Musicians tune up for 85th festival

Mar 6 2009 by Our Correspondent, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

A HUGE musical event, now in it’s 85th year and covering everything from woodwind, piano, and organ, to strings and singing, is about to strike up in Perth.

Perthshire Musical (Competition) Festival, ‘Perform in Perth’, opens on Monday and runs until Saturday, March 21, excluding Sunday, March 15.

On Monday 9 and Tuesday 10 (morning, afternoon and evening) and Wednesday 11 (morning and afternoon) the Speech classes will be held in St Leonard’s-in-the-Fields Church, Marshall Place, Perth and organisers are pleased to welcome back Brian Marjoribanks from Falkirk to adjudicate these classes.

In the evening of the 11, the first of the General Music classes will be held, adjudicated by Harry Stevenson who will be officiating several times during the course of the festival.

Thursday 12 and Friday 13 see the String classes being held in the same venue, under the watchful eye of adjudicator Mark Duncan.

The Piano and Organ classes will be held during the morning and evening of Saturday 14, with the Chanter & Piping classes (adjudicator Alistair Duthie) and the new Pipe Band Drumming classes (adjudicator Lee Innes) being held during the afternoon.

Week two opens in Perth Concert Hall with the Percussion, Scottish Country Dance and Youth Groups classes taking place on Monday 16 and the Bands and Orchestras classes taking place on Tuesday 17. The adjudicators for these classes are Harry Stevenson, Alex Gray, Sandra Batty and Alan Fernie respectively.

Over at St. Leonard’s on Monday 16th and the morning of Tuesday 17th the Woodwind classes will be held, adjudicated by Heather Nicoll.

The festival stays in St Leonard’s for the remainder of the week with the Brass classes (adjudicator Alan Fernie) being held on Wednesday 18 and Thursday 19, the Choir and Adult Vocal classes being held on Friday 20 and the Junior Vocal Classes being held on Saturday 21. The choir and vocal adjudicator is Pat MacMahon and she will be joined on the Saturday evening by Harry Stevenson. Together they will adjudicate the Premier Instrumental Class, the final class of the festival.

Robert Melling will be accompanying the solo Music classes, with Maureen Rutherford accompanying the Scottish Country Dance classes.

Innovations this year include new Recital classes for Strings and Woodwind plus a brand new play-off competition on the evening of Thursday 19 for the best of the Advanced Solo winners, competing for the re-instated ‘Larg & Son Rose Bowl’.

There are three new trophies this year. ‘The George Mortimer Trophy presented by the Rotary Club of Perth St Johns’ in the Scottish Country Dance classes; ‘The George Annan Trophy’ in Advanced Brass Ensemble classes and ‘The Rotary Club of Pitlochry Trophy’ for the Open Woodwind Recital.

Tickets, which you can use to get into all sessions, will be available at a cