2015 Borders Book Fest

BORDERS BOOK FESTIVAL June 2015

We 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.

We 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.
In 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.