Blog Archives

Celebrating … Irving Berlin/Celebrating George Gershwin/Jerome Kern/Rodgers and Hammerstein

6th June 2023

I’ve Got My Love to keep me Warm, recorded 29/06/24

American mezzo soprano Jane Monari hails from Philadelphia. Jane graduated from the Juilliard School with a Bachelor of Music in voice performance with scholastic distinction. During her time at Juilliard, she was a Morse Fellow and a Teaching Assistant for Music Theory and Italian Vocal Literature. She graduated from the Master of Arts programme at the Royal Academy of Music, where she received Distinction and a DipRAM. She is also a graduate of the Alexander Gibson Opera School at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Jane has appeared as a soloist in concert with the City of Glasgow Chorus and the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, singing Händel’s Israel in Egypt, the Beethoven Missa Solemnis, the Mozart Requiem, and Die Erste Walpurgisnacht by Mendelssohn. She sang in the premiere of The Hours by Diana Burrell in 2011, and the world premiere of Elgar Howarth’s Venice – A Portrait, a piece commissioned by the academy to open their 400+ series in 2012. Jane was the winner of the 2012 Ludmilla Andrew Russian Song Prize. She has performed in masterclasses with Gerald Finley, Susan Bullock, Ann Murray, Barbara Bonney, Helmut Deutsch, Phillip Thomas, and Daniel Ferro. In October 2013, Jane participated in the Oxford Lieder Master Course led by Roger Vignoles.

Jane’s operatic roles include Suor Dolcina in Suor Angelica (Scottish Opera), Filippyevna in Eugene Onegin (Opera Holland Park Young Artist), Suzuki in Madam Butterfly (Opera Up Close), Carmen in Carmen (Opera at the King’s Head); La Tasse Chinoise in L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (The Virtual Opera Project), The Page in Rigoletto (Scottish Opera); Paquette (Cover) in Candide (Scottish Opera), Inez (Cover) in The Gondoliers (Scottish Opera), Vittoria (Cover) in The Gondoliers (Scottish Opera), Third Boy (Cover) in The Magic Flute (Scottish Opera), Voice 3 (Cover) in The Diary of One Who Disappeared (Scottish Opera), The Prince in Cendrillon (Fife Opera); Popova in The Bear (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), The Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), La Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi (Juilliard Opera Workshop), Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Juilliard Opera Workshop), Veronica in Sunday Excursion (Juilliard Opera Workshop), Sally in A Hand of Bridge (Juilliard Opera Workshop), and the Maid in Schwergewicht (Juilliard Opera Center).

Jane also sings regularly across Scotland with ladies a cappella quartet, The All Sorts.

Mezzo soprano Sarah Shorter was born in Winchester and began her musical career by singing in every school choir which would have her. She continued this pattern at Cambridge where she managed to fit an English degree around her responsibilities as a choral scholar in Clare Choir, and where the heady mix of singing and drama accidentally left her with the opera bug.

She now lives in Glasgow and performs regularly with the chorus of Scottish Opera. On the concert platform, she has appeared as the alto soloist in Helensburgh Oratorio Choir’s performance of Breathing Place in Glasgow City Halls and as Daniel in the Thomas Coats Memorial Choral Society’s performance of Handel’s Belshazzar. She sings frequently with the Dunedin Consort, most recently appearing in their Christmas tour of Messiah and on their recording of Mozart’s Mass in C Minor. As a founding member of The All Sorts and as the Musical Director of The Close Shave Chorus, she delights in bringing close harmony to the unsuspecting public all over Scotland. She trained at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Anne Howells and Iain Ledingham.

Easter Parade, recorded 29/06/24

As a prizewinning graduate from Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, tenor Christian Schneeberger has appeared throughout the UK as a recitalist, oratory soloist and opera singer.

The Glasgow born tenor graduated with BMus (Hons) in Vocal Performance in 2013, completing his Masters of Music in Performance at RCS. As a scholarship student, he studied under Iain Paton and Amand Hekkers, after his early nurturing with Wilma MacDougall. He excelled as a recitalist at RCS and won the Glasgow Grand Society Opera cup; Hugh S Roberton Prize for Scottish Singing including the William Allan Prize and was the sole male finalist in the Governors’ recital competition.

