In a little over a week we will have two performances from Adopt-a-Composer partnerships in quick succession:
On Saturday 8th May, Colinton Amatuer Orchestral Society will be performing at George Watson’s College, Edinburgh. Along with Holst’s Jupiter and Haydn’s Symphony No.104, the concert will feature the première performance of Nina’s piece for the group, A Book of Walks. It starts at 7.30 and ticklets are £5.00, or £3.00 for students.
And on Sunday 9th May, Glasgow Lyric Choir RSAMD Concert Hall, Glasgow. As …

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So we’ve made it to the exciting phase of the project: trying out the music.
I visited the orchestra on February 9th and presented them with two movements or ‘chapters’ of my piece A book of walks.
Chapter 1, entitled Woven footsteps is mainly concerned with texture – a texture inspired by the sound of footsteps in a busy street (unsynchronised, percussive, varied in timbre). Some of the players wrote about city walks (or walks that began in a busy city and …

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‘The anticipation of having our first glimpse of Nina’s composition set the orchestra buzzing. Nina smiled broadly, she is very personable, and we started off with some exercises to prepare us for a most unusual set of musical instructions. The first ‘chapter’ of the work was like nothing we had ever seen or heard before. There was the odd note here and there to be played within a five second bar but nowhere specific until chapter 2 came along where …

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Well, we got the first two chapters of our ‘Book of Walks’.  It is definitely, as promised by Hector, unlike anything we have ever played before.  I had been given a wee look at the score before we were introduced to the music and I really wondered how we were going to cope with it.  Despite some initial misgivings about what might happen to my viola when I was attempting some of Nina’s effects I found it strangely liberating to …

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Next Tuesday – 9 February – we get first sight of the music that Nina is composing for us.  She and David are visiting again, along with Camina Brown our Making Music visitor, and we will go through what she has written for us so far.  Hector has a copy of the score just now and has told us that it will be unlike anything we have ever played before (intriguing!).  Nina is going to go through some of it …

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I’ve been up to Edinburgh twice since the start of the project, and my piece is now under way, so a bit of catching up to do!
In October 2009 I went to hear the Colinton Orchestra in rehearsal. They played music from their repertoire, and pieces they were preparing for their December concert. I received a very warm and friendly welcome and managed to speak to lots of the players in the tea break as well as get an idea of …

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September 19 2009 London
The launch of the Adopt a Composer scheme in London!  I was meeting our conductor, Hector Scott , at Somerset House and we were going to be introduced to our composer.  At last! 
Our Adopt a Composer journey had started back in 2007 when we had originally, unsuccessfully, put an application in, but Evan at Making Music had said he would keep it to resubmit.  2008 came, no scheme.  2009 and our orchestra had just stopped for the holidays …

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Over the course of the next year you can follow the composers and the amateur music groups they are collaborating with through this blog. You can focus on any particular partnership by selecting one of the six ‘Partnership Blogs’ located to the right hand column, or just see all of them through the front page. We hope you enjoy the site, the work that’s produced and we look forward to reading your comments!

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