Two performances, a video and a CD!

Hot on the heels of our tour to the Faroe Islands, this week must be Nordic Viola’s busiest ever!

Tomorrow I depart for Shetland (oh how I wish Smyril Line still stopped there between Faroe and Denmark!) where I’ll perform with Renzo Spiteri for the first time in part one of On a Wing and a Prayer at the Boat Hall, Shetland Museum on 20th September at 6:30pm. Our hour long performance is perfect for some reflective music after work and will leave time for people outside Lerwick to travel home. Tickets available here. Capacity is limited, so I’d recommend buying in advance.

Remember you can find out more about this event and have a sneak preview of some of our music in this podcast:

It’s a particular pleasure to be welcoming poet Lesley Harrison to our performance. I commissioned Lesley to write three poems for us. These were inspired by the themes in our music, and, in turn, they’ve fed into our creative process. You’ll be able to hear snippets of Lesley’s poems in Renzo’s soundscapes read by Billy Mail and you can also read the poems in full in the programme.

Here’s a short excerpt to whet your appetite:

Whale Songs at WayWord, Aberdeen

Lesley and I will be working together again just two days after On A Wing and a Prayer, this time on Whale Songs, a programme we developed with clarinettist Alex South for Arbroath 2020+1.

We’ll be at WayWord Festival at the King’s Pavilion, Aberdeen University on Friday 22nd September at 7pm. Tickets, which are free, are here.

Central to this programme is our film of Cetacea, which you can watch here:

Shetland Connections Video

Our final performance of the week is a recorded one of our Shetland Connections concert given by David Martin and I on two violas in January and is a celebration of European Folk Day, 23rd September. For just one week, you can catch this performance of traditional music old and new from Shetland and the countries connected to her through the sea routes – Faroe, Iceland and Greenland on YouTube. The performance was in the Weigh Ahead Gallery, Dunblane, and also featured art by the Shetland Collective, some of which you can see in the film. The link goes live at midnight on 23rd September. If you enjoy this concert, please consider donating to Ability Shetland.

Elsewhere, Elsewhen CD pre-orders

Possibly the most exciting news of the week is that pre-orders of our first album, Elsewhere, Elsewhen, go live on 19th September.

You’ll be able to order the digital album and CD and you’ll get our recording of Linda Buckley’s Aud straight away.

The full album will be released on 20th November.

Much, much more on that next weekend. In the meantime, you may want to follow Nordic Viola at Bandcamp and keep an eye on our social media.

On A Wing and A Prayer, WayWord Festival and Elsewhere, Elsewhen are supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland. Elsewhere, Elsewhen is also supported by the Vaughan Williams Foundation.