Since his early years with Scottish Opera Connect, Christian has relished singing operatic roles in collaboration with RCS and Scottish Opera. As part of the West End Festival, he was honoured to be conducted by John Butt in a modern version of Handel’s “Acis and Galatea” in a role the Herald critic noted he sang “with aplomb”. His opera career has grown from being a founding member of À La Canto, touring with Opera Bohemia and in recent years as a regular member of the Scottish Opera freelance chorus.

Most recently he has played the Crook and Charles Edward in Scottish Opera’s production of “Candide” which received many glowing five star reviews. Along with recitals, Christian appears in Scottish Opera’s performances of Marx in London and La Traviata in Spring of 2024.

Christian has been very well received in continental competitions – NOMEA International and Neapolitan Masters – being awarded Distinction in both, while reaching the second round of the prestigious Neue Stimmen.

He also appears regularly across Scotland with Opera Alba, Celebrating Irving Berlin and Scozzesi, a male vocal quartet.

Between performances, Christian is a voice teacher at Hutchesons’ Grammar School, George Heriot’s School and St Andrews University.

Always, recorded 29/06/24

Derek Clark was born in Glasgow, and is an Honours graduate of the RSAMD and the University of Durham. He also studied at the London Opera Centre before joining Welsh National Opera as a repetiteur in 1977, making his professional conducting debut in 1981 with Handel’s Tamerlano.

He has recently retired as Head of Music at Scottish Opera, a post he’s held since 1997, and has conducted more than 30 operas for the company, including major works by Handel, Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Massenet, Puccini, Bizet, Bernstein and Gilbert & Sullivan. His final conducting performances were of new productions of Candide and Il Trittico.
He provided re-orchestrations for recent touring productions of Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Die Fledermaus, Carmen, Rodelinda and The Elixir of Love and devised twenty-two Opera Highlight/ Essential Scottish Opera programmes. His re-orchestration of ‘Hansel and Gretel’ has also been used by other companies, including ENO and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and by colleges, both in the UK and in America.

He has also specialised in contemporary music, as conductor of all three seasons of Scottish Opera’s highly successful Five:15 project. He conducted the Scottish premieres of James MacMillan’s Clemency, Philip Glass’ The Trial and the world premieres of Craig Armstrong’s ‘The Lady from the Sea’ and Rory Boyle’s award-winning opera Kaspar Hauser: Child of Europe.

He works as an accompanist, appearing regularly throughout the country, and is a regular Guest Coach at the major conservatoires and colleges and at the National Opera Studio. Though most of his professional life has been spent in the opera house, he has also found time to compose and arrange music for a wide variety of people and circumstances – his music has been performed in venues ranging from village halls to Westminster Abbey.

He was appointed Musical Director of Dundee Choral Union in 2011, and since 2014 has been Director of Music at Helensburgh Parish Church, where his annual ‘Come and Sing’ Christmas concerts, and concerto performances have raised many thousands of pounds for charities such as MacMillan Cancer Care and Christian Aid.

Derek is sometimes deputised for by Edward Cohen who has established himself as one of the most versatile and in-demand pianists in Scotland. Equally at home as a concerto soloist, recitalist, or chamber musician, he regularly collaborates with leading musicians in major performance venues and festivals in his home country and beyond.

In concert, Ed has performed under the baton of Ryan Bancroft, Pierre Boulez, Peter Eötvös, Neeme Järvi, and Yan Pascal Tortelier, amongst others. His recent concerto appearances have featured works by Beethoven, de Falla, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, and Strauss.

