Catilena Festival

If the call of the cuckoo heralds the arrival of spring, the island’s annual Catilena Festival confirms the month of July is here.

The six-day festival of classic and baroque music takes place from Sunday July 8 to Friday July 13 in various island venues and features a group of professional musicians and senior students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

All will be under the musical control of artistic directors Angus Ramsay and Scott Mitchell.

The opening concert on the evening of July 8 takes place in the St Columba Gaelic Centre where everyone can enjoy piano compositions from Haydn, Mozart and Brahms. The young musicians will present their professional showcase on Monday July 9 in Laphroaig Distillery and music by Purcell and Elgar will be among the favourites at Lagavulin Distillery the following evening. The Gaelic Centre will also be the setting on Wednesday July 11 for a piano recital by Havilland Willshire, followed by works by Beethoven, Bridge and Shostakovich.

Compositions by Telemann and Rossini will form part of the recitals at Ardbeg Distillery on Thursday July 12 and Bruichladdich village hall will host the closing concert on the Friday evening which includes the classical ceilidh, now a firm favourite, and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

The organisers hope extra concerts will take place, including the musicians’ first performance on neighbouring Jura. Entertaining passengers on the cruise ship Hebridean Princess is also on the cards.

All the festival performances begin at 7.30pm and this year’s programme will also include music reflecting WWI 100 commemorations and the loss of the SS Tuscania and HMS Otranto off Islay’s shores in the closing months of the 1914-18 hostilities.