Svetlana Mochalova and Slava Sidorenko with Absolute Classics

From Absolute Classics

February Concerts
Svetlana Mochalova, cello & Slava Sidorenko, piano

Date: Thursday 19th February
Time: 7:30pm
Location: Buccleuch Centre, Langholm
Cost: Book directly with the Buccleuch Centre: 013873 81196

Programme:
Schumann Adagio&Allegro
Beethoven Sonata op.5 no.2
James McMillan Kiss on Wood
Myaskovsky cello sonata no.2

Date: Saturday 21st February
Time: 6:30pm
Price: £50.00 including arrival drinks and three course set menu
Book Directly with Cavens: 01387 880234
Location: Cavens Country House Hotel

Programme:
Schumann Adagio&Allegro
Beethoven Sonata op.5 no.2
James McMillan Kiss on Wood
Myaskovsky cello sonata no.2

Date: Sunday 22nd February
Time: 3:30pm
Location: Buccleuch & Queensberry Arms, Thornhill
Cost: Adults £12.00, Under 26 Free
Book on line: www.absoluteclassics.co.uk

Programme:
Brahms Sonata in E minor
Brahms six songs arr. cello and piano (selection)
Scriabin preludes for piano
Rachmaninoff cello & piano sonata

The Effect on Tour - Langholm and Castle Douglas dates

From Heart of Hawick

Rehearsals are now underway at Tower Mill, Hawick, for Firebrand Theatre Company’s Scottish premiere of The Effect, by Lucy Prebble one of today’s most celebrated playwrights. The first performance of the tour opens at Heart of Hawick with a preview on Thursday 19 February and runs until Saturday 21 February  followed by performances in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Perthshire, Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders.

The Effect, is an unconventional and moving love story; sexy, funny, and thought-provoking in the exploration of the limits of medicine in today's pill-popping culture and spiced with warmth, humour and intelligence.

Director Richard Baron says: "Inspired by the consequences of a drugs trial at a private research unit at Northwick Park Hospital in which six volunteers suffered multiple organ failure, this is a highly topical and unusual love story in that it looks provocatively, movingly and humorously at the taboo subject of mental health and poses serious questions about the effectiveness and morality of the hugely successful anti-depressant drug industry. It asks what is a "normal" mind, do depressed people have a more accurate view of the world and is love itself merely a chemical reaction?

It's a very inventive piece that demands brave acting performances. We are therefore delighted to introduce Firebrand audiences to talented new faces Cameron Crighton and Scarlett Mack as the young drug trialists and experienced actors Pauline Knowles (A Slow Air) and Jonathan Coote (fresh from his West End appearance in The Audience starring Helen Mirren) as the supervising doctors, passionately opposed in their understanding of the science of depression and the value of medical intervention. Hopefully The Effect will stir the mind and move the heart."

Connie (Scarlett Mack) is a psychology student. Tristan (Cameron Crighton) is a charming drifter. Both have signed up to a clinical trial for a new antidepressant super-drug and sealed off from the outside world, the attraction between them turns into deeper feelings as their doses get stronger. They've been warned of side effects - can they trust their feelings, or is this just a chemical romance?

As the trial's overseeing physician (Pauline Knowles) and her superior (Jonathan Coote) contend with the illicit relationship of their charges, they become increasingly conflicted about the ethical implications of their work. It's soon clear they have a past beyond the laboratory and neither is objective about the complex issues that surround them.

Directed by award winning Richard Baron, The Effect features a stellar cast with set design by Ken Harrison, who received rave reviews for his design for The Ladykillers at Pitlochry Festival Theatre; lighting design by Matt Eagland and soundscape by Jon Beales all of whom have worked on previous Firebrand productions.

The original production opened to great acclaim at the National Theatre in 2012 and won the Critic's Circle Award for Best New Play for brilliant young playwright Lucy Prebble, author of the West End hit Enron and TV's Secret Diary of a Call Girl.    

The Effect is supported by Creative Scotland and presented in partnership with Heart of Hawick  and sponsored by Friends of Firebrand.

