Conductor Emeritus for

Conductor Emeritus for

the SSO

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra has announced Donald Runnicles will become the orchestra's Conductor Emeritus in September 2016 when he steps down from his role as Chief Conductor. Runnicles has been the man in charge at the SSO for the past five years, but his association with the orchestra goes back much further, to a partnership forged at the Edinburgh International Festival. The announcement of his successor is expected early in 2015 but Runnicles' new role ensures he will return to conduct the orchestra on an annual basis.

This evening he is on the podium for a semi-staged performance of Alban Berg's Wozzeck at Glasgow City Halls which will be recorded for future broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

bbc.co.uk/bbcsso

Band brews up a big sound

Bellowhead return to Glasgow on Tuesday November 11. The band, which this year celebrates its tenth anniversary of merging traditional English songs with arrangements that suggest a jazz big band in happy communion with Kurt Weill, has a sideline in the brewing industry.

In 2010, the band famously brewed its own ale - Hedonism - in partnership with the Potbelly microbrewery and earlier this year it launched Revival Ale through an arrangement with Sussex brewers Harveys.

The band has sent out a request for hostelries near its current tour venues who might want to serve the beer. This column doesn't normally indulge in such frivolity but we know someone who would sample Revival Ale if the Station Bar, handy for both Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, where Bellowhead appear, and this paper's offices, had it available on tap. l bellowhead.co.uk

Jazz music and gypsy tunes

Purveyors of swing music that connects Paris and Texas as closely as the famous film title did, Hot Club of Cowtown appear at St Bride's Community Centre in Edinburgh on November 15, which is the only Scottish date on their latest UK tour.

The group's new album, Rendezvous in Rhythm, showcases gypsy songs and items from the Great American Songbook in a way that illustrates the influence of hot jazz masters Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt.

Their live shows also bring a flavour of the western swing style that made Texan Bob Wills so popular from the 1930s to the 1960s. Their singer-violinist, Elena James has also earned her spurs touring with Bob Dylan.

l hotclubofcowtown.com