A creative music workshop for 10-14 year-olds exploring the sounds of the sea and its creatures! with Nordic Viola
We will explore the sounds of the sea and its environment using musical instruments, recorded animal and bird sounds and our own voices, and think about the effect humans have on wildlife in our seas.
The workshop will take place in the upstairs gallery at Weigh Ahead on Dunblane High Street.
In the morning we will learn a sea jig that we can perform outside Weigh Ahead as the Dunblane Road Race runners pass.
After a short lunch on the drying green, we will work together creatively on a short musical seascape.
No musical experience required, though please bring an instrument if you have one. We will provide simple instruments. Bring along something that could become sea waste – e.g. plastic bottle, twine, old plastic tubs/buckets.
Nordic Viola is grateful for support from Dunblane businesses Weigh Ahead, Green Clean and Allanview Windows and Doors Ltd whose generous donations are enabling us to offer this workshop free of charge. Voluntary donations will contribute to Nordic Viola’s performances at Edinburgh Festival Fringe this summer.
Lots of news to tell you this month! First of all, the great news that our Crowdfunder campaign that we have been running to raise money towards our performances of Sagas and Seascapes at Edinburgh Festival Fringe has been very successful. Thank you so much to all the generous people who have contributed to that. It means we can support our musicians properly with rehearsal and travel costs. I have also been able to commission Orla to paint us a new piece in response to Eli Tausen á Lava‘s Søgnin um Kópakonuna í 10 Myndum (The Tale of the Sealwoman in 10 pictures). More of that in a minute!
If you haven’t contributed yet and would like to, then you can still do so by clicking here. Additional money over £2000 will be put towards a CD recording which we are aiming to produce in 2023. Alternatively, if crowdfunding is not for you, remember you can help us by visiting our shop. (Payment via PayPal, or use the contact form with your requirements and I can arrange payment by card).
We’ve also received some generous pledges from three businesses local to me. Working within the community is very important to me, whether that’s close to home or when I’m resident in other communities when performing in the Far North, so I’m delighted to be able to offer a free workshop for children in Dunblane as a way of saying thank you to these donors. I’ll introduce you to our sponsors and tell you more about the workshops once I’ve finalised details with everybody.
Raising the profile of music by women
I’m also delighted to say that the Ambache Charitable Trust have once again agreed to support us for Edinburgh. Like Ambache, one of our goals is to raise the profile of women composers and in Sagas and Seascapes, we will once again be featuring the work of Gemma McGregor,Lillie Harris and Linda Buckley.
Workshop
On 5th March, Orla Stevens and I ran our first joint workshop, Tuning In To The Trossachs, in Aberfoyle in Central Scotland. We were blessed with a crisp, clear spring day and enjoyed the morning outside in the forests collecting sounds and making sketches. In the afternoon we gathered in the hall to draw our ideas together, making graphic scores from the sketches and making some sound sketches using found sounds, instruments and our voices. The emphasis was discovery, reflection and process rather than an end goal, but we are nonetheless pleased with the sounds we made, which capture the peace and beauty of where we were working. Have a listen here:
The Tale of the Sealwoman
Finally, a little more on that collaboration between Orla Stevens and Eli Tausen á Lava. Eli’s piece for flute and clarinet was a joint commission between the Spanish/Danish Aura Duo and Nordic Viola. Edinburgh will see its first live performance in the UK. The music is inspired by the legend of seals (selkies in Scotland) who change into human form on land. These legends are common throughout Norse and Celtic mythology, and you can find out more about them here.
Orla and Eli met for the first time via Zoom a couple of weeks ago. You can see some of their initial ideas in one of our crowdfunder updates below and also read more over on Orla’s website.
As you see, there is a lot going on with Nordic Viola just now. Our next key date will be the Made in Scotland Press Launch on 31st May so please do subscribe to keep up with all our news in the run-up to Edinburgh.
We have some very exciting news for you today. Sagas and Seascapes will be going to Edinburgh Festival Fringe this summer for three performances from 15th-17th August at the Scottish Storytelling Centre on the Royal Mile. We will be part of a prestigious showcase of Scottish art, but I’ll save details of that for the official launch date of 31st May. Subscribe below to make sure we keep you up to date!
