Red Note Fridays@3: Eddie McGuire's Euphoria
2020-05-29 15:00 - 16:00 (Europe/London)
Join us on our YouTube channel every Friday afternoon at 3PM for a session of new music where we release unseen performances, delve into our recorded albums and meet the composers.
Friday 29th May: We take a closer look at Euphoria, the second track from Eddie McGuire’s ‘Entangled Fortunes’ (Delphian Records). Eddie McGuire is one of Scotland’s greatest living composers. A renaissance man, his compositional voice is informed by a broad wealth of cultural experience and by an unlimited melodic creativity. In this intensely beautiful and unpretentious music, folk-like tunes appear naturally, taking their place in a world of invention large enough to contain minimalist gestures, intense romanticism, meditative silence and sudden drama. (click on this link or on BUY TICKETS and you will redirected to YouTube)
Click here to read the programme notes.

Revisit Digital Noisy Nights on YouTube
2020-05-31
During these social distancing times, Noisy Nights adapted and went digital, providing an outlet to hear emerging new musical ideas and voices together every Friday at 3PM for one month. After opening a challenge to composers by randomly assigning them an instrument to write a solo piece, Red Note musicians selected 20 compositions to perform online that you can enjoy from your own home. You can now revisit Digital Noisy Nights on our YouTube channel.

Ruth Morley – Flute,
Sasha Savaloni – Classical guitar,
Tom Hunter – Percussion,
Jackie Shave – Violin,
and Robert Irvine Cello.

Noisy Nights – 10 April
Robin Haigh Nasubi
Charles Gaskell The Moon Reaching Down to Touch The Reflection
Anna Claydon Manichean
Pàdruig Morrison Fragile Distance
Ronnie MacNiven Sentinel
Noisy Nights – 17 April
Michael Burslem Cello Idea
Dorian Kelly Way Home
Rylan Gleave Unpitched Skin
Georgina MacDonell Finlayson This is the River
Joshua Brown Capriccio Ricercare
Noisy Nights – 24 April
Carol J Jones Selkie
Florence Anna Maunders Black Ants/Red Ants
Stefano Paparozzi A Chord Chart
Mauricio Cristales Armas Longing for Hope
Colin Johnson Grimpen Mire
Noisy Nights – 1 May (Special Young Composers)
Eliza Sinclair Kidd, To a Mouse
Fergus Butt, The Goldfish Are Relentless
Neo Korths, In The Shade Of Tangier
Isak Persson, Kvadratiska Vattenvågor
Louis Opit, Predatory Prelude
If you enjoyed this and are in a position to do so, we hope you will consider making a donation to Help Musicians’ Coronavirus Financial Hardship Fund: https://www.helpmusicians.org.uk/support-our-work/make-a-donation Thank you!
Stay tuned for further announcements about our weekly date Fridays at 3PM !
Red Note is a PRS Foundation Talent Development Partner.

Digital Noisy Nights - 5
2020-06-05 15:00 - 16:00
Digital Noisy Nights provide an outlet to hear emerging new musical ideas and voices in our new social distanced reality. Every Friday at 3PM for the month of June, these five outstanding Red Note musicians will bring you the best examples of brand new music played from scratch from their homes to yours:
• Ruth Morley – Flute,
• Jo Nicholson – Bass Clarinet,
• Tom Hunter – Percussion,
• Jackie Shave – Violin,
• and Duncan Strachan – Cello.

Digital Noisy Nights – 5 June, 3PM (UK time)*
Melissa Rankin Ethereal Waters
Avril Allen Eimhir
Anthony Caulkins Stuck Out
Stirling Rutty Adagio for Cello
Chris Litherland Etude in Nomine

*click on the link or on BUY TICKETS and you will redirected to YouTube
Share and engage on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using #NoisyNights

If you enjoyed this and are in a position to do so, we hope you will consider making a donation to Help Musicians’ Coronavirus Financial Hardship Fund: www.helpmusicians.org.uk/support-our-work/make-a-donation Thank you!

Red Note is a PRS Foundation Talent Development Partner.

Digital Noisy Nights - 6
2020-06-12 15:00 - 16:00
Digital Noisy Nights provide an outlet to hear emerging new musical ideas and voices in our new social distanced reality. Every Friday at 3PM for the month of June, these five outstanding Red Note musicians will bring you the best examples of brand new music played from scratch from their homes to yours:
• Ruth Morley – Flute,
• Jo Nicholson – Bass Clarinet,
• Tom Hunter – Percussion,
• Jackie Shave – Violin,
• and Duncan Strachan – Cello.

Digital Noisy Nights – 12 June, 3PM (UK time)*
Jack Brooks Interlocutor Transposed
Susie Winkworth Lost Marbles
Chris Tilley Rituals
Hugh Morris Etude for Cello
Stuart Mitchell Lining Out

*click on the link or on BUY TICKETS and you will redirected to YouTube
Share and engage on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using #NoisyNights

If you enjoyed this and are in a position to do so, we hope you will consider making a donation to Help Musicians’ Coronavirus Financial Hardship Fund: www.helpmusicians.org.uk/support-our-work/make-a-donation Thank you!

Red Note is a PRS Foundation Talent Development Partner.