As the pianist for the choruses of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Ed works closely with prominent conductors, including Sir Andrew Davis, Tan Dun, Kristjan Järvi, Peter Oundjian, and Thomas Søndergård. Other renowned choirs he has collaborated with recently include the Edinburgh Festival Chorus with Martyn Brabbins, Gustavo Dudamel, and Daniel Harding, the National Youth Choir of Scotland with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra Chorus with Richard Egarr and Emmanuel Krivine. Edward has also played for masterclasses given by Nicola Benedetti, Karen Cargill, Malcolm Martineau, János Starker, and David Watkin.

Beyond Europe, Ed’s recital activity has taken him to India, Russia, the Far East, and across the USA, including a solo performance for HM Queen Elizabeth II. He has appeared as a soloist, in chamber ensembles, and with mezzo-soprano Catriona Morison at the BBC Proms. His playing has been heard extensively around the globe, most recently at Eurovision Young Musicians, which was broadcast live on television and radio worldwide.

Ed frequently performs with the Artisan Trio, Daniel’s Beard, flautist Katherine Bryan, clarinettist Jean Johnson, Scozzesi and Saanjh, with whom he won Chamber Music Scotland’s Underrepresented Composers Tour. He regularly appears in the RSNO Chamber Series, and additional recent Scottish engagements included at the Cumnock Tryst, Westbourne Music, and the University of Glasgow recital series.

Ed learned with some of the world’s finest pianists, including Kathryn Stott, Yevgeny Sudbin, and André Watts. He began his studies at London’s Royal College of Music when he was ten, and is a first-class, prize-winning graduate of the Royal Academy of Music. He is also an alumnus of Indiana University and the Lucerne Festival Academy.

Ed holds two Master of Music degrees with Distinction from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where he earned top awards in solo and chamber music performance, including the prestigious Governors’ Recital Prize. Currently, he maintains positions as School of Music Manager and Lecturer there, while also teaching at the University of Glasgow and delivering masterclasses in higher education institutions at home and abroad.

Performances

3pm, Monday 28 August 2026: Ross Priory Gartocharn (Rodgers and Hammerstein) (to book tickets, please contact daisy@classicalmusiciansscotland.com)

7.30pm Sunday 20 September 2026: Cowal Music Society, Dunoon (Irving Berlin)

1 – 2pm, Wednesday 21 October 2026: Westbourne Music, Glasgow Art Club (Celebrating Jerome Kern)

1.30 – 2.30pm, Tuesday 8 December 2026: Northesk Church, Musselburgh (Celebrating Irving Berlin)

3pm, Sunday 21 February 2027: Music in Dollar (Rodgers and Hammerstein)

tbc 7.30pm, Friday 4 February or 3 March 2028: Bute Arts Society (George Gershwin)

3pm, Sunday 7 June 2026: Stranraer Music for All, St John’s Room (Irving Berlin)

7.30pm, Friday 13 February 2026: Bute Arts Society (Jerome Kern)

7.30pm, Friday 5 December 2025: Stranraer (Irving Berlin) CANCELLED DUE TO ILL HEALTH

1 – 2pm, Wednesday 3 December 2025: Glasgow Art Club, Westbourne Music (George Gershwin)

7.30pm, Saturday 27 September 2025: Kilmallie Free Church (Jerome Kern)

2.30pm, Thursday 4 September 2025: Ross Priory (Jerome Kern)

2pm, Saturday 14 June 2025: Music at Aden (George Gershwin)

1 – 2pm, Saturday 15 February 2025 : Spire Concert Series, Glasgow (George Gershwin)

7.30pm, Friday 7 February 2025: Bute Arts Society (Irving Berlin)

1 – 2pm, Wednesday 5 February 2025: Westbourne Music Society (Irving Berlin)

7.30pm, Saturday 21 September 2024: Biggar Municipal Hall (Irving Berlin)

2.30 – 4.30pm, Monday 5 August 2024: Ross Priory private event (George Gershwin)

1-2pm, Saturday 29 June 2024: Spire concert series, Glasgow (Irving Berlin)

2pm, Saturday 1 June 2024: Old Deer Church (Irving Berlin)

7.30pm, Friday 31 May 2024: Cowdray Hall, Aberdeen (Irving Berlin)

2.30pm, Saturday 2 March 2024: Crail Community Hall (Irving Berlin)

2.30pm, Monday 17 April 2023: Ross Priory (Irving Berlin)

The All Sorts

27th February 2018

Barbara Cole Swinard comes from Vancouver Island, Canada, and has specialised in singing Disney since the tender age of 4. She moved to Glasgow to attend the RCS and now balances opera singing with moonlighting as “the one who sings the high notes” for The All Sorts.