Live performance, art and more
For the very first time, we will be combining live musical performance of works by Gemma McGregor,Lillie Harris, Eli Tausen á Lava, Kári Bæk, Linda Buckley and the Danish String Quartet‘s wonderful arragement of “The Dromer” with Orla Steven’s specially commissioned art on screen alongside the music. There’ll be footage of Orla creating the paintings as well as film shot on location in Orkney by Craig Sinclair. The composers offer personal insights into their music as they converse together in Orkney at sights that inspired their music.
A chance to support us and collect some special rewards
Of course, more than anything, we hope you’ll be able to travel to Edinburgh to hear us play live in August, but we’d also like to invite you to play a key roll in our journey. We are running a crowdfunding campaign to raise £2000 between now and 2nd May to commission new art by Orla Stevens to accompany Eli Tausen’s wonderful Søgnin um Kópakonuna í 10 Myndum (The Tale of the Sealwoman in 10 Pictures) and also to support our musicians in rehearsal and for all the additional costs involved in taking 6 musicians through to Edinburgh.
Rewards
We have a few exclusive gifts at all levels of donation. Everyone who donates will be mentioned in our programme for the event. We also have everything from merchandise to signed posters to give away. If you are able to support us with a larger sum, we have limited edition prints of the new artworks that Orla will produce for the show for you and the offer of an open rehearsal where you can meet our musicians. These higher value offers are limited, so jump in quickly!
At the corporate level, we can feature your business logo in our publicity and websites for £200. Or perhaps you’d like to see your own community benefit? For £500 we are able to offer an art/music workshop for the school or community group of your own choice.
It’s less than a week now until Orla Stevens and I host our Tuning In To The Trossachs Workshop in Aberfoyle in the beautiful Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park in Scotland on 5th March.
I thought I’d just take a bit of time to tell you a little bit more about what to expect on the day in case you’re not sure whether to sign up.
Orla and I have spent the last year or so working on Nordic Viola’s Sagas and Seascapes project. We’ve become increasingly interested in how music influences art and vice versa. We also share a love of the outdoors, of northern landscapes in particular and the cultures that surround them and we want to share this with you.
Both of us have worked experimentally and are great believers in being able to express ourselves freely without worrying about “getting it right.” Our workshop will be very much exploratory, allowing you to paint and make sound in the way that expresses your feelings about being outdoors. We’ll encourage you to try both art and music. Orla got me drawing again after a 40 year break, because she gave me permission to work quickly and just draw what I felt without fear of judgement. If I can, you can!
For me, music is about so much more than playing the notes right. Even if you’ve never played an instrument, there are sounds all around you. You can make recordings and perhaps shape them into a soundscape, you can find objects lying around that create sound and you can use your own voice. Equally, if you want to write a good honest lyrical melody inspired by your surroundings, then that’s great, too.
We’ll aim to produce a graphic score and a short piece of music/sound art by the end of our day.
Our workshop is open to anyone aged 14 or over. It is fully accessible as even the outdoor part of the day has level access and parking. Just let us know in advance via Eventbrite or the contact form here, and we’ll arrange to meet you.
Tickets in advance from Eventbrite. Just 8 places left as of Monday, so sign up quickly!
I’ll leave you with a couple of short video clips where we talk about our work together.
I will be taking part in two workshops over the next month or so.
Soundwalk with The Bard of the Birds – 27th February 2pm – Online
The Soundwalk with the Bard of the Birds is part 2 of the Modern Chants project run by composer Ruta Vitkauskaite. Part 1 was an online concert in November where, following the many voices of the ancient goddess Cailleach, we ventured on a journey into the Gaelic and Old Norse imagery with poems by Dawn Wood. Music was by Ruta Vitkauskaite, Gemma McGregor, and Emily Doolittle and was inspired by winds, lochs, birds and bagpiping. You can hear some of the music in this playlist.
As spring emerges, The Bard of the Birds invites you to join her for a new music and storytelling experience where you will experience your surroundings in a new way.
Whether you live in the city or countryside, your days are beginning to grow longer as spring emerges and nature finds her way through cracks in the walls and pavements, and through sunlight and birdsong. It can be easy to miss these details.
The event starts on Zoom with an introduction from The Bard of the Birds. You will then be invited to take a walk (approx. 45 min) around your area. You don’t need to travel to any particular location. Indeed, if you feel more comfortable, you can even enjoy the soundwalk from inside your own home, looking through the window at the world outside.
On your walk, you will listen to a soundtrack featuring poems and stories by Dawn Wood, nature-inspired music by Ruta Vitkauskaite, Gemma McGregor, and Emily Doolittle, performed by clarinettist Joanna Nicholson and violist Katherine Wren with electronic sounds by Ellie Cherry and sound design by Chris Adams.
