Scottish Ensemble Residency

Various venues, Dundee, September 10-14

Since 2012, the Scottish Ensemble have taken the concept of touring classical music to a new level with their Residencies.

The group regularly set up a temporary camp in different areas around Scotland and deliver a range of music-related events, taking their sound into new and unusual contexts.

This week it’s Dundee’s turn, with venues and supporters including McManus Galleries, Sense Scotland, Maggie’s Dundee, Harris Academy and Dundee Comics Creative Space (DCCS) all getting involved.

“Before 2012 we often arrived, rehearsed, performed in and left the cities we visited in 24 hours,” says Fraser Anderson, chief executive of the Ensemble.

“On such a tight timescale, we found it difficult to meaningfully connect with our audiences.

“Residencies were born out of a desire to spend more time in our regular touring cities, to get to know and understand their communities better.

“In Dundee we’ve run coaching sessions with the Dundee Symphony Orchestra, performed flashmobs in the Overgate shopping centre, taken music to people in Ninewells Hospital and Maggie’s Centre Dundee, and even posed at local life drawing classes!”

Amid a number of diverse and interesting events, Anderson picks out this year’s return to the Maggie’s Centre for another Music and Mindfulness session as a highlight.

“Participants focused intensely on music played by a quartet of SE musicians, and discussed how it made them feel,” he says.

“One participant told us that the music had allowed him to find an inner peace he hadn’t felt in years.”

On Tuesday there will also be a pop-up event in celebration of the McManus Gallery’s 150th year, with the Ensemble “soundtracking” collections of art through Robert Burns tunes, classical favourites by Bartok and Shostakovich, and more modern works by the likes of Philip Glass.

Then on the Wednesday they’ll be appearing at Dundee Comics Creative Space, joining in with music and art workshops during the day and performing in the evening as artists present their comics through projection and stand-up.

Those performances are a warm-up to Thursday’s Silver Screen Sounds concert at the Caird Hall, which will see music like Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings (from Platoon), Schubert’s German Dance in C Major (from Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon), Bernard Herrmann’s score for Hitchcock’s Psycho and Philip Glass’ music for Dracula take the audience on a cinematic journey.

Two violin players of the Scottish Ensemble entertain an audience during one of the group’s residencies.