Choral project for the Games

Choral project for the Games

Glasgow Chamber Choir has received a Celebrate award of more than £7000 to stage a Commonwealth Choral Marathon in June this year as its contribution to the cultural programme around this year's Games. The project will produce not only five concerts over two days but also a new publication for choirs, the Glasgow Song Book. The choir, which is conducted by Michael Bawtree, has commissioned a selection of composers - including award-winners Rory Boyle and Eddie McGuire - to produce new works, which will be performed in locations in and around the city including the Tall Ship, the Kibble Palace and Glasgow International Airport. The new music will reflect Glasgow's history as a maritime gateway to the world, and its place in the Commonwealth.

l glasgowchamberchoir.org.uk

Berlin snaps

Photographer Helga Paris has lived in Prenzlauer Berg in Berlin since 1966 and documented the changes to that corner of East Germany over the post-war years. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall she has embarked on an in-depth analysis of her own early wartime and post-war experiences. Although unknown in the West, her domestic pictures were very popular in East Germany. The Street Level gallery in Glasgow has an exclusive UK show of Fotographie, a retrospective of her work, from February 8 to March 30.

l streetlevelphotoworks.org

String tour

LINLITHGOW Arts Guild's next concert, at the Academy Theatre, is on Saturday February 15 and features the acclaimed Doric Quartet. The group formed in 1998 and Alex Redington, Jonathan Stone, Helen Clement and John Myerscough will this year be touring internationally to the USA and New Zealand. The programme for the concert includes works by Haydn, Janacek and Beethoven, and the recital comes in the middle of a string of Scottish dates that also includes Nairn, Banchory, Biggar and Melrose, and then Haddington, Aberdeen, Dundee and St Andrews. Other composers featured on the tour include Korngold and Britten.

l linlithgowartsguild.co.uk

Wide appeal

Applications are invited from musicians who would like to appear at the showcase that forms part of Wide Days, Scotland's music convention in Edinburgh on April 9 and 10. There are three slots available over the two days, and the acts will be selected in consultation with a panel of promoters, journalists and broadcasters. Rachel Sermanni, Honeyblood, Fatherson, Meursault, Stanley Odd, Withered Hand, and Siobhan Wilson have all benefitted from the exposure at previous events and organiser Olaf Furniss said: "Wide Days's carefully- curated live programme has introduced some great talents to both the public and the music industry." Applications must be submitted by 5pm on February 14.

l widedays.com