When you return from your walk, we will meet you back on Zoom and invite you to share your experiences with us.
Many of you will have seen the beautiful work that Orla Stevens created for Nordic Viola’s Sagas and Seascapes project. Working together has opened up many new avenues for both our work and we’re really excited to share with you some of the new ways of working that we’ve discovered.
We will be leading an art and music workshop in Aberfoyle in the beautiful Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, close to our homes.
We will spend the morning outdoors watching and listening to the nature around us. We will collect sounds and make sketches as well as looking for objects that we can use to draw and to create sound.
In the afternoon we will split into 2 groups working in turn with Katherine and Orla at the Memorial Hall, Aberfoyle. Katherine will explore ways of sounding the landscape using instruments, our voices, found objects and recorded sound. We will learn about the elements that make up music and about how these help us to structure sound.
Orla will lead the drawing element of the workshop, exploring intuitive and expressive approaches to sounds and landscapes using both found objects and traditional art materials to create artworks and graphic scores.
At the end of the afternoon we will come together to explore how we can use graphic scores (a visual alternative to reading musical notation) to explore how shape, colour and composition can inspire sounds, and vice versa, finishing with an informal group performance.
Age Range: age 14-adult
Experience: No prior experience required, but if you play an instrument, please bring it along. Art materials will be provided.
Tickets are selling fast, so log on to Eventbrite here to book your place.
Following Nordic Viola’s last appearance at Sound Festival in October 2018, I will be returning to Sound Festival next week with some new collaborations.
Alex South and I gave our first live performance together in July with “Whale Song” at Arbroath 2020+1. On 21st October we’ll be bringing more music inspired by Lesley Harrison‘s poetry to Aberdeen. Our improvisation, CETACEA, was produced during Lockdown. Alex subsequently set it to video for GIOFest with film of pilot whales by Alexander and Nicole Gratovsky. This will be CETACEA’s first live performance. We will also perform “In the Black Holes of the Ocean” which we premiered in Arbroath.
Alex also premieres a new piece by Oliver Searle, “From the Coast”, supported by the Hope Scott Trust, and I will be performing Karen Power’s “Sonic Cradle” inspired by the composer’s residency in Svalbard.
The following evening I will join with Gareth Brady and Clara-Jane Maunder to perform new works written in lockdown during a series of workshops for composer-performers hosted by Sound Scotland. Under the guidance of Pete Stollery and various “visiting” composers, this supportive group of musicians got together to explore new ways of developing their creative skills and learning new composing techniques. My own composition, “Vast Superficies”, is once again inspired by the poetry of Lesley Harrison. It is drawn from lines in “The Voyage of the Fox” and depicts the cruel arctic environment with recorded sound from Greenland and an open, improvised score for bass clarinet and viola. https://sound-scotland.co.uk/event/late-night-sound-session-fri
To round out the week, I will be working with composing students at Aberdeen University in a workshop hosted by John de Simone on writing for viola.
Back in June we announced the winners of our Seastories Competition, which was open to young people in the Northern Isles, Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland.
As we approach our online concert for Orkney International Science Festival this Friday, it’s time to introduce you to the fabulous tunes that our winners and runners up wrote on the theme of the sea.
Cumliewick Shore by Victoria Byrne-McCombie
First up is accordionist Victoria Byrne-McCombie. As we will be performing “Sagas and Seascapes” live in Shetland Museum Boat Hall on the 25th September, we decided to award a special prize to the best tune from Shetland, with the winner playing with us live in concert. You can buy tickets for the concert on Eventbrite here.
Victoria’s piece, Cumliewick Shore, depicts a beach near Sandwick on Shetland Mainland. Victoria said, “When I was thinking about the theme of the sea I was trying to think of a way that I could interpret the theme into a tune and I thought of the melodic tide and how it moves in, the way it comes in and out, so I knew here that I wanted to have a note through the tune that keeps coming back to and that was like the melodic movement of the tide. For the second part I took the same note of E as the structure but went higher and started changing the rhythm as the sea is much stronger than people think and the tide can change and weather (especially in Shetland!) at any time.”
Victoria also sent us “Just another double-peg day”, a double-peg day being the term the Northern Isles use for a windy day, which she will also play at our concert.
