Fanfare as work starts on new £12.5m music centre for community

Ground-breaking ceremony held at site in St Andrews

Musicians across Fife will soon have a new home in St Andrews.

The official ground-breaking ceremony for St Andrews University’s new Laidlaw Music Centre took place yesterday, heralding the start of construction of the state-of-the-art facility.

The centre will serve as an intimate performance venue, hi-tech recording studio and flexible rehearsal space.

St Andrews and Fife Community Orchestra is among the varied groups and societies that will benefit from the new building.

Orchestra conductor Jill Craig said: “Music is one area that can really bring together university and community. Members of the community coming into the new music centre will find that this is a building for them.”

It is hoped the centre will form strong links with surrounding cultural hubs including the Byre Theatre and arts faculties, bringing local arts infrastructure together to form a new St Andrews ‘cultural quarter’ where creativity and diversity can thrive.

The university has funded the project with philanthropic support from donors including the McPherson Trust, Sir Ewan and Lady Brown and Lord Laidlaw.

At the ground-breaking ceremony it was announced the new building will be named the Laidlaw Music Centre in recognition of Lord Laidlaw’s £4 million donation which turned vision into development.

Professor Garry Taylor, master of the United College at St Andrews, said: “Music has the power to inspire, brighten and strengthen communities.

“The Laidlaw Music Centre will be a bold statement of confidence in the creative life of Fife.

“Students and community musicians, choristers and music-lovers alike will benefit from one of the finest chamber recital rooms in the country, attracting professional performances, promoting access to tuition, and encouraging the study of music as part of the undergraduate degree programme.”

The university’s director of music, Michael Downes, said: “The Laidlaw Music Centre will allow us to share our music facilities and expertise with our local community as well as providing a much better place for our talented students to learn and develop.”

The Laidlaw Music Centre will be a bold statement of confidence in the creative life of Fife

Picture: Steven Brown. Trumpeters play at the turf cutting ceremony for the new music centre in St Andrews.