At Scottish Opera she has sung the Shepherd Boy in Tosca and covered the Controller in Flight (Jonathon Dove) and Casilda in The Gondoliers. Other singing work has included touring in England, France, and Japan as Blonde in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail for Diva Opera and premiering as the Linnet in The Selfish Giant (John Barber) for Garsington Youth Opera.

Covid–19 has brought out Barbara’s love of power tools and gardening. She is now the owner of a shed and is enjoying expanding her collection of dangerous saws.

Moon River

Scottish mezzo-soprano Heather Ireson studied at the University of Aberdeen and Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music, and continues her studies with Patricia MacMahon. She was an Associate Artist at Scottish Opera.

Scottish Opera appearances: Opera Highlights Spring 2019, chorus Eugene Onegin, chorus Iris, chorus Nixon in China, Infirmary Sister in Suor Angelica/Il Trittico.

Operatic engagements include: Hamlet by Brett Dean, Così fan tutte, chorus The Mastersingers of Nuremberg, chorus Beatrice and Benedict, chorus Don Pasquale, chorus Carmen, chorus Poliuto by Donizetti, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Saul (Glyndebourne); Karolka Jenůfa (Grange Park Opera); chorus Il campanello by Donizetti, chorus Herculanum by Félicien David, chorus Vanessa by Barber (Wexford Festival Opera), Cherubino in Marriage of Figaro (Opera Bohemia).

The Sun Whose Rays

Jane Monari hails from the city of Philadelphia, USA. She completed her BMus at Juilliard and her MA at the Royal Academy of Music, before moving to Scotland to study opera at the RCS.

She appeared as a soloist with the City of Glasgow Chorus and the Orchestra of Scottish Opera (Missa Solemnis, Israel in Egypt, Die Erste Walpurgisnacht, Mozart’s Requiem) and has since worked in the Scottish Opera chorus, mostly singing, but sometimes cracking the whip as dance captain, most recently with the company’s production of Ainadamar. She has sung the Page (Rigoletto, Scottish Opera), the Prince (Cendrillon, Fife Opera), Carmen (Opera at the King’s Head), and Suzuki (Madam Butterfly, OperaUpClose). She also recently appeared in Edinburgh’s Usher Hall as a soloist with Scottish Opera’s Verdi Collection in February 2023. She’s performed as Dance Captain in both Scottish Opera and Welsh National Opera’s performances of Ainadamar.

She loves singing the accompanimental bass part, as she rarely has to remember any words.

Dublin-born soprano Sarah Power studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and the Guildhall and National Opera Studio in London before moving to Glasgow to work for Scottish Opera as an Emerging Artist. She has been awarded many prizes, including the Royal Dublin Society Bursary, the London Bach Singers Prize and second prize in the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Competition at the Wigmore Hall.

Recent engagements include Pop-Up Opera performances of The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro and Puccini’s Il Trittico with Scottish Opera, Fauré’s Requiem and Haydn’s Nelson Mass with The Burford Singers, Haydn’s Creation with the Yorkshire Philharmonic Choir, Mozart’s Requiem with The Really Big Chorus in Trieste, Italy and Forrest’s Requiem and Haydn’s Little Organ Mass with the Wicklow Choral Society, Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Cumbria Singers and Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’Été with the Airedale Symphony Orchestra.

Sarah has appeared in productions for Welsh National Opera, Buxton Opera Festival, Wexford Festival Opera and Irish National Opera and made her debut for Scottish Opera in the title role of Handel’s Rodelinda. She has been involved in the premiere of many works, including Hazel: Made in Belfast at the Carnegie Hall, New York, Mary Gordon with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra at the National Concert Hall Dublin and Janice Kerbel’s Turner Prize-nominated work DOUG at the Tramway in Glasgow.

