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I am delighted to present
the Annual Review of activities for our 2004/2005 season.
Our Music Club Awards Scheme auditions took place on 1st November 2005. 10
chamber ensembles were chosen for audition following applications from 27
groups in total. 20 concerts were awarded to 4 groups for the
2005/06
season. The principal Award Winners chosen were the
Callino String Quartet and the
Aquarelle Guitar Quartet who were
awarded 6 concerts each. The two other Award Winners selected were:
The
Sacconi String Quartet, and the
Veya Saxophone Quartet who will both
give 4 concerts. We were able to maintain our level of support under the
Scheme with a generous donation from the D’Oyly Carte Trust. A full list of
forthcoming concerts can be seen on the next page.
The Music Club Awards Scheme concerts given by our 2003 Award Winners got
under way in November 2004 and were completed in March 2005. All four 2003
Award Winners, the Bronte Quartet, the Zephyr Ensemble of London, the Fell
Clarinet Quartet and O Duo were much enjoyed in Music Clubs from Melrose in
the Borders, Nairn and Inverness in the North, to Arran and Islay in the
Western Isles.
The
2005 Strathgarry Showcase took place
from the 14 to 22 May. 16 young musicians attended this year’s event. I was
delighted that our sponsor of two years, Thomson & Potter of Burrelton,
agreed to continue their support in 2005 by sponsoring our
Education Outreach Programme in local
Perthshire schools. I am extremely grateful to David Gilbertson of Thomson &
Potter for his and the company’s continued support. The Esmée Fairbairn
Foundation’s 3 year support of the event entered its second year. Their
generosity covers nearly 1/4 of the total cost of the Showcase. This year’s
Showcase was also made possible with generous donations from the Hope Scott
Trust, the Bacher Trust and the Binks Trust. 5 Schools Workshops took place
under our Education Outreach Programme in schools in Blair Atholl,
Grandtully and Butterstone. Our chief sponsor
Thomson & Potter of Burrelton have
recently opened new premises, and in order to celebrate the grand opening,
the Callino Quartet hosted what was almost certainly the first ever Music
Education event to be held at a Skoda Showroom! The event was a huge success
attracting children from three nearby primary schools.
For the first time in a
number of years the Trust presented a fund raising concert series - the
Edinburgh Queens Hall Series 2004. Our
1999 Award Winners, the Belcea Quartet, now flying high as one of the
foremost young quartets in the world, agreed to perform two concerts for us.
The first, with our Patron, Imogen Cooper, took place on 29 September and
received extraordinary critical acclaim. The second concert was given on 3
November by the exciting young Callino Quartet, who attended our Strathgarry
Showcase in 2002 and were one of the main Award Winners in 2004. The third
concert was on 1 December when the Belcea and Callino Quartets joined forces
in a spectacular performance of Mendelssohn’s joyous Octet.
Fundraising in 2004/05 was again successful with 8 national charities giving
support to our work. Attracting commercial sponsorship to our promotion at
the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh in the Autumn of 2004 proved harder but with the
generous support of those taking up our corporate packages for these events
the series was made financially viable.
Our 2005 Auditions for the Music Club Awards Scheme took place on 7th
November in London. Given the extremely high standard overall the Trustees
made the decision to increase spending on the scheme by nearly 20% in
awarding 4 groups a total of 24 concerts for the 2006/07 season.
Applications totalled 32 and 14 groups were chosen for audition. I am
delighted to announce that there were four Award Winners chosen from an
extremely exciting batch of auditionees. Thistle Brass, the Ensemble na Mara
(Piano Quartet), the McLeod/Sturfalt Duo (Cello and Piano) and the
Yamada/Kynoch Duo (Violin and Piano) will each give 6 music club concerts
during the
2006/2007 season.
Jonathan Tunnell
artistic director
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