Digital Noisy Nights - 7
2020-06-19 15:00 - 16:00
Digital Noisy Nights provide an outlet to hear emerging new musical ideas and voices in our new social distanced reality. Every Friday at 3PM for the month of June, these five outstanding Red Note musicians will bring you the best examples of brand new music played from scratch from their homes to yours:
• Ruth Morley – Flute,
• Jo Nicholson – Bass Clarinet,
• Tom Hunter – Percussion,
• Jackie Shave – Violin,
• and Duncan Strachan – Cello.

Digital Noisy Nights – 19 June, 3PM (UK time)*
James Gerrard Walking in the Woods
Krystof Kohout Mist
Erik Lee Infinity Mirror
Sonia Killmann Seams
Matthew Burke 100% Recycled

*click on the link or on BUY TICKETS and you will redirected to YouTube

Share and engage on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using #NoisyNights

If you enjoyed this and are in a position to do so, we hope you will consider making a donation to Help Musicians’ Coronavirus Financial Hardship Fund: www.helpmusicians.org.uk/support-our-work/make-a-donation Thank you!

Red Note is a PRS Foundation Talent Development Partner.

Digital Noisy Nights - 8
2020-06-26 15:00 - 16:00
Digital Noisy Nights provide an outlet to hear emerging new musical ideas and voices in our new social distanced reality. Every Friday at 3PM for the month of June, these five outstanding Red Note musicians will bring you the best examples of brand new music played from scratch from their homes to yours:
• Ruth Morley – Flute,
• Jo Nicholson – Bass Clarinet,
• Tom Hunter – Percussion,
• Jackie Shave – Violin,
• and Duncan Strachan – Cello.

Digital Noisy Nights – 26 June, 3PM (UK time)* – This concert is dedicated to the work of young composers who are still in school, the next generation in contemporary music.

Erik Pettersson Night-time Forest
Eben Eyres Moving Motifs
Fiachra Galvin Atmosphere
Jack Robinson Dance for Cello
Eddie Mead Gestures

*click on the link or on BUY TICKETS and you will redirected to YouTube

Share and engage on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using #NoisyNights

If you enjoyed this and are in a position to do so, we hope you will consider making a donation to Help Musicians’ Coronavirus Financial Hardship Fund: www.helpmusicians.org.uk/support-our-work/make-a-donation Thank you!

Red Note is a PRS Foundation Talent Development Partner.

Come and Play 4'33''
2020-07-03 15:00 - 15:30
We’ve invited members of the public to perform side-by-side with the musicians of Red Note Ensemble, in what we believe might be the first online mass-participation performance of John Cage’s 4’33” on the Friday 3rd July 2020.
Composed in 1952 for any instrument or combination of instruments, Cage’s 4’33” requires the performer(s) not to play their instruments throughout the duration of the piece’s three movements.
We’ll use Zoom to connect performers from your various remote locations, live-streaming straight onto our YouTube channel.
Don’t miss a 49-strong ensemble led by some of Europe’s finest professional musicians re-create this iconic (and still controversial) 20th century classic in a live online performance, please do come along and be part of the audience on YouTube!
“We’ve no idea what the audio on Zoom will do with silence, but that in itself brings the sense of randomness that the piece is about. It’s a bit crazy. It might of course be a total disaster and that’s a valid response too.“. Artistic Co-Director Robert Irvine
All events in our Fridays@3 series are offered online for free, if you are in a position to do so, we hope you will consider making a donation to Help Musicians’ Coronavirus Financial Hardship Fund Thank you!

Red Note Fridays@3: Cresswell's String Quartet
2020-07-10 15:00 - 16:00
Join us on our YouTube channel every Friday afternoon at 3PM for a session of new music where we release unseen performances, delve into our recorded albums and meet the composers.
Friday 10 July: We dive into Cresswell’s distinctive sound world in the Delphian album ‘Music for String Quartet’. Two ends of the world are bridged in this compelling survey of string chamber music by Lyell Cresswell, whose unique body of work has been a vital presence in his adopted home of Scotland for four decades now while retaining qualities of light, space and openness that evoke his native New Zealand. The imposing String Quartet plays host to a wealth of detail which enriches but never obscures the ‘long, strong tune’ that threads through the work. Instrumental virtuosity comes to the fore in Kotetetete, whose title puns on ‘quartet’ and on the Maori word for ‘chattering’.
Click on this link or on BUY TICKETS and you will redirected to YouTube.
All events in our Fridays@3 series are offered online for free, if you are in a position to do so, we hope you will consider making a donation to Help Musicians’ Coronavirus Financial Hardship Fund Thank you!

Red Note Fridays@3: Sweeney's Cello Sonata
2020-07-17 15:00 - 16:00
Join us on our YouTube channel every Friday afternoon at 3PM for a session of new music where we release unseen performances, delve into our recorded albums and meet the composers.
Friday 17 July: We take a closer look at William Sweeney’s award-winning Cello Sonata, recipient of a 2011 BASCA British Composer Award, from his Delphian album ‘Tree O’ Licht’. Both musically impassioned and socially engaged, William Sweeney’s music is at its most eloquent when voiced by that most human of instruments, the cello. The Sonata bears a joint dedication to Delphian artist Robert Irvine and to Erkki Lahesmaa – ‘keepers’, as Sweeney calls them, ‘of the cello’s inner voice’.
Click on this link or on BUY TICKETS and you will redirected to YouTube.
All events in our Fridays@3 series are offered online for free, if you are in a position to do so, we hope you will consider making a donation to Help Musicians’ Coronavirus Financial Hardship Fund Thank you!