Sarah Shorter was peer pressured into taking her first singing lessons at the tender age of 10. It’s a slippery slope. She graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in London where she studied with Anne Howells, and moved to Glasgow for love, liberty and, apparently, close harmony.

Before lockdown, she sang the role of Julia Bertram in Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park with Opera South, but north of the border you might have noticed her performing regularly with Scottish Opera and the Dunedin Consort. With Scottish Opera, she has covered Giovanna in Rigoletto, Flora in La Traviata, Peep Bo and Katisha in The Mikado, and Mercedes in Carmen. She has created the role of Boletta in Lady from the Sea, sung the roles of Second Postulant in Suor Angelica, Lady in Waiting and Second Witch in Verdi’s Macbeth and Kitchen Boy in Rusalka. She recently got back to doing what she loves in frilly style by cachucha fandango bolero–ing in The Gondoliers.

She is a founder member of the a cappella group The All Sorts, is the Musical Director of the Close Shave Chorus, and teaches from Mount Florida Music Studio in Glasgow. She also performed with Opera Alba in their November 2022 tour.

Her DIY projects are ongoing and she will happily talk about plasterboard if you really want.

Scottish mezzo soprano, Laura Margaret Smith is an award winning performer who enjoys an exciting and versatile international career. Described as “a name to watch” by Gramophone magazine, Laura’s operatic roles include Brangäne, Tristan und Isolde (Mahler Players), Eudamia, Dorilla in Tempe – Vivaldi (Wexford Festival Opera), Olga,Eugene Onegin (Edinburgh International Festival Opera Project), Tina, Dinner at Eight – Bolcom (Wexford Festival Opera), La Gobba, Risurrezione – Alfano (Wexford FestivalOpera), Angiolina, La Cenerentola (Scottish Opera Unwrapped), Lola, Cavalleria Rusticana(Paisley Opera), Ordinary Person, Inés de Castro – James MacMillan (Scottish Opera), Vaila, Hirda – Gareth Williams & Chris Stout (NOISE/Celtic Connections), the title role in Carmen (Edinburgh Grand Opera), Hermia, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Scottish Opera/RCS), Amahl, Amahl and the Night Visitors (Opera Bohemia). Laura has sung with the Bayreuth Festival Chorus since 2015 performing all the major Wagner repertoire.

Equally at home on the concert platform, Laura has performed in venues such as theMelbourne Recital Centre with the Edinburgh International Festival, Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Kings Place for the Yehudi Menuhin Centenary Concert, St. Martin-in-the-fields, The Usher Hall, The Queen’s Hall, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, The Caird Hall and Aberdeen’s The Citadel in a live broadcast for BBC Radio 3. She is a regular oratorio soloist in the UK, recently singing Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 in Glasgow’s City Halls. Laura also specialises in contemporary music and has sung with The Wallace Collection Ensemble, Red Note Ensemble, NOISE, Opera Mahogany, Psappha Ensemble and Scottish Voices. With Hamburg State Opera and the Bundesjugendballett, she sang as soloist in David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion at PODIUM Festival and premiered and recorded John Maxwell Geddes’ A Castle Mills Suite for Delphian Records.

Laura is a former Scottish Opera Robertson Scholarship Trust Emerging Artist, graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Alexander Gibson Opera School, a recipient of a Young Concert Artists Award from Making Music, alumna of the Georg Solti Accademia di Bel Canto, Samling Artist, Britten-Pears Young Artist and an alumna of Live Music Now Scotland.

