements of Jasdeep’s work and the western repertoire.

This experience and exchange of knowledge has built the foundation for Jasdeep’s new work, which is written specifically to be performed with Scottish Ensemble’s quintet of musicians.

Join Scottish Ensemble and Jasdeep Singh Degun this October for a musical tale, driven by the beautiful spontaneity of the Indian Classical tradition, transporting you through layers of mesmerising melody.

Listings Details

Dundee – Wed 4 October, 8pm – Marryat Hall
Edinburgh – Thu 5 October, 8pm – The Queen’s Hall
Inverness – Fri 6 October, 8pm – Eden Court
Glasgow – Sat 7 October, 8pm – Adelaide Place
Manchester – Sun 8 October, 4pm– Royal Northern College of Music

Tickets – https://scottishensemble.co.uk/programme/2023-24/jasdeep-singh-degun/