August 2014 – Fringe Concert
August 2014 – Edinburgh Fringe
This year we had a rather special concert as we were joined by guest players from across the ocean. There were 17 players from 5 American terrible orchestras, led by Sara Usher from the Really Terrible String Orchestra of San Franscisco Bay. Many of our guests stayed with RTO players and they joined us for the rehearsals before the performance where they demonstrated that they had indeed been preparing all year for the concert.
The concert took the RTO back to its roots by performing in Canongate Kirk, venue for the first performance 19 years before, to a capacity crowd. There was a strong American flavour to what was a truly international programme, with Sousa and Gershwin alongside the very British Knightsbridge March and The Scottish Suite. The finale was Ashokan Farewell, a tune written as a tribute to the carnage of the American Civil War and Sir Richard handed the baton over to Sara to conduct it. The programme can be seen here.
(Have we any photographs of the actual concert? I have located some, US1-6)
On the following day, we hosted our American guests at a reception and lunch in the New Club providing the players from RTOOT, TACO, RTO-PA, RTSO and RTO Westchester with the impressive view of the Edinburgh skyline.
We have been invited to join them in the U.S. at some point in the future, however such an endeavour would require much planning before we could consider this option.