Edinburgh pupils collaborate in new fusion band – Cycling classes – HMS Edinburgh- Edinburgh Zoo – Edinburgh Trams
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s education and outreach department, SCO Connect, has started a new initiative, SCO VIBE, an exciting fusion orchestra open to young musicians aged 11-18 years old living in Edinburgh.
Influenced by the group members and the musical styles that they love, SCO VIBE opens up what a conventional orchestra looks like, providing a forum where young people can engage in collaborative music-making, and inspiring them to have a life-long relationship with music.
Participation is free and open to all abilities and instruments, but centres around young people who may not traditionally engage with the work of the SCO or who may not have had opportunities to take part in other musical ensembles offered in the city.
Meeting during school holidays throughout the year, young people will write and perform their own music with the help of SCO players, Instrumental Music Instructors from the City of Edinburgh Council and students from Napier University and Edinburgh College.
The current summer course is taking place until 25 July and will involve 70 primary and secondary pupils from schools across the city including, Tynecastle, Drummond, Broughton, Trinity, Forrester, Leith, Wester Hailes Education Centre and Holy Rood clusters as well as Craigmount, Firhill and Currie clusters.
Lucy Forde, SCO Connect Director said: “SCO Connect is thrilled to be providing young people of all backgrounds and abilities in Edinburgh with the opportunity to experience the excitement of making and performing music together. We welcome all instruments at SCO VIBE from clarinets to keyboards, cellos to sitars, clarsachs to bass guitars and vocals.”
SCO VIBE is delivered in partnership with the City of Edinburgh Council and is supported by CashBack for Creativity with an award of £30,000. Creative Scotland’s CashBack for Creativity programme re-invests the monies seized from criminals back into cultural activities for young people across Scotland. The programme is supported by the Scottish Government’s CashBack for Communities Initiative. The project has also received £15,500 from the Young Start Programme run by the Big Lottery Fund Scotland.
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Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative are running cycling classes in August. This is what their website says:-
“Do you know anyone who likes the idea of cycling but lacks the confidence to take to the road on two wheels?
We might be able to help. We are running Essential Cycling Skills Classes from our Bruntsfield shop. To encourage people to attend, we are only charging £15 for two hours of hands-on tuition.
Class Dates
9:00-11:00am Friday 16 August 2013
9:00-11:00am Sunday 18 August 2013
These classes will be especially tailored for beginner and returnee adult cyclists. Although they have a serious aim – to help make you a more self-confident cyclist – we do our best to make these courses engaging, enjoyable and fun.”
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HMS Edinburgh was decommissioned earlier this year and a petition to the UK government to ensure that the destroyer is berthed in Edinburgh as a museum piece has grown in strength. 1381 people have now signed in support of the bid to save the ship for the capital, and the petition remains open.
The organisers of the petition and Facebook group state that it might cost £700,000 to do all of this. It appears that the council will be expected to foot at least some of the bill.
The Lord Provost announced a feasibility study in June this year, although there has been no update as yet.
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Edinburgh Zoo is celebrating its 100 year anniversary. The website Our Town Stories which was created by Edinburgh’s Library Service has the whole story of how it was started by Thomas Gillespie and grew to be the home of the pandas 100 years later. Whether or not you agree with the role that zoos play in conservation and animal welfare, the zoo at Corstorphine is an important asset to our city, and the story is worth reading.
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The Transport Convenor Lesley Hinds has been to Dublin to have a look at the trams. Her article in The Edinburgh Evening News (sparkly new website EEN!) is fairly similar in its findings to one written by The Edinburgh Reporter for Guardian Edinburgh a couple of years back, but was accompanied by our own photographs and audio interview with the Lord Mayor of Dublin.
The Dublin tram system is now being extended even further as there are signs all over the city that works will begin soon to link up the two individual tram lines so that they become a cross city route. They have set up a dedicated website to advise of the disruption which is inevitable during construction of the €368 project.
In Edinburgh there has been a stop start web presence for our tram project, with months when any news was very rare. But there is now a page on the council website here and a Twitter account which aims to keep you up to date. There are tours of the tram available to groups. Have you been yet? What did you think?
Today’s photo is of Ramsay Garden where the long-suffering residents are about to begin their month long front row seat position of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo which begins next week.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
