The Queen’s Hall is one of Edinburgh’s best-loved music venues. It holds 900 people and so the concerts are intimate and very varied!
3 June 2017
Meadows Chamber Orchestra : Evans/Westwell
Peter Evans: conductor/soloist; Jack Westwell: piano
Lyell Cresswell: The Rev Norman McLeod’s Dance
Mozart: Piano Concerto No 23 in A major, K488
Poulenc: Piano Concerto
Ravel: Suite: Ma mère l’Oye (Mother Goose)
This is a concert to end the Meadows Chamber Orchestra season with Peter Evans both conducting and playing piano along with the winner of the 2015 Edinburgh Concerto Competition, Jack Westwell, also on piano. They will be playing one of Mozart’s best loved piano concertos.
Website www.meadowsorchestra.org.uk
Twitter @mcoedinburgh
4 June 2017
Song of the Night
This concert-staged opera features the Edinburgh-based Hans Gál Society. Last performed in 1930, banned by Hitler along with all Gál’s music, Das Lied Der Nacht [Song of the Night] is a powerful romantic drama, set in 12th century Palermo. It shows Gál at the height of his musical power as an operatic composer. Premièred in Breslau in 1926, it was hailed as “one of the most powerful operatic experiences ever!”
With a pre-concert talk at 6.30pm to explain what will be going on for the uninitiated!
Website: www.hansgal.org
8 June 2017
Paddy Bort Memorial Concert
The Edinburgh Folk Club is organising a memorial concert for the club’s long-time chair and emcee Paddy Bort, who died suddenly on 17 February 2017 aged sixty-two.
As well as his involvement with Edinburgh Folk Club, for many years Bort organised the Wee Folk Club, which runs every Sunday in the capital’s popular folk pub, The Royal Oak, and he was the energetic driving force behind The Carrying Stream festival, held annually in Edinburgh during November since 2002 to celebrate the life and work of the late folklorist, song collector, writer and poet Hamish Henderson.
Edinburgh Folk Club is very grateful to these performers for giving their time and skill willingly and freely to bring you a wonderful show of great Scottish and Irish music and song… including leading Scots song specialists Malinky, singer-songwriter Karine Polwart, popular folk band North Sea Gas, folklorist Margaret Bennett, Rab Noakes, and Boys of the Lough founder Cathal McConnell’s current group with fiddler Kathryn Nicoll and harper Karen Marshalsay.
The proceeds from the concert will form the first payment into a charitable trust fund to be created and administered by Edinburgh Folk Club. This is “a work in progress” but the intention is to be able to provide financial help to undergraduate or postgraduate students of politics and / or Scottish culture at the University of Edinburgh. In addition young musicians needing help on a specific project would be able to apply for financial assistance.
Website www.efc1973.com | Twitter@edfolkclub
9 June 2017
Saint Etienne plus special guests
In a dance world where drum machines and pounding basslines rule, Saint Etienne have always been a welcome purveyor of fresh pop, dance and ambient fusion. With Sarah Cracknell’s breathy, etheral vocal still sending shivers down the spine and a back catalogue including Only Love Will Break Your Heart and He’s On The Phone to draw on, plug in and start dreaming.
Tonight, they showcase their new album Home Counties. What’s remarkable about Home Counties (and its predecessor, Words and Music) is that Saint Etienne, in what might have been expected to be their dotage, are making the best music of their quarter-century career. Freed from the pressures of worrying their single might stall at No 41, they record now only when they have something to say – like AC/DC, Saint Etienne make an album every five or six years, and if you want to hear it, you have to wait.
Website www.saintetienne.com
Twitter @bobpetesarah
14 June 2017
Edinburgh Quartet : EQ Dance
A programme with dance at its heart, starting off with Haydn’s String Quartet Op 77 No 2 where there is a barnstorming Polonaise in the last movement, and Tippett’s second String Quartet with its edgy, obsessive toe-tapping rhythms. The concert is rounded off by the completion of EQ’s Queen’s Hall ‘Rasumovsky’ cycle with Beethoven’s String Quartet Op 59 No 1.
Haydn: String Quartet Op 77 No 2
Tippett: String Quartet No 2
Beethoven: String Quartet Op 59 No 1 “Rasumovsky”
Website www.edinburghquartet.com
Twitter @EdinQuartet
23 June 2017
EIFF – Scottish National Jazz Orchestra
Featuring the music of Miles Davis, Duke Ellington and several other jazz greats, this event will see world famous Edinburgh born jazz saxophonist Tommy Smith lead the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra in a musical tribute to ground-breaking Scottish playwright Tom McGrath.
This special performance will be complemented by readings of McGrath’s poetry and extracts from his plays by another iconic Scottish talent, celebrated actor and performer Tam Dean Burn (recently seen in Sky’s Fortitude).
This concert is part of EIFF’s 2017 retrospective The Future is History, a cross-arts exploration of identity.
29 June 2017
Ani DiFranco plus special guests
Widely considered a feminist icon, Grammy winner Ani DiFranco is the mother of the DIY movement, being one of the first artists to create her own record label in 1990.
While she has been known as the “Little Folksinger,” her music has embraced punk, funk, hip hop, jazz, soul, electronica and even more distant sounds. Her collaborators have included everyone from Utah Phillips to legendary R&B saxophonist Maceo Parker to Prince.
She has shared stages with Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Seeger, Kris Kristofferson, Greg Brown, Billy Bragg, Michael Franti, Chuck D., and many more. She will be releasing a new album Binary in 2017.
30 June 2017
A Night out With Rebus
Enjoy a night out with Edinburgh’s best-loved fictional detective John Rebus with an evening of words and music, curated by the author Ian Rankin. Live music comes from acclaimed Scottish songwriters Blue Rose Code, alt country singer Michael Weston King and folk musician Kirsty Law. Ian Rankin will discuss the significance of music in his Rebus novels, and introduce you to Rebus’ favourite tunes.
A Night out with Rebus is part of RebusFest, a weekend of events celebrating the 30th anniversary of Ian Rankin’s Rebus novels.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