Red Note Fridays@3: McLeod's A Moment In Time
2020-07-24 15:00 - 16:00
Join us on our YouTube channel every Friday afternoon at 3PM for a session of new music where we release unseen performances, delve into our recorded albums and meet the composers.
Friday 24 July: We look back to John McLeod’s landmark collection ‘Moments in Time’ recorded during the composer’s eightieth birthday year. The collection brings together McLeod’s four mythological ‘songs’ – powerful dramatic scenes in which instruments are elevated to voice-like expression – and a further work which crystallises the theme of a single moment with a long expressive ‘shadow’. Increasingly acclaimed at home and abroad, Aberdeen-born John McLeod’s music bears all the hallmarks of exuberant colour and precisely imagined fantasy that his early associations with Lennox Berkeley and Witold Lutosławski would lead one to expect.
Click on this link or on BUY TICKETS and you will redirected to YouTube.
All events in our Fridays@3 series are offered online for free, if you are in a position to do so, we hope you will consider making a donation to Help Musicians’ Coronavirus Financial Hardship Fund Thank you!

Red Note Fridays@3: Tanz/haus : triptych 2017
2020-07-31 15:00 - 16:00
Join us on our YouTube channel every Friday afternoon at 3PM for a session of new music where we release unseen performances, delve into our recorded albums and meet the composers.
Friday 31 July: We’ll finish the month with a treat! Enjoy the full performance of James Dillon’s Tanz/haus : triptych 2017 recorded at the world premiere at HCMF, which went on to win the RPS Award in the Best Chamber-Scale Composition category. (click on this link or on BUY TICKETS and you will redirected to YouTube)
“Once again this composer breaks new ground with a work which immerses its audience in a music theatre of the mind. It is compelling for the sureness of its unfolding in time and space, the striking soundworlds conjured from its nine-piece ensemble, and its rich underlying vein of melancholy”.
RPS Awards
Photo by Graham Hardy © hcmf//
Recording made by BBC Radio 3.
This recording and rights associated with it are owned by the BBC.
All events in our Fridays@3 series are offered online for free, if you are in a position to do so, we hope you will consider making a donation to Help Musicians’ Coronavirus Financial Hardship Fund Thank you!

Digital Noisy Nights - 9
2020-08-07 15:00 - 16:00
As lockdown restrictions ease, we are happy to announce a third round of new music concerts with these outstanding Red Note musicians that you can enjoy from your own home every Friday at 3PM for the month of August:
Ruth Morley (and optional pre-recorded track) – Flute,
Sasha Savaloni – Amplified Classical Guitar with Mark O’Keeffe – Trumpet,
Jackie Shave – Violin with Robert Irvine – Cello.
Digital Noisy Nights – 7 August, 3PM (UK time)*
Steven Watson Night Music
Clara-Jane Maunder Petrichor – Learning to Dance After the Rain
Joshua Clayton Conflict of Interest
Mauricio Cristales Armas Consonancias
Carmen Ho The Way I See

*click on this link or on BUY TICKETS and you will redirected to YouTube

Share and engage on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using #NoisyNights

If you enjoyed this and are in a position to do so, we hope you will consider making a donation to Help Musicians’ Coronavirus Financial Hardship Fund: www.helpmusicians.org.uk/support-our-work/make-a-donation Thank you!

Red Note is a PRS Foundation Talent Development Partner.

Digital Noisy Nights - 10
2020-08-14 15:00 - 16:00
As lockdown restrictions ease, we are happy to announce a third round of new music concerts with these outstanding Red Note musicians that you can enjoy from your own home every Friday at 3PM for the month of August:
Ruth Morley (and optional pre-recorded track) – Flute,
Sasha Savaloni – Amplified Classical Guitar with Mark O’Keeffe – Trumpet,
Jackie Shave – Violin with Robert Irvine – Cello.
Digital Noisy Nights – 14 August, 3PM (UK time)*
Sam Parnin Time Only Moves Forward
Erin Thomson Focussed On Obscurity
Daniel Nolan Wandering
Rylan Gleave Heartstrings
Will Frampton Portsmouth
Toby Stanford (un)tangled

*click on this link or on BUY TICKETS and you will redirected to YouTube

Share and engage on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using #NoisyNights

If you enjoyed this and are in a position to do so, we hope you will consider making a donation to Help Musicians’ Coronavirus Financial Hardship Fund: www.helpmusicians.org.uk/support-our-work/make-a-donation Thank you!

We’d love to know more about your experience and your engagement with our digital content. Please help us by filling in this very short survey – it only takes 5 minutes.

Red Note is a PRS Foundation Talent Development Partner.

