Music at Paxton 2008
Background
Programme
Community work
Music at Paxton 2008 is supported through the Scottish Arts Council’s Performing Arts Programming fund.
Music at Paxton (18-27 July 2008) is a chamber music festival set in the beautiful surroundings of Paxton House in the Scottish Borders. Created in 2006, it has grown from its modest beginnings into a nine-day festival featuring top Scottish and international classical and traditional musicians.
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Concerts are held in the Picture Gallery of Paxton House, which houses some of the paintings from the National Galleries of Scotland collection, and the grounds of the house are open to concert-goers for pre-concert and interval strolls. |
The festival also takes performances from the main programme into the community in partnership with Live Music Now!
This year’s Music at Paxton programme has a strong central and eastern European theme.
The Russian theme is taken up on Sunday 20 July with an open-air family performance of Stravinsky’s The Solder’s Tale from the University of York Music Department. This is followed by a concert of Russian classics performed by the world-renowned St Petersburg String Quartet. On 24 July the Edinburgh Quartet with pianist Nicholas Ashton perform Shostakovich’s mighty Piano Quintet.
Borders-based fiddle-player Shona Mooney, plays a programme of her own compositions based on Borders traditional tunes on 22 July. A former BBC Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year, Shona will have been coaching local young players in the days leading up to the concert, and they will be performing with her and her trio.
| Wednesday 23 July features some of the leading young professionals performing in Scotland today, appearing under the banner of Yehudi Menuhin’s organisation Live Music Now! Jessica Beeston (viola), Andrew Johnston (piano) and the Sax-Ecosse quartet play music by Shostakovich, Britten, Glazunov and Bernstein. |
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The Hebrides Ensemble play Messiaen’s elegiac Quartet for the End of Time on Friday 25 July, a recording of which they recently launched on Linn Records at London’s Wigmore Hall.
The festival is concluded by the Avison Ensemble, an outstanding period instrument orchestra, in a programme that features music by Purcell, Geminiani and John Garth.
Music at Paxton believes in breaking down boundaries and provides a platform to young, up-and-coming musicians as well as more established performers. To this end, talented young musicians will be performing in schools and residential homes in the run-up to the festival.
The Sax-Ecosse quartet, currently the resident quartet with Enterprise Music Scotland (Scotland’s national development organisation for chamber music), performed at primary schools in Greenlaw and Cornhill-on-Tweed on 26 June. They enthralled the combined forces of Cornhill-on-Tweed and Norham Primary schools with music from Handel, Ravel's Bolero, and The Pink Panther. One youngster reported that he could 'feel the vibration of the music in my tummy', while another enthusiastic new fan said the playing 'made my feet tingle'.
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The young quartet, all graduates from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music at Drama, will be playing a combination of classical music and light jazz for the pupils. They are fast developing their musical careers through an exciting and varied portfolio of performance and education work, and their concerts as an ensemble have taken them to venues throughout the UK. |
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For more information visit the Music at Paxton website, or call Paxton House on 01289 386 291. | |