2015 Borders Book Fest

BORDERS BOOK FESTIVAL June 2015

Borders book-festival-buttonWe were delighted to get invited down to Melrose to participate in their excellent book festival. It was a busy location and the logistics of getting timpani’s on stage without disrupting other events was challenging, but we managed. The marquee has its own challenges, as the tent walls have a dampening effect on the acoustics. It was delightful to find a capacity crowd yet again, and our literary themed programme really fitted the occasion.

Borders Murdering the music4We performed The Typewriter with our percussion section soloing on – yes, you’ve guessed it – a typewriter. We played the Dr Zhivago and James Bond film themes – they are also books after all, and music inspired by Alexander McCall Smith’s Mma Ramotswe and Professor Von Igelfeld. Even the progra
mme provided for the audience was book themed, and was much admired.
Borders Trumpets croppedIn spite of the disadvantaged nature of the trumpet section, they were still asked to provide a fanfare for the Festival’s prestigious Walter Scott Historical Novel prize. Within the orchestra, it is a well-known fact that fanfares can be challenging for our trumpet players. And fanfares played on their own, where there is no chance of the odd mistake being covered up by other instruments, is high risk, but our gallant trumpet players pulled it off with great aplomb.

 

Our Emerging Composers

Edwin at desk
Edwin Sun Winner of the Emerging Composers Competition 2016 A Wee bit of Irish Scottish Jig
 FeyiNew
 Feyi Adebiyi Sinfonia No 1
 Jack
 Jack McKenzie A Tale of Old
 CarolinePennCropped
 Caroline Penn The Witches
 Ryan
 Ryan Yard River Travels Onwards

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EMERGING COMPOSER

Emerging Composer Announced!

Edwin and Sandy cropped fuzzy

The £1,000 winner was Edwin Sung, with the Celtic A Wee Big Irish Scottish Jig. Choosing a runner-up from some fantastic compositions was impossible, so we had 4. See here for details.
We have 5 terrific pieces of music to rehearse and play in a special concert next Spring. Watch the website for details.

Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2015

The Really Terrible Orchestra will be returning to play at the Fringe Festival on Saturday 15th August 2015. Tickets will be available from an orchestra member or edinburgh fringe box office shortly.

Programme will include newly commissioned music, Challenging pieces by Greig, Beethoven, and Rossini.

OUR GLASGOW DEBUT

Alexander McCall Smith in conversation during our debut concert at Glasgow's City Hall on 13 October 2012.

You can find more images about this unique event here
Photography: ©Alex Hewitt.

Five Star RTO

Five-star the RTO continues to lead the revolution for the musically disadvantaged with its unique musical interpretations. A triumph that proves bad is good. With its blend of humour, musicality and lack of technical prowess, the players surge through a lively programme taking the audience with them, creating a wave of excitement and hope that nothing will go wrong. The RTO never disappoints. 'These musicians who are dreadful are always a hot ticket. How can that be?' (ABC News) MORE

Fanfare for Glasgow

13 October 2012 at CIty Hall, Glasgow.

Click on the image to view the Glasgow Gallery.

Photographs: © Alex Hewitt.