Two of the top names in Scottish music have unveiled plans for a new Scots festival that will model itself on the events established by composer Benjamin Britten in Aldeburgh in Suffolk and the St Magnus Festival.
The Cumnock Tryst, which will make its inaugural appearance in October next year, is the brainchild of composer James MacMillan, who will be its artistic director, and its patron is violinist Nicola Benedetti.
MacMillan hails from the town and Benedetti comes from nearby West Kilbride.
It is partly styled on St Magnus, which was created in the 1970s on Orkney by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.
Yesterday's launch at Cumnock's Dumfries Arms Hotel revealed few details of who will be performing, but over 100 internationally-renowned artists will visit the town between October 2 and 5, 2014, and the full programme will be unveiled in the spring.
With local council leaders and representatives from the Holyrood and Westminster parliaments in attendance, the event emphasised the involvement of the community in the new festival, with Benedetti joining pupils from Greenmill Primary School as featured soloist in the musical performance that launched the festival.
"British composers are distinguished by their commitment to music in the community," said MacMillan. "I want this to be a mark of the Cumnock Tryst too."
Speaking at the opening of conference, Chamber Music Matters, at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in June 2012, MacMillan recounted how exposure to chamber music through the recitals arranged by Cumnock Music Club had formed a crucial part of his early musical education.
He and his wife Lynne have been working to create the new event, which will aim to use music to promote the regeneration the area.
The first year's programme, in what is intended to become an annual event, will focus on choral music and writing for brass and silver bands, both of which are part of the heritage of the Ayrshire town.
"Things change, but the embers are waiting to be fanned to life," said MacMillan. "If this works, I will devote my life to it."
MacMillan will write "at least one new piece" for the first Tryst, and there will be commissions from other composers. The festival will use five venues, including Cumnock Academy, whose jazz orchestra welcomed people to yesterday's event, and the function room where the launch was held, which was the venue for Cumnock Music Club recitals.
Local churches St John the Evangelist and Cumnock Old will host concerts, and there will be chamber music in nearby Dumfries House.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article