Tower Mill, Heart of Hawick  Thursday 19 – Saturday 21 February at 7.30pm

Tickets: (preview) Thursday 19 February £10

Friday 20 & Saturday 21 February £12

Fullarton Theatre, Castle Douglas Friday 6 March at 7.30pm 

Tickets: £10/£8

Box Office: 01556 504506 www.thefullarton.co.uk

Buccleuch Centre, Langholm Saturday 7 March at 7.30pm

Tickets: £10/£8

Box Office: 01387 381196 www.buccleuchcentre.com

Absolute Classics present Haroaki Takenouchi

From Sara at Absolute Classics

Described by The Times as “just the sort of champion the newest of new music needs”, Haroaki Takenouchi’s brilliant performances have gained him the highest praise by critics and classical music lovers across the globe.

Thirty-four-year-old Takenouchi is unique amongst a rising generation of inspirational musicians. His flawless style and masterly interpretation have made him a much sought-after musician and he has performed on many of the world’s great concert platforms, including the Wigmore Hall, Tokyo Opera City, the South Bank Centre, the Fairfield Halls, Hamburg Laeiszhalle and Steinway Halls in London, Hamburg and Tokyo. He has also played at festivals in Bath, Cheltenham and Salzburg and has given recitals in the UK, Japan, Austria, Germany, Portugal and Italy

He will play at four venues in Dumfries and Galloway for the January series of Absolute Classics.

On Thursday, 22 January, at 7.30pm, he will play at the  Buccleuch Centre, Langholm; Friday, 23 January, 7.30pm, he will appear at Annan Academy Performing Arts Centre; Saturday, 24 January, 7.30pm, at Kirkcudbright Parish Church and Sunday, 25 January, 3.30pm, he will perform at the Buccleuch and Queensberry Arms, Thornhill.

The programmes include works by, amongst many others, Haydn, Chopin, Greig, Beethoven, Helen Hopkirk, Prokoviev, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Debussy.

Tickets on the door or may be booked online 

Cut the Mustard - Christmas Affordable Art Exhibition

From Cut the Mustard

Cut the Mustard's Christmas Affordable Art Exhibition opens next Sat 1st Nov from 11am - 4pm, and runs until Jan 10th - Tues, Thurs, Fri & Sat 10am - 4pm or by appointment.

The exhibition will showcase affordable, original works from both local and national artists and makers. This will be a wonderfully eclectic mix, all hand picked and for the most part under £200 with many small gifts under £30.

Moira McTague Forget me not

Artists and makers include:

Printmaking: Colin Blanchard, Moira McTague and Pamela Grace, Ian Mitchell.
Ceramics: Michelle Lowe, Jo Walker, Andrew Adair, David Alexander, Bridget McVey, Dave Brittain, Charlotte Morrison and Peter Wareing.
Sculpture: Elizabeth Waugh.
Glass: Elin Isaksson and Sarah Myatt.
Jewellery: Lisa Rothwell-Young, Lucy Copleston, Maneggi, Laura Johnston, Koa, Fragment Designs, Terri Campbell.
Photography: Barry Young
Painting/Drawing/Mixed Media: Gill Shreeve, Silvana McLean, Val Macadam, John Harrison, Helen Acklam, Sarah Stokes, Gwen Adair, Elinor Grieve, Jennie Ashmore, Becca Fielding, Denise Robson, James Innerdale, Ann Smith, Elizabeth Waugh.
Textiles: Morag Macpherson, Jan Beadle, Dorothy Stewart, Burnside Designs, Julia Cunningham, A Wooden Tree, Characters by Julia, Pam Bolton, Miri.
Willow and Wood: Geoff Forrest, Rob Thompson, Kenny Bryden, Steve Tomlin.

Michelle Lowe Partridge platter

Absolute Classics October Concerts

From Absolute Classics

October Concerts
Violinist, Lorraine McAslan and Pianist, Victor Sangiorgio
Three different programmes in three different locations

Date: Thursday 16th October 2014 Time: 7:30pm Location: Buccleuch Centre, Langholm, DG13 0AW Cost: Adults £12, Conc £10, Under 18’s £5

Date: Saturday 18th October 2014 Time: 7:30pm Location: Greyfriars Church Dumfries, DG1 1DE Cost: Adults £12, Under 26's Free

Date: Sunday 19th October 2014 Time: 3:30pm Location: Buccleuch & Queensberry Arms, Thornhill, DG3 5LU Cost: Adults £12, Under 26’s Free 

Programmes include: Frank, Debussy, Beethoven & Schubert

What's On this month at Cut the Mustard

From Cut the Mustard

Painter Gwen Adair's exhibition is on at present and runs until 24th October. Full of vibrant, colourful works featuring Victorian bathers and still life.