Digital Noisy Nights - 11
2020-08-21 15:00 - 16:00
As lockdown restrictions ease, we are happy to announce a third round of new music concerts with these outstanding Red Note musicians that you can enjoy from your own home every Friday at 3PM for the month of August:
Ruth Morley (and optional pre-recorded track) – Flute,
Sasha Savaloni – Amplified Classical Guitar with Mark O’Keeffe – Trumpet,
Jackie Shave – Violin with Robert Irvine – Cello.
Digital Noisy Nights – 21 August, 3PM (UK time)*
Abel Lifschutz Zephyrus
Florence Anna Maunders Formic Dances
Stefano Paparozzi What I Hear After Some Time Among the People
Pablo Martinez Dragon Petals
Charles Gaskell Together
*click on this link or on BUY TICKETS and you will redirected to YouTube
Share and engage on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using #NoisyNights
If you enjoyed this and are in a position to do so, we hope you will consider making a donation to Help Musicians’ Coronavirus Financial Hardship Fund: www.helpmusicians.org.uk/support-our-work/make-a-donation Thank you!
We’d love to know more about your experience and your engagement with our digital content. Please help us by filling in this very short survey – it only takes 5 minutes.
Red Note is a PRS Foundation Talent Development Partner.

Digital Noisy Nights - 12
2020-08-28 15:00 - 16:00
As lockdown restrictions ease, we are happy to announce a third round of new music concerts with these outstanding Red Note musicians that you can enjoy from your own home every Friday at 3PM for the month of August:
Ruth Morley (and optional pre-recorded track) – Flute,
Sasha Savaloni – Amplified Classical Guitar with Mark O’Keeffe – Trumpet,
Jackie Shave – Violin with Robert Irvine – Cello.
As in previous editions, we are delighted to dedicate this last concert to showcase the work of young composers still in high school:
Digital Noisy Nights – 28 August, 3PM (UK time)*
Bláthnaid Marsh Development
Neo Korths Caochlaidhean Air Cuspair
Fergus Butt Joan/Judas
Peter Hughes Knot
Jack Robinson Duo in #F major
*click on this link or on BUY TICKETS and you will redirected to YouTube
Share and engage on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using #NoisyNights
If you enjoyed this and are in a position to do so, we hope you will consider making a donation to Help Musicians’ Coronavirus Financial Hardship Fund: www.helpmusicians.org.uk/support-our-work/make-a-donation Thank you!
We’d love to know more about your experience and your engagement with our digital content. Please help us by filling in this very short survey – it only takes 5 minutes.
Red Note is a PRS Foundation Talent Development Partner.

Noisy Nights Hybrid - 9th October
2020-10-09 18:00 - 19:00
As we move slowly but hopefully towards the return of live events, at Red Note we are excited to play together again with these outstanding musicians:

Ruth Morley – Flute,
Tony Moffat – Violin,
Robert Irvine – Cello.

This first Noisy Nights Hybrid edition puts the focus on the talent of young school-age composers. Following call for scores, opening a challenge for composers still in high-school full time to write a short piece for flute, violin and cello, we are looking forward to presenting these 6 brand new compositions:

Peter Hughes The Brakes Are Off

Alika Arnott Cerulean
Fionn Power Saecula Seculorum
Archie Wallace Autumn Bazaar
Viktor Seifert LP 816-60
Thomas Sewell Raindrops

Tune in to the concert on our YouTube channel on Friday 9th October at 6PM and join us supporting this young generation in contemporary classical music.

Share and engage on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using #NoisyNights

If you enjoy this and are in a position to do so, we hope you will consider making a donation to Help Musicians’ Coronavirus Financial Hardship Fund: https://www.helpmusicians.org.uk/support-our-work/make-a-donation Thank you!

Red Note is a PRS Foundation Talent Development Partner.

Sound festival 2020 - lunchtime concert
2020-10-22 12:00 - 13:00
Ruth Morley, flute, and Alistair MacDonald, Electronics, present five World Premieres of new works which have been developed by Scottish-based composers with the support of Alastair MacDonald as part of sound’s annual development opportunity.

Rylan Gleave UNSUNG II: Harbinger&Herald
Rūta Vitkauskaitė Gadulio
Georgina MacDonell Finlayson Silent Spring
Fiona Harrison Ocean Uproar for Amplified Flute & Tape
Amit Anand Vamanacharya Felt Presence

How to enjoy this event
This event will be broadcast via YouTube. To view please visit sound’s website or YouTube channel.
Following the performance, there will be a live Q&A with the musicians and composers. To ask the artists a question please register.

Donate
All of sound’s online events are free to watch. We ask you to please consider donating what you feel able to pay for the event. Your contribution will help to ensure they can continue to commission new works from composers and support musicians.
You can make a donation here.

Sound Festival 2020 - Th’first munth is th’wurst iv awl
2020-10-22 20:00 - 21:00
Isolation has a dramatic impact on individuals, but is this the end? Does their spark stop when an individual is taken away from their community?
Drawing upon prison letters from radical voices across the globe, Th’first munth is th’wurst iv awl (the first month is the worst of all) by Ben Lunn is a work for narrator and ensemble drawing individual struggle to the present day, and showing isolation does not weaken a person’s fervour or spirit, but we can continue to strive and fight and inspire those miles away from us.

Ben Lunn is an award winning composer who tries to draw upon his own political, spiritual, personal, and ideological worldview within his works which have been described as ‘evocative’ ‘obsessive’ and ‘otherworldly’.This work is narrated by playwright, producer and performer Tayo Aluko and performed by musicians from Red Note Ensemble.