Korona Trot by Anni Helena Lamhauge
Coincidentally, our overall winner is also an accordionist. Anni Helena Lamhauge lives in the Faroe Islands and her winning piece, “Korona Trot” was written as she looked out over the sea from her home as she quarantined. The title is a play on words as “trot” in Faroese means to be tired of something. You’ll be able to watch Anni Helena playing her tune in our online concert, “Sagas and Seascapes”, on Friday 3rd September from 21:00BST.
Anni Helena also sent us a second tune, Tra Le Linee, which is a characterful minor key waltz.
Fjøra by Ronja Gaard Hansen
Finally, our runner up and youngest finalist is Ronja Gaard Hansen, also from the Faroe Islands. Ronja’s waltz for fiddle and piano, “Fjøra” (seashore), reminds her of happy days spent down by the sea on the long summer days.
If you live in the East of Scotland and are aged 12-16, I will be running another “Seastories” workshop with artist Orla Stevens in conjunction with Hospitalfield and Aproxima Arts in Arbroath next Sunday, 5th September. More information and details of how to sign up here.
Following our first online international workshop earlier this month, I am delighted to announce the winners of our recent “Seastories” Competition.
Our overall winner is Anni Helena Lamhauge from the Faroe Islands. Anni’s Korona-Trot for accordion reflects on her boredom with Corona as she looked out over the sea, watching the changing light. Her music reflects this, shifting from a dark C minor to the warmer, brighter key of A flat major.
In runner up spot is Ronja Gaard Hansen, also of the Faroes, with her tune for violin and piano, Fjøra, which means seashore.
Anni Helena’s piece will feature in our online “Sagas and Seascapes” concert for Orkney International Science Festival from 3rd September, but we will also be introducing Ronja’s tune to you in a short video in the lead-up to the festival.
Our Shetland winner was Victoria Byrne McCombie with Cumliewick Shore. Victoria thought of the tide and the way it comes in and out. She chose to have a note through the tune that the melody keeps coming back to, like the melodic movement of the tide. Victoria’s piece will be performed in Shetland on 25th September at the Boat Hall in Shetland Museum, when we take “Sagas and Seascapes out live!
We also received a recording of a Greenlandic Hymn from our friends in Maniitsoq which, with permission, we will hope to share with you later too.
Many thanks to Gemma McGregor for leading the workshop and to Dávur Juul Magnussen for interpreting and for helping with the music!
Are you fascinated by the sea, the sound it makes and the stories it tells?
Are you a young musician aged 12-18 living in the Scottish Islands, Faroes, Iceland or Greenland?
Are you interested in sharing the music and stories of your home country with other young people from around the North Atlantic?
Then this competition from Nordic Viola is for you.
Write or record a tune or a short piece of music max. 3 minutes
You can play (or sing) the music on your own instrument or with your friends, or you can write a tune for us. We play flute, violin/viola and trombone
Send your entry by 5th June 2021
You can send your music as a PDF file or you can record mp3 audio or mp4 video
Submit your via google forms or email it to nordicviola6@gmail.com with your name, where you come from, a few sentences about your tune and your email address
We will select up to 15 tunes
Selected entrants will be notified by 7th June 2021 and invited to join a workshop on zoom
Following the workshop, one tune will be selected for Nordic Viola’s online concert on 3rd September 2021 for Orkney International Science Festival
After the festival we will release a short highlights video from the workshopped pieces
Bliver du fascineret af havet, havets lyde og de historier, det fortæller?
Er du en ung musiker i alderen 12-18 år, der bor på de skotske øer, Færøerne, Island eller Grønland?
Er du interesseret i at dele musikken og historierne i dit hjemland med andre unge fra hele Nordatlanten?
Så er denne konkurrence fra Nordic Viola noget for dig.
• Skriv eller optag en melodi eller et kort stykke musik max. 3 minutter
• Du kan spille (eller synge) musikken på dit eget instrument eller med dine venner, eller du kan skrive en melodi til os. Vi spiller fløjte, violin/bratsch og basun
• Deadline for tilmelding er 1. juni 2021
• Du kan sende din musik som en PDF-fil, eller du kan optage mp3-audio eller mp4-video
• Indsend via google-formularer eller mail den til nordicviola6@gmail.com med dit navn, hvor du kommer fra, et par sætninger om din melodi og din e-mail-adresse
• Vi vælger op til 15 melodier
• Udvalgte deltagere vil blive underrettet den 7. juni 2021 og opfordres til at deltage i en workshop om zoom
• Efter workshoppen vælges en melodi til Nordic Viola’s online koncert den 3. september 2021 til Orkney International Science Festival
• Efter festivalen frigiver vi en kort video med højdepunkter fra workshop
Heillar sjórinn þig ? Hljóðin frá sjónum og sögurnar sem sjórinn geymir?