Langholm and Eskdale's first open studio's event is on Sat and Sun the 4th and 5th October, 10am - 5pm. A list of participants and a map can be found here

We have a few places available on Geoff Forrest's basket weaving class on Sat 11th October, £59 per person, please get in touch for more information or to book.

Our Christmas affordable art exhibition starts on Sat 1st November and runs until 10th January. The majority of pieces will be under £200 with plenty of smaller craft and gift items in the under £30 category - perfect for Christmas presents.

Lisa is now taking orders for Christmas, so if you'd like to commission something perfect for your loved one, please get in touch with her. A list of Lisa's classes and workshops for the remainder or 2014 and 2015 can be found on our website here

Etched stone set stacking rings from Lisa Rothwell

Interested in a family portrait as a Christmas gift? Contact Barry, online here. Barry also provides images (print and web ready) for businesses, accommodation providers, artists etc.

A Harvest of Festivals

From Alan Thomson, Area Arts Convenor for Annandale and Eskdale

Just as there is a sudden flowering of events and festivals across our region each May, this time of year also brings a burgeoning crop of activity. They make the most of the last vestiges of decent summer weather and the longer evenings.

This rich harvest kicked off with the inaugural Electric Fields, when Annan favourites, More from Jim, Sheepwagon and Cammy Black opened the lid on a feast of terrific music. Great programming and the perfect mix of the best local bands, plus Glasgow’s indy finest, will surely ensure a successful future for this ambitious event.

Another first the following weekend saw an invasion of Carlisle, as D&G writers and book enthusiasts swarmed all over Border Lines. The city’s long overdue first book festival was aimed unashamedly at the local market and high profile Cumbrian writers and broadcasters spoke to large and enthusiastic audiences.

A final first was the Huge Festival, a MacDiarmid tribute in Langholm last weekend. The wisdom of staging this celebration of a man, who had flirted with fascism before converting, via nationalism, to communism, just days before the referendum was debated long and hard in the licensed premises of the Muckle Toon.
The organisers David Calladine and Ruth Cockburn, both self-confessed incomers to the town, were vindicated though when a large turn out of volunteers and participants enjoyed a full day of activities. A four hour poetry pilgrimage followed the poet’s journey from the cradle to the grave with site specific readings at 20 locations. The diehards who completed this marathon were fortified by nips of MacDiarmid’s favourite Glenmorangie - the event sponsors. 

Looking ahead, but only as far as this evening (19th Sept), Alex McQuiston’s Absolute Classics season kicks off in Annan, with a return visit of the amazing Soraya Mafi. Although diminutive in stature Soraya has the most powerful soprano voice, which coupled with her flirtatious personality and acting prowess always delights audiences.

A different line up of crowd pleasers will take to the stage at Lockerbie Jazz Festival the following weekend. Headliners Maggie Bell, the BBC Big Band and New Orleans clarinet star. Evan Christopher will be joined by a range of talented musicians across different jazz and blues genres to provide a full weekend of good music.

A Sunday afternoon programme in Moffat is on offer this year, and the usual Saturday afternoon Take 5 will deliver an incredible 15 hours of music across two venues and three stages. A feature of the 2014 Festival will be the input from local community and youth groups who have been practicing hard with professional tutors. Then, the next weekend again, we will have an array of international authors, poets and academics in Moffat for the Lermontov 200 Conference, celebrating the great poet’s bicentenary and his Scottish heritage.

How can so much be happening in a small area like Annandale and Eskdale? And if you think, after this surfeit, that things will then be a bit quiet in the east, check out the Buccleuch Centre programme, one of their best yet. Lunasa, Eddi Reader, Clare Teal, Martin Taylor, Archie Fisher, Absolute Classics and Scottish Opera are all appearing in October!

Coming out of the woodwork in Annandale and Eskdale

From Alan Thomson - Area Arts Convenor for Annandale and Eskdale

There’s a real sense of growth and change in the arts in Annandale and Eskdale. New facilities, either recently completed or currently under construction, have the potential to be transformational.

The Performing Arts Centre at Annan Academy is becoming home to a number of significant projects led by local musicians thanks to the support of Jamie Brand, principal teacher of art and music. Absolute Classics musician and promoter Alex McQuiston will run his International Musicians Platform summer school there next month, bringing in outstanding musicians and tutors from around the world. While Andrew Turnbull of Bandskool continues to develop his big band venture at the centre, attracting musicians from across the region and even from Cumbria, with a view to launching a beginners scheme shortly.