Commissioned by sound
How to enjoy this event
This event will be broadcast via YouTube. To view please visit sound‘s website or YouTube channel. Following the performance, there will be a live Q&A with the the composer Ben Lunn. To ask Ben a question please register. You will then be able to post your question in the chat facility during the event.

Donate
All of sound festival online events are free to watch. We ask you to please consider donating what you feel able to pay for the event. Your contribution will help to ensure they can continue to commission new works from composers and support musicians.
You can make a donation here.

Revisit Noisy Nights online
2021-04-30
Do you miss Noisy Nights?
While we prepare the next editions, you can still enjoy all 14 concerts on our YouTube channel showcasing over 50 composers of all ages from all over the world!
Discover some of the best examples of brand new music played from scratch from the homes of Red Note musicians and from the stunning Oran Mor:

Digital Noisy Nights – watch here
Noisy Nights Hybrid – watch here

Red Note with Richard Watkins - Sound Festival
2021-06-12 19:00 - 20:30 | Queen’s Cross Church, Albyn Pl, Aberdeen, AB10 1YN, United Kingdom
As part of sound‘s programme showcasing endangered instruments, we are joined by Richard Watkins, former Principal Horn of the Philharmonia Orchestra, for the premiere of a reworking of Philip Cashian’s Scenes from the Life of Viscount Medardo.Viscount Medardo of Terralba is a character in Italo Calvino’s short story The Cloven Viscount. After being split in two by a canon ball in battle with the Turks, the left half and the right half of the Viscount (a good half and a badhalf) each separately return home to Italy, falling in love with the same girl and eventually having a sword fight on horseback to decide who shall marry her.

The programme also features a new work by Rylan Gleave UNSUNG II; even from a loved one, the second work in a collection of works exploring the same material surrounding, on some level, voicelessness.

Aileen Sweeney’s new work Feda explores the symbolic and important role trees played in Irish and Scottish Celtic culture and traditions as “sustainers of life,” offering food, medicine, warmth and housing as well as forming connections to the spiritual worlds.

Click here to book your tickets now! Tickets are limited and must be purchased in advance.

Philip Cashian Scenes from the Life of Viscount Medardo (UK Premiere)
Aileen Sweeney Feda* (World Premiere)
Rylan Gleave UNSUNG II; even from a loved one* (World Premiere)

Red Note Ensemble
Richard Watkins Horn
Geoffrey Paterson Conductor

*Co-commissioned by sound and Red Note Ensemble

Iconnotations - Made in Scotland Showcase
2021-08-25 18:00 - 2021-08-28 23:59 | Dancebase at ZooTV
Written in 1969 this is one of Peter Maxwell Davies’s classic works of concert-hall music theatre. An extraordinarily dramatic, multi-layered fusion of dance and music, its shape superimposes the 14 stations of the Cross on a series of 16th-century anatomical drawings by Vesalius, with a dancer and a solo cellist as the protagonists.
Scored for the classic Fires of London Sextet line-up this work is filled with unconventional percussion instruments, a honky-tonk piano, allusions to foxtrots, as well as medieval and renaissance music.
Iconnotations will be live-streamed from Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh, as part of the Dancebase programme. The livestream is on Wednesday 25th August, 6pm (BST). It will then be available as a recording on demand from Thursday 26th August to Saturday 28th August, 11:59pm (BST). Both livestream and on demand will be streamed on ZOOTV.
Please note, there are two different tickets links for the live stream and on demand recordings. You can purchase tickets for the live stream HERE and for on demand HERE.
Peter Maxwell Davies Vesalii Icones

Red Note Ensemble
Matthew Hawkins Choreographer / Dancer
Soraya Ham Dancer
Lionel Handy Cello
Geoffrey Paterson Conductor

Made in Scotland is a curated showcase of high quality performance from Scotland at the world’s largest arts festival, made possible by support from the Scottish Government’s Expo Fund. It is a partnership between the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, the Federation of Scottish Theatre, the Scottish Music Centre and Creative Scotland.
Music courtesy of Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Limited.

Red Note at Lammermuir Festival 2021
2021-09-15 15:00 - 16:45 | The Brunton, The Brunton, Ladywell Way, Musselburgh, EH21 6AA, United Kingdom
Winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society composition award, Tanz/Haus is a tour de force from Scottish composer James Dillon. Its ravishing, extravagant sound world finds a gentler, quieter companion in Tansy Davies’s Soul Canoe. Red Note’s intrepid and brilliant musicians are, as ever, the ideal guides to this fascinating music.

”James Dillon’s Tanz/Haus is a brilliant piece of music; its construction solid, its expression human, with a breathtaking and shimmering orchestration” The Wire

Tansy Davies Soul Canoe
James Dillon Tanz/Haus: triptych 2017

Red Note Ensemble
Conductor Johnathan Berman

Red Note Sessions in Perth - James Dillon's EMBLEMATA: Carnival
2021-09-24 19:30 - 20:30 | Perth Concert Hall, Mill Street, Perth, Scotland, PH1 5HZ, United Kingdom
Red Note’s players have spent the past 3 days together recording two commissions by foremost Scottish composer James Dillon for Delphian Records, and we will share with you the latest – EMBLEMATA: Carnival – talking about the music and the inspirations behind it, and the challenges and delights of performing new music of such extraordinary complexity and beauty. Expect insight, virtuosity, and good company as Red Note take you into James Dillon’s astonishing, unique sound world.