Grace Maria Wain graduated from RWCMD with an MA in Opera Performance, before moving to Scotland.
She has most recently sung 1st lady in The Spectre Knight with Wexford Festival Opera, Giulia in The Gondoliers, and has also covered Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Second Lady in The Magic Flute and Glasha in Katya Kabanova, all for Scottish Opera. She has also sung Zweite Dame/Zweite Knabe in Die Zauberflöte (Escales Lyriques) and Prince Charmant in Cendrillon (Fife Opera). Currently she’s singing the role of Cercatrice in Sir David McVicar’s production of Suor Angelica (Il Trittico)

As is the fate of mezzos everywhere, Grace has spent most of her career singing an awkward harmony somewhere below the sopranos but, since forming The All Sorts, she has found great fulfilment in (sometimes) being allowed to sing the tune.

Scottish soprano Emily Mitchell, began her formal classically training at the RSAMD (now Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), where she gained a Bachelor in Music and a Masters in Music under the tutelage of Margaret Aronson. She is a regular performer with Scottish Opera and the Dunedin Consort.

She also has an extensive concert career ranging from solo recital work to Oratorio. Her Oratorio engagements include Brahms Requiem at the Usher Hall, Mozart’s Coronation Mass (Canterbury Cathedral) and Exultate Jubilate, Haydn’s Creation, Mendelssohn’s Elijah at Canterbury Cathedral, Howells Hymnus Paradisi, Bach Magnificat and Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Handel Gloria, Vivaldi’s In Furore Iustissimae Irae, Handel Messiah at the AMUZ in Antwerp.

Performances:

7.30pm, Friday 11 September 2026: Trinity Church, Falkirk

3pm, Sunday 19 April 2026: Music in St Mary’s Aberfoyle

2.30pm, Monday 11 August 2025: Ross Priory

7.30pm, Wednesday 9 October 2024: The Round Church, Bowmore, Islay

7.30pm, Friday 22 March 2024, Music in West Kilbride, WK Village Hall

3pm, Sunday 10 December 2023, Crail Community Hall

7.30pm, Saturday 2 December 2023, Mid Argyll Arts Association, Lochgilphead Parish Church

7.30pm, Friday 1 December 2023, Bute Arts Society, Rothesay

3 – 4pm, Sunday 19 November 2023, Music in Aberfoyle, St Mary’s Church

3pm, Sunday 15 October 2023, Hawick Music Club, St Mary’s Old Parish Church Hall, Buccleuch Street, Hawick TD9 0HH

7.30pm, Friday 29 September 2023, Moffat Music Society, Old Well Theatre

7pm, Thursday 28 September 2023, Junction 50 concerts, Thirsk

11:30am, Saturday 18 March 2023, Bearsden Coffee Concert, Bearsden South Church

3pm, Sunday 19 March 2023, Music in Dollar

Sunday 22 January 2023, Stranraer Music for All

Saturday 21 January 2023, Ayr Music Club

Wednesday 13 April 2022: Biggar Music Society

Sunday 10 April 2022: Dunblane Cathedral Arts Guild

Sunday 13 December 2020: Biggar Music Club online

Wednesday 04 November 2020: Strathearn Music Society online

Tuesday 03 November 2020: Music Arran online

Sunday 09 February 2020: Gatehouse-of-Fleet

Sunday 15 December 2019: Dunfermline Arts Guild

Sunday 27 October 2019: Music in Rannoch

Wednesday 12 June 2019: Stranraer

Wednesday 22 May 2019: Inverness, At One with Music

Friday 17 May 2019: Private party, Ross Priory

Sunday 27 January 2019: Sundays at Seven, Helensburgh

Wednesday 5 December 2018: Westbourne Music Society

Friday 23 November 2018: Thurso West Church

Saturday 08 September 2018: Renfield St Stephen’s, Glasgow

Thursday, 06 September 2018: Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh

Saturday 01 September 2018: Cove Burgh Hall

A Night at the Opera

10th April 2016

In 2016, Garnethill Synagogue asked us to provide a Candlelit Classics evening to help them raise funds for the upkeep of their truly unique building in Glasgow’s city centre, and A Night at the Opera was born.

We arrive with a full complement of professional musicians including four singers, five strings, four woodwind, a horn player, a harpist, a conductor/pianist and a compère and a wonderful evening is in store.