The Buccleuch Centre will shortly reconfigure its foyer area to provide an additional space, fully serviced with lights and sound kit, for smaller scale performances which will offer more opportunities for both performers and audiences. Additionally on another site they have opened the Studio; two spaces, a dance/rehearsal studio and a sports hall, both available at very modest rates to community groups and already home to a number of dance classes.

The Devil’s Porridge has just unveiled its new build museum and learning centre at Eastriggs and will be incorporating creative participatory activities into its programmes led by community education specialist Andrew Nelson, recruited from the National Gallery, London.

Also nearing completion is the Eskdalemuir Hub, where lead artist Kal Malhi is ensuring that local artists and craftmakers are able to leave their mark on the building and its setting. They are also developing ambitious plans for residences, workshops and collaborations. The completion of new studio/workshops at nearby Kagye Samye Ling has increased the number of professional artists working within this small community of barely 200 souls, there are now 17!

Cut the Mustard celebrates the Common Riding

From Cut the Mustard

Langholm Common Riding is just around the corner, and to celebrate Cut the Mustard are offering discounted offers in their gallery from Thursday (yesterday!) until Monday 28th July. Discounted work includes selected photography from Barry Young, jewellery from Lisa Rothwell- Young, and work from Elizabeth Waugh, Dorothy Stewart, Geoff Forrest and Sarah Stokes.

Crying the Fair in the Muckle Toon, and Langholm's infamous salted herring nailed to a barley bannock - this year landing on Friday 25th July

The Great Yes, No, Don’t Know, Five Minute Theatre in Carisle

Carlisle Railway Station was the venue on Saturday 24^th May for Centre Stage Theatre's submission toThe Great Yes, No, Don’t Know, Five Minute Theatre run by The National Theatre of Scotland.

Centre Stage is currently working on a theatre piece based on the 1000's of mainly women who worked at HM Factory Gretna during the First World War and the Five Minute Theatre was an opportunity for the group to try out a site-specific theatre piece of work.

Carlisle railway station was chosen because of it's position as the transport gateway to Scotland and it's role a the transport hub for the munitions factory 100 years ago. Carlisle railway station has over 1.7 million passengers a year many travelling to and from Scotland.

Virgin Rail is very supportive of Centre Stage's work and allowed the group to perform and film in one of the main waiting rooms – a room with features over 150 years old. They have also invited the group to perform at the railway station to create other events in the future.

The performances were not advertised beforehand but announced only minutes beforehand on the station announcement system. At times passengers were already in the waiting room when the performance involving a cast of eight aged 15-30 started.

The drama was performed 6 times at the station to an audience ranging from less than one....(someone had to catch a train) to over 20 people.

The work which was devised by the group from a framework suggested by Judith Johnson and Chris Jones and put together by the participants in a series of site specific workshops held at Gretna Munitions Workers Institute (now the Community Centre), Gretna railway station platform and Carlisle railway station.

The piece explored the theme of independence, the right to vote, now and 100 years ago during the First World War with a bit of Burns thrown in!

From 5pm on Monday 23rd June 2014, there’ll be 24 hours with live theatre from Scotland and beyond on the theme of ‘Independence’ where Centre Stage's work will be online.

Centre Stage Theatre is based in Langholm and part of the First World War Centenary Partnership led by The Imperial War Museum. Their project First World War – Then and now.... HM Factory Gretna 100 years on is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and The Holywood Trust.

Cut the Mustard this May

Cut the Mustard Gallery in Langholm has had a busy old weekend, with the opening of their latest show featuring work by Elizabeth Waugh and Edinburgh based illustrator and writer, Catherine Rayner.
Up and coming events at the gallery include:

Sat 3^rd May – Exhibition at our studios on Lairds Entry – Felt and paintings by Ann Smith, Photography by Barry Young, free entry, open 10-1 and 2-4pm.

Sunday 4^th May – Make a cabochon set silver pendant, all materials except chain included.  £80 per person, 10-4, please bring your lunch.

Saturday 17^th May – Etching silver workshop.  Learn how to etch silver using various resists to create patterns and texture, then, time allowing, make your silver into a piece of jewellery.  £65 per person, plus materials.  10 – 4, please bring lunch.

Sat & Sun 24^th and 25^th May Exhibition at our studios on Lairds Entry – Felt and Paintings by Ann Smith, Photography by Barry Young, free entry, open 10-4.

For full details contact the gallery direct or link up via the website or Facebook