James Dillon EMBLEMATA: Carnival

Red Note Ensemble
Ruth Morley, flute
William White, clarinet
Tom Hunter, percussion
Simon Smith, piano
Jackie Shave, violin
Robert Irvine, cello

Conductor Geoffrey Paterson

Go Compose! Sharing Session at Soundfestival 2021
2021-10-19 17:00 - 18:00 | Anatomy Rooms, Shoe Lane, Aberdeen, AB10 1AL
Having spent time developing their skills in composition with the help of professional composers Karen Power and Joe Duddell, these young composers have been guided through the process of writing a piece of music from start to finish for the alto flute, percussion and double bass. At the end of this course, Red Note and sound present a showcase of their works.
Red Note Ensemble
Ruth Morley, alto flute
Tom Hunter, percussion
Iain Crawford, double bass
Supported by Aberdeen Endowments Trust, David and June Gordon Memorial Trust, Gannochy Trust, Hugh Fraser Foundation, The Witherby Publishing Group Charitable Trust and EIS Education Committee.
*Go Compose! is a collaboration between sound and Red Note.

Red Note at soundfestival 2021
2021-10-22 18:00 - 19:00 | Queen’s Cross Church, Albyn Pl, Aberdeen, AB10 1YN, United Kingdom
In partnership with sound, Red Note perform 3 premiers at soundfestival 2021.
Ailie Robertson’s Unfurl forms a continuation of her PhD studies into microtonality and the harp, taking inspiration from Erv Wilson’s 1965 organisation of the overtone series as a logarithmic spiral. The piece is anti-narrative and anti-developmental in form, simply housing the tonal material, which consists of the first 80 partials of the overtone series. Expressivity comes from the simple aligning of tones, one to another, as the harmonic space progressively expands towards the fundamental.
In addition to this is Edwin Hillier’s new work 37 Otago Street. The ‘ghost sign’ at 37 Otago Street became a familiar sight on Hillier’s daily lockdown walk through Glasgow. Revisiting this image with routine, almost ritual, he became fascinated by its complexity and changeability: its disparate elements enhanced, recoloured, embroidered by the light, affected by the time of day and year. When captured on camera, zoomed in and examined – a method famously employed on the streets of Chicago by ‘abstract expressionist photographer’ Aaron Siskind in the 1950s – the sign betrays an intricate and heavily textured inner world. Inspired by Hillier’s daily encounters with the street mural, 37 Otago Street offers several perspectives on what becomes a familiar, even nostalgic, timbral palette. Glimpses of ghostly lettering and flecks of crimson-hued paint emerge in the fragile ensemble textures and concrete sonorities of the auxiliary instruments. Shifting from foreground to background, fractured musical images are interwoven and drawn into focus as we pass them by.
Finally, Luke Styles presents his trio Five Phase Sphere. The trio presents 5 phases of music for this specific combination of instruments. The resonance of these 3 instruments together, their low frequencies and their combined musical potentials are all stimuli for each phase. Across each phase are musical links, but together, as five points of music they form a sphere of material, in the composer’s imagination
Ailie Robertson Unfurl (World Premiere)*
Edwin Hillier 37 Otago Street (World Premiere)**
Luke Styles Five Phase Sphere (World Premiere)***
Red Note Ensemble
Ruth Morley, flute
Will White, clarinet
Daniel Pioro, violin
Tom Hankey, viola
Robert Irvine, cello
Iain Crawford, double bass
Ailie Robertson Harp
William Cole Conductor
* Co-commissioned by sound, Red Note Ensemble and hcmf//
** Co-commissioned by sound and Red Note Ensemble
*** Co-commissioned by sound, hcmf//, Red Note Ensemble and Ask Duets

sub mari.
2021-11-04 20:00 - 21:00 | Perth Concert Hall, Mill Street, Perth, Scotland, PH1 5HZ, United Kingdom
As the COP26 summit takes place in Glasgow, Red Note’s latest commission brings together a collaborative multi-media commission by Chilean composer / double-bassist Manuel Figueroa-Bolvarán and Red Note’s Weston-Jerwood Creative Fellow, Scottish-based Martina Corsini, that highlights the contrasting scarcity and abundance of water in Chile and Scotland.
Chile has a very severe water scarcity, exacerbated by land-management practices due to the production of food (including avocados) for export. This, contrasting with a potentially dangerous water abundance here in Scotland, allows the composers to explore the character of water in both places in relation to the environmental crisis, and has inspired them to create a new multi-media artistic work that is both powerful and direct, with a clear message for us all.
Manuel Figueroa-Bolvarán has developed an extensive and multifaceted career focused on performance, composing and arts education. He has been recognized as a cultural ambassador in Chile and abroad, traveling across the Americas and over 20 countries. As composer, Manuel had written music for radio dramas, stage plays, short films and cinema adaptations. He has also premiered music for orchestra, including solo concertos, ballet and opera. Manuel is constantly working across many fields, from digital design to orchestral conducting; from classical to rock music. As a crossover artist, Manuel has performed across the Americas and Europe, recorded for several artists in Latin America and Europe, including Latin Grammys awarded albums and in collaboration with performing arts from different fields.
Martina Corsini joined the team as Creative Music Maker for a year-long Fellowship thanks to the Weston Jerwood Creative Bursaries. From a young age Martina developed her passion for music, studying piano, singing, playing the guitar and the cajon. In her teenage years, she formed an acoustic duo with the guitarist Joshua De Loa and played in multiple venues such as Auditorium Parco della Musica for the community project ‘Play Music Stop Violence’. In Scotland, Martina studied at UWS, completing a Degree in Commercial Music and Masters in Songwriting. During this time she developed her knowledge in the music industry, working as tour manager for the Eurogig and as director, project manager and tour manager for Keep Music aLive – an experience for young bands across Europe.
Please note, this event is for our Perth concert ONLY. For our Glasgow concert, click here.
Martina Corsini and Manuel Figueroa-Bolvaran sub mari.
Red Note Ensemble
Ruth Morley, flute
Joanna Nicholson, clarinet
Tom Hunter, percussion
Malcolm MacFarlane, electric guitar
Emil Chakalov, violin 1
Tom Hankey, violin 2
Fiona Winning, viola
Robert Irvine, cello
Iain Crawford, double bass
Herminda Quintraleo Voice
Coro Allegro (directed by Francisco Espinoza) Chilean Choir
Levenmouth Academy Choir (directed by Alison Fleming) Scottish Youth Choir
Cristian Andres Tapia Aracena Film Producer