The programme of favourite operatic melodies include pieces to delight both the musical connoisseur and the less operatically minded, and homage is paid to Bizet, Delibes, Donizetti, Mozart, Offenbach, Puccini, Saint-Saens, J Strauss and Verdi with an acknowledgement to Lehar and Gilbert and Sullivan. Each item is introduced with polish and panache, explaining which character was singing, how he/she was feeling and why, and what he/she was expressing in the music. A surprise or two may also be in store!

Performances:

7.30pm, Wednesday 22 October 2025, St Andrew’s Hall, Crieff

7.30pm, Saturday 18 October 2025: Dollar Academy

7.30pm, Sunday 12 October 2025: Newton Stewart Cinema

7.30pm, Tuesday 29 October 2024, Lanark Memorial Hall

7.30pm, Friday 25 October 2024, MacArts, Galashiels

7.30pm, Thursday 24 October 2024, Northesk Church (Brunton) Musselburgh

7.30pm, Sunday 13 October 2024, Crail Community Hall

CANCELLED due to COVID, Sunday 29 March 2020, Edinburgh Synagogue “An Evening of Opera Classics”

Sunday 19 May 2019, The Spire Concert series, 260 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 4JP

Sunday 31 March 2019, Edinburgh Synagogue

Sunday 25 March 2018, Garnethill Synagogue Act III “Opera with a Twist”

Sunday 18 March 2018, Edinburgh Synagogue

Saturday 26 August 2017, New Kilpatrick Church, 28 Kirk Place, Bearsden, G61 3RT

Saturday 24 June 2017, Royal Faculty of Procurators in Glasgow, at 12 Nelson Mandela Place, Glasgow

Sunday 26 March 2017, Garnethill Synagogue, “A Night at the Opera Act II”

Sunday 20 March 2016, Garnethill Synagogue, Candlelit Classics

Da Vinci Piano Trio

13th June 2012

Turning by James Black, premier performance, recorded 30 June 2024

Anthony Moffat, violin

Hailing from the Borders, Anthony Moffat was trained at the Royal Academy of Music, London by Armenian Soloist and Orchestra Leader, Manoug Parikian. He gained the highest award for violin on his graduation in 1987 winning the Marjorie Hayward Prize. His passion for Chamber music was encouraged and nurtured for many years by the members of the Amadeus Quartet but it is as devotee of the Piano Trio that he is best known outwith the orchestra.He was a founder member of both the Duke String Quartet and the Borante Piano Trio. As member of the Da Vinci Piano Trio he has toured the breadth of the country and broadcast on BBC Radio3.

His career as Orchestra Leader began as Co-leader of the Halle Orchestra until taking the post of Leader of the Orchestra of Scottish Opera in 2000. He has appeared as Guest Leader with BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland. He plays on a fine violin by C.G. Testore of Milan ca. 1705

He has been leader of the Orchestra of Scottish Opera since 2001.

Rudi de Groote, cello

Rudi de Groote grew up in South Africa and studied at the Royal College of Music in London and has undertaken masterclasses with Torlief Thedeen, David Geringas, Franz Helmerson and Moray Welsh. He is currently principal cello with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. He started his career as principal cello with this orchestra and then went on to hold the principal position in the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of English National Opera in London, and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in Norway, before returning to Scotland to rejoin the BBCSSO.

Rudi has performed as soloist under many orchestras including the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra , the Irish Chamber Orchestra and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and under the baton of Edward Gardner, Ilan Volkov, Francesco Corti, Martin Brabbins, Jerzy Maksimiuk and Garry Walker. He is frequently invited to be guest principal cello with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Liverpool Philharmonic, the City of Birmingham
Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of Opera North, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Sinfonia of London and the John Wilson Orchestra.

He has frequently performed as cellist with the Chilingirian String quartet, and has performed with Marcia Crayford, Robert Cohen, Steven Osborne, Isabelle van Keulen, Jorg Widmann, Garfield Jackson and the Belcea string quartet. As a teacher, Rudi has been on the faculty at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and has taught and coached chamber music at the Royal College of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the Grieg Academy in Norway.

