THE Queen's Hall venue in Edinburgh is celebrating its 40th year of music in 2019.

The celebrations start on 12 January with singer-songwriters brought together on the same stage by fiddle player, John McCusker.

In Southside of the Tracks: 40 years of traditional music at The Queen’s Hall, he will perform with his chosen house band of James Mackintosh, Ian Carr, Ewen Vernal, Michael McGoldrick and Louis Abbott (Admiral Fallow) with special guests Roddy Woomble (Idlewild), Kathleen MacInnes, Phil Cunningham, Adam Holmes, Daoiri Farrell, Heidi Talbot and Rachel Sermanni.

Nigel Griffiths, chair of The Queen’s Hall board of trustees, said: “We’re starting our fortieth year as we mean to go on and have a bold and ambitious programme which reflects the calibre of artists performing on our stage.

"In the face of developing competition it is so important for Edinburgh, as the capital city, to keep this beloved institution on the map and I believe we’re now poised to enter a truly dynamic era in The Queen’s Hall’s history.”

It was on 6 July 1979 that the The Queen’s Hall was officially opened.

To mark the event, Scottish pianist Steven Osborne will perform with Alban Gerhardt, performing a programme of Schumann, Brahms, De Falla, Debussy and Ravel.

There will also be an anniversary concert by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) on 24 October and a return for the festival of chamber music, Winterplay on 16 February, directed by Susan Tomes.

The SCO have called the Queen’s Hall home since 1979 and were instrumental, along with the Scottish Baroque Ensemble (now the Scottish Ensemble) and the Scottish Philharmonic Singers in helping to raise £850,000 in 1977 to turn the Church of Newington and St Leonard’s into the venue.

Throughout 2019 the venue will present QH@40, a "series of adventures in music with curated performances in four strands (jazz, folk, pop/indie and experimental)" in partnership with guest curators.

The first of these to be announced is jazz, curated by Tommy Smith and supported by Creative Scotland.

www.thequeenshall.net

SCOTTISH Youth Theatre will be part of a programme of events at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow to mark the centenary of the end of World War I, on 11 November.

The museum will open early, at 10.30am, to allow visitors to observe the minutes silence at 11am.

Afterwards Scottish Youth Theatre will read Letters from the Trenches, Roddy MacLeod MBE, Principal of The National Piping Centre, a leading solo piper, will play and a male voice choir will join with instrumentalists to perform a musical commemoration of the First World War.

The event is the culmination of a four year programme of events, exhibitions, displays, talks and workshops curated by Glasgow Museums to mark the 100th anniversary of World War I.

Letters from the Trenches is a dramatic presentation of a series of letters detailing life in the trenches, written by soldiers and medical staff in the war.

The letters will be framed by two of the most famous poems of the period - Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen and For the Fallen by Lawrence Binyon.

The words will be accompanied by a soundscape by Glasgow composer Michael Hunter, best known for his music for the multi-award winning Grand Theft Auto game series.

Jacky Hardacre, chief executive of SYT, said: “It is a huge honour for Scottish Youth Theatre to have been invited to be part of such an important event.

"The three performers, from Inverness and Glasgow, have recently completed a year of training as part of the Scottish Youth Theatre National Ensemble 2018 and this is a great platform for them to build and apply the skills they have developed.

"There is something very poignant about young voices speaking the words of their contemporaries from 100 years ago. Performing within the Brushes with War exhibition will make this all the more powerful."

www.glasgowmuseums.com

THE 12th annual Cromarty 'My Favourite Film' festival has launched its programme.

The town will invite the Makar, Jackie Kay, Gregor Fisher, Molly Dineen and others as they introduce the movies that they love.

The festival runs from 30 November to 2 December.

Ms Kay will introduce Double Indemnity and a celebration of film and poetry in the work of Orcadian filmmaker Margaret Tait.

Gregor Fisher presents Midnight Cowboy and a special screening of the legendary Holiday episode of Rab C Nesbitt, and documentary maker Molly Dineen will introduced a screening of her new documentary about Brixton record shop owner, Being Blacker.

Academy Award-nominated director Mike Radford will introduce his favourite film, acclaimed Brazilian drama City of God; award-winning filmmaker and journalist Callum Macrae discusses his documentary The Ballymurphy Precedent and Scottish director John MacPhail presents his Christmas zombie musical Anna and the Apocalypse.

The Highland town is celebrating receiving planning permission and initial funding to build a 35 seater permanent cinema in the town; the project will begin building in January 2019.

www.cromartyfilmfestival.org