North Highland Connections - July

28th June 2013

The busy and varied events programme of North Highland Connections continues in July, with two residential activities which include opportunity for local involvement.

The second Creative Music Week for young composers will take place at Ham House, Caithness, from 8th to 14th July. Again it will be led by two of Scotland's leading composers, David Horne and Stuart MacRae. The first Creative Music Week in 2012 was so successful that there was an immediate request that NHC repeat it. Seven young composers have come through the audition process and will work alongside a hand-picked instrumental ensemble drawn from the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland's 'NYOS Futures' players. The whole week is under the general direction of the distinguished conductor, Nicholas Cleobury. On Saturday, 13th July, there will be a public concert in the West Church, Thurso, at 7:30pm. The programme will include music created by the young composers, as well published works by Horne and MacRae.

The week of 8th July will be a rather crowded one for NHC staff, since at the same time as the Creative Music Week at Ham, there will be another residency by students and staff of The Prince's Drawing School based on North Lands Creative Glass centre in Lybster. That residency also begins on 8th July.

The morning of Friday, 12th July will be given over to workshops for local school children, and on Saturday, 13th, local painters are invited to join the students and staff of the Drawing School for a day of painting. The work created during the week by students, children and local artists will form a public exhibition on Sunday, 14th July.

Dr Graham Elliott, Executive Director of NHC, said this week "These residencies offering opportunity and access to the local community are a key part of our strategy. We are able to offer these things through working with our various partner organizations. They form the ground on which we are building our plans for creating three iconic cultural hubs to serve the North Highland Community, giving us, at last, the resources to allow a regular and structured programme which will 'feed' the community, as well as creating world-class cultural tourism magnets for the region."

Further information on the July residencies can be obtained from NHC by e-mailing : GE[AT]northhighlandconnections.org