The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Scottish Ensemble helps give pause for thought
The Scottish Ensemble string orchestra is teaming up with the Maggie’s Centre in Dundee to offer music and mindfulness sessions.
Workshops devised for cancer sufferers and those around them will explore the effect music has on the mind and body.
The aim of the sessions, which run in Dundee from Friday to next Tuesday, is to soothe, relax, de-stress and entertain.
A special Pausing With Music retreat day at Maggie’s Dundee – a day of music, discussion, yoga and how to use music in mindfulness – takes place on Friday.
First performed at Maggie’s Dundee in 2016, these sessions received such positive feedback from participants that the orchestra has continued its partnership, this year delivering events in Dundee, Fife and Airdrie.
The group will also deliver events which bring music to the community, including a composing and musicmaking session with charity Sense Scotland, a life-drawing class with a live music soundtrack at Dundee and Angus College, and a performance in the children’s ward at Ninewells.
The residency culminates in a special concert and discussion called Pause at West Ward Works, a former DC Thomson warehouse, on September 11.
A spokesman for the Scottish Ensemble said: “As well as expert speakers and musicians sharing their perspectives on what music does to us and why, carefully-devised sets of music will create an absorbing listening experience for mind and body – from the riveting, repetitive patterns of Philip Glass, to the mystical intensity of Biber, to the Pulitzer-Prize-winning soundscapes of Caroline Shaw.”
Guest speakers include neuroscientist Dr Guido Orgs, the orchestra’s artistic director Jonathan Morton, and violinist Daniel Pioro who devised the musical programme for Pause.