Ert þú ungur tónlistarmaður á aldrinum 12-18 ára og býrð í Skotlandi, Færeyjum, á Íslandi eða Grænlandi?
Hefðir þú áhuga á að deila tónlist og sögum heimalands þíns með öðru ungu fólki við Norður-Atlanshafið?
Þá gæti þessi keppni frá Nordic Viola verið fyrir þig.
Sendu inn lag , hljóðritað eða á nótum, hámark þrjár mínútur að lengd.
Þú getur leikið á þitt aðal hljóðfæri eða sungið , ein/einn eða með öðrum, frumsamdar tónsmíðar velkomnar.
Við spilum á flautu, fiðlu/víólu og básúna.
Skilafrestur er til 1. júní 2021.
Það má senda tónlistina á mp3, mp4, eða á nótum á pdf-formi.
Senda má í gegnum ‘google forms’ eða á netfangið nordicviola6@gmail.com, þar sem fram kemur nafn þitt og netfang , heimaland og stuttur texti um lagið.
Við veljum allt að 15 þátttakendur. Þeir verða látnir vita 7. júní 2021 og þeim boðið að taka þátt í tónsmiðju á zoom þann 12. júní.
Í framhaldi af smiðjunni verður eitt laganna valið til flutnings á tónleikum í tengslum við hina Alþjóðlegu Vísindahátíð Orkneyjar þann þriðja september 2021,
2020 saw Nordic Viola’s first foray into online concerts with our popular Histories and Herstories video performance. As our lives open up and we can once more work in the same space, we are excited to announce our new and ambitious Sagas and Seascapes programme which, once again, we will be producing alongside the Orkney International Science Festival.
Norse stories and landscape around the northern sea-routes form the inspiration for this concert. Scottish-based Irish composer Linda Buckley’s Aud draws on the settlement of Iceland, while Lillie Harris’ sextet Elsewhen seeks to capture the atmosphere of Orkney’s ancient sites. In Carry His Relics for flute and viola, Orkney composer Gemma McGregor describes the journey of the remains of St Magnus from Birsay to Kirkwall, along the present-day St Magnus Way. Eli Tausen á Lava from Faroe reflects on legends of the Selkies in Søgnin um Kópakonuna í 10 Myndum for flute and clarinet and his compatriot, Kári Bæk, depicts the ever-changing sea in Wogen. The Danish String Quartet’s dynamic arrangement of The Dromer offers a rousing finale.
Audiences loved film footage of the Far North last year as well as the chance to hear the composers speak about their music, so once again we’ll be working with videographer Craig Sinclair. Composers Linda Buckley and Lillie Harris will travel to Orkney with me to join Orcadian composer Gemma McGregor on location. The composers will share their impressions of the landscapes and ancient sites that inspired their music, offering an insight into their creative processes.
A new and exciting innovation this year is inviting landscape artist Orla Stevens onto the project. In common with the music creators on the project, Orla’s work is influenced by expressive responses to sounds and images of the landscape, as well as the emotional experience that being in nature has on the psyche. In conversation with the composers and incorporating her own emotions on being onsite in Orkney, Orla will develop a series of paintings expressing the emotions of the sagas and seascapes explored through music as the programme mirrors Aud’s journey from Orkney, through the Faroes and finally settling in North-West Iceland.
Making music with young people is fundamental to Nordic Viola. Responding to the challenges of travelling during the pandemic, we’ve decided this year to unite young people from around the North Atlantic by running a competition to write a tune for us. We’ll select up to 20 young people to join in online workshops working with myself, Gemma McGregor and Faroese trombonist Dávur Juul Magnussen to develop their ideas. From these workshops, one piece will be chosen to feature in our main concert video and 5 others will feature in a short video of the project in the autumn. More information on that very soon!
I’ll be keeping you up-to-date as the project progresses. If you want to be amongst the first to hear about our recording sessions next month and our on-location filming in Orkney in June, then why not subscribe?
This exciting and ambitious programme has been made possible through the generous support of the following organisations:
Creative Scotland for general project support
for supporting our commission of linda Buckley’s “Aud”
nordicviola 