sub mari.
2021-11-08 18:00 - 18:45 | Wellington Church, 77 Southpark Ave, Glasgow, G12 8LE, United Kingdom
As the COP26 summit takes place in Glasgow, Red Note’s latest commission brings together a collaborative multi-media commission by Chilean composer / double-bassist Manuel Figueroa-Bolvarán and Red Note’s Weston-Jerwood Creative Fellow, Scottish-based Martina Corsini, that highlights the contrasting scarcity and abundance of water in Chile and Scotland.
Chile has a very severe water scarcity, exacerbated by land-management practices due to the production of food (including avocados) for export. This, contrasting with a potentially dangerous water abundance here in Scotland, allows the composers to explore the character of water in both places in relation to the environmental crisis, and has inspired them to create a new multi-media artistic work that is both powerful and direct, with a clear message for us all.
Please note, this event is for our Glasgow concert ONLY. For our Perth concert, click here.

Manuel Figueroa-Bolvarán has developed an extensive and multifaceted career focused on performance, composing and arts education. He has been recognized as a cultural ambassador in Chile and abroad, traveling across the Americas and over 20 countries. As composer, Manuel had written music for radio dramas, stage plays, short films and cinema adaptations. He has also premiered music for orchestra, including solo concertos, ballet and opera. Manuel is constantly working across many fields, from digital design to orchestral conducting; from classical to rock music. As a crossover artist, Manuel has performed across the Americas and Europe, recorded for several artists in Latin America and Europe, including Latin Grammys awarded albums and in collaboration with performing arts from different fields.
Martina Corsini joined the team as Creative Music Maker for a year-long Fellowship thanks to the Weston Jerwood Creative Bursaries. From a young age Martina developed her passion for music, studying piano, singing, playing the guitar and the cajon. In her teenage years, she formed an acoustic duo with the guitarist Joshua De Loa and played in multiple venues such as Auditorium Parco della Musica for the community project ‘Play Music Stop Violence’. In Scotland, Martina studied at UWS, completing a Degree in Commercial Music and Masters in Songwriting. During this time she developed her knowledge in the music industry, working as tour manager for the Eurogig and as director, project manager and tour manager for Keep Music aLive – an experience for young bands across Europe.
Martina Corsini and Manuel Figueroa-Bolvaran sub mari.
Red Note Ensemble
Ruth Morley, flute
Joanna Nicholson, clarinet
Tom Hunter, percussion
Malcolm MacFarlane, electric guitar
Emil Chakalov, violin 1
Tom Hankey, violin 2
Fiona Winning, viola
Robert Irvine, cello
Iain Crawford, double bass
Herminda Quintraleo Voice
Coro Allegro (directed by Francisco Espinoza) Chilean Choir
Levenmouth Academy Choir (directed by Alison Fleming) Scottish Youth Choir
Cristian Andres Tapia Aracena Film Producer
Presented in collaboration with Music in the University and The Dear Green Bothy, a collaborative cultural programme from the University of Glasgow’s College of Arts, showcasing creative and critical responses to climate emergency.
Post concert: We would really appericate your feedback from our concert. As part of The Dear Green Bothy, please fill out this evaluation form here.

sub mari. Concert and Livestream from St Andrews
2021-11-09 15:00 - 15:45 | Laidlaw Music Centre, University of St Andrews, Queen's Terrace, St Andrews, KY16 9QF, United Kingdom
As the COP26 summit takes place in Glasgow, Red Note’s latest commission brings together a collaborative multi-media commission by Chilean composer / double-bassist Manuel Figueroa-Bolvarán and Red Note’s Weston-Jerwood Creative Fellow, Scottish-based Martina Corsini, that highlights the contrasting scarcity and abundance of water in Chile and Scotland.
Chile has a very severe water scarcity, exacerbated by land-management practices due to the production of food (including avocados) for export. This, contrasting with a potentially dangerous water abundance here in Scotland, allows the composers to explore the character of water in both places in relation to the environmental crisis, and has inspired them to create a new multi-media artistic work that is both powerful and direct, with a clear message for us all.
Manuel Figueroa-Bolvarán has developed an extensive and multifaceted career focused on performance, composing and arts education. He has been recognized as a cultural ambassador in Chile and abroad, traveling across the Americas and over 20 countries. As composer, Manuel had written music for radio dramas, stage plays, short films and cinema adaptations. He has also premiered music for orchestra, including solo concertos, ballet and opera. Manuel is constantly working across many fields, from digital design to orchestral conducting; from classical to rock music. As a crossover artist, Manuel has performed across the Americas and Europe, recorded for several artists in Latin America and Europe, including Latin Grammys awarded albums and in collaboration with performing arts from different fields.
Martina Corsini joined the team as Creative Music Maker for a year-long Fellowship thanks to the Weston Jerwood Creative Bursaries. From a young age Martina developed her passion for music, studying piano, singing, playing the guitar and the cajon. In her teenage years, she formed an acoustic duo with the guitarist Joshua De Loa and played in multiple venues such as Auditorium Parco della Musica for the community project ‘Play Music Stop Violence’. In Scotland, Martina studied at UWS, completing a Degree in Commercial Music and Masters in Songwriting. During this time she developed her knowledge in the music industry, working as tour manager for the Eurogig and as director, project manager and tour manager for Keep Music aLive – an experience for young bands across Europe.
Join us at Laidlaw Music Centre, St Andrews for a small performance of sub mari. or catch it online at the same time as a livestream. Links to livestream to be provided at a later date.
Please note, this event is for our livestream with St Andrews ONLY. For our Perth and Glasgow concerts, click here.
Martina Corsini and Manuel Figueroa-Bolvaran sub mari.
Red Note Ensemble
Ruth Morley, flute
Joanna Nicholson, clarinet
Tom Hunter, percussion
Malcolm MacFarlane, electric guitar
Emil Chakalov, violin 1
Tom Hankey, violin 2
Fiona Winning, viola
Robert Irvine, cello
Iain Crawford, double bass
Herminda Quintraleo Voice
Coro Allegro (directed by Francisco Espinoza) Chilean Choir
Levenmouth Academy Choir (directed by Alison Fleming) Scottish Youth Choir
Cristian Andres Tapia Aracena Film Producer

Presented in collaboration with University of St Andrews Music Centre.

Red Note at hcmf//
2021-11-19 13:00 - 14:00 | Huddersfield Town Hall, Corporation Street, Huddersfield, England, HD1 2TA, United Kingdom
Red Note has been a prominent purveyor of James Dillon’s work for the last decade, bringing premieres of his large-scale works to the festival in 2013, and then again in 2017. Our continuous relationship with the composer is palpable: performing his seemingly insurmountable music with poise, carrying it carefully while also conveying its fragile breaking point. In this concert, we deliver the world premiere of his immense new work Emblemata: Carnival.
Red Note delivers Dillon’s new composition alongside music from Luke Styles, who describes his new piece Five Phase Sphere as ‘abstract, with no programme whatsoever’. Written more for the instrumentation it uses than for any narrative reason, it comes from a place of unbridled intuition, focusing on resonances and combinations. Its title is a candid explanation of the material: five phases, musically connected, orbiting in a sphere. Red Note completes the programme with a new work from emerging Scottish composer Aileen Sweeney, an accordionist who uses her folk roots as a vessel for protesting the growing social inequalities in our environment.
hcmf// is an annual, international festival of contemporary and new music, taking place over 10 days and consisting of approximately 50 events – including concerts, music-theatre, dance, multi-media, talks and film – with a related Learning and Participation programme devised and implemented to reflect the artistic programme and respond to regional need.
James Dillon EMBLEMATA: Carnival (World Premiere)
Luke Styles Five Phase Sphere (UK Premiere)*
Aileen Sweeney The Land Under the Wave (World Premiere)
Red Note Ensemble
Ruth Morley, flute
Will White, clarinet
Tom Hunter, percussion
Simon Smith, piano
David Alberman, violin
Tom Hankey, viola
Robert Irvine, cello
Iain Crawford, double bass
Geoffrey Paterson Conductor
*co-commissioned by sound, Red Note Ensemble, Ask Duets and hcmf//

Red Note at The Night With...
2022-03-23 20:00 - 21:30 | Summerhall, Summerhall Pl., Edinburgh, EH9 1QH, United Kingdom
The Night With… is a charity based in Glasgow presenting salon style concerts of interesting music in intimate, informal venues across Scotland and further afield. Run by Matthew Whiteside, it provides development and commissioning opportunities for young and emerging composers.
Red Note returns to The Night With… with concerts in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast and Aberdeen. Please refer to each individual event page for tickets at each location.
Rufus Isabel Elliot The way we cupped our hands (and how the water ran through our fingers and down to the sea)* (World Premiere)
Witold Lutoslawski String Quartet
George Crumb Black Angels
Caroline Shaw Valencia
Red Note Ensemble
Jackie Shave, Violin 1
Tom Hankey, Violin 2
Fiona Winning, Viola
Robert Irvine, Cello
In partnership with The Night With…
*co-commissioned by Red Note Ensemble and The Night With…