He has broadcast live for BBC Radio 3, DR, Norwegian Radio and BBC Scotland and has performed in recital at the Edinburgh and Cheltenham International Festivals. He plays on a cello by Ferdinand Gagliano dated 1777.

He is delighted to have been invited to take over from Robert Irvine in the Da Vinci Piano Trio and looks forward to many exciting concerts ahead.

Liivi Arder, piano

Estonian pianist Liivi Arder studied at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre under Professor Toivo Nahkur and Nata-Ly Sakkos. In 2010 she completed an Advanced Accompaniment Course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland under Professor Fali Pavri and in 2013-2014 she studied at the RCS as a recipient of the Sam Hutchings Fellowship award.Liivi has taken part in several competitions including the Valentino Bucchi Competition in Rome (1st Prize ), 11th Pietro Argento Music Competition in Gioia del Colle (3rd prize in chamber music category), Con Brio competition (Estonian National Television prize ) and she was awarded the Hester Dickson accompanist prize.

Liivi has been a soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (EMTA) at the Aberdeen International Youth Festival, and was active with EMTA New Music Ensemble that took part in the Contemporary Music Festival in South Korea, Seoul.

As an accompanist Liivi has been working for music summer courses and many masterclasses at the RCS and also for Royal Scottish National Orchestra. She has given chamber music concerts with Nikita Naumov, Ana Cordova Andres and Peter Wesley and has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Glasgow West End Festival with the Daniel’s Beard ensemble. Along with Scottish mezzo-soprano Laura Margaret Smith she has performed at the Scottish Parliament House European Commission Estonian Presidency reception.

Currently Liivi is working as an accompanist and coach at the RCS String Department and Junior Conservatoire of Scotland.

The following was recorded at Music in the University, Glasgow University, 20 January 2022.

Arvo Pärt : Mozart Adagio from 3:20 minutes

Brahms Piano Trio no 1 in B major from 28:40 minutes

Performances

3pm, Sunday 17 January 2027: Biggar Music Club, Municipal Hall, Biggar

3pm, Sunday 21 February 2027: Melrose Music Society tbc

7.30pm, Friday 16 April 2027: Bute Arts Society

7.30pm, Friday 16 January 2026: Music in West Kilbride (Robert Irvine standing in for Rudi de Groote)

7.30pm, Friday 9 May 2025, Bute Arts Society

3pm, Sunday 13 April 2025, Melrose Music Society

7.45pm, Friday 21 March 2025, Music in Lanark

7pm, Sunday 30 June 2024, The Barn, Banchory

7.30pm, Saturday 29 June 2024, Universal Hall, Findhorn

7.30pm, Sunday 21 April 2024, Newton Stewart Cinema

Derek Clark

13th June 2012

He was Head of Music at Scottish Opera from 1997 until March 2023, and conducted more than 25 operas for the company, including major works by Handel and Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Massenet, Puccini, and Gilbert & Sullivan – his most recent conducting engagement being the outstanding production of “Il Trittico” at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre.

He provided re-orchestrations for recent touring productions of Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Die Fledermaus, Carmen, Rodelinda and The Elixir of Love and devised twenty-two Opera Highlight/Essential Scottish Opera programmes. His re-orchestration of ‘Hansel and Gretel’ has also been used by other companies and colleges, both in the UK and in America.

He has also specialised in contemporary music, as conductor of all three seasons of Scottish Opera’s highly successful Five:15 project. He conducted the Scottish premieres of James MacMillan’s Clemency, Philip Glass’ The Trial and the world premieres of Craig Armstrong’s ‘The Lady from the Sea’ and Rory Boyle’s Kaspar Hauser: Child of Europe.

He was appointed Musical Director of Dundee Choral Union in 2011, and since 2014 has been Director of Music at Helensburgh Parish Church.

After retiring from Scottish Opera in March 2023, his diary is quickly filling up with new and exciting projects, including concerts with The Antonine Trio, Opera Alba, and “Celebrating Irving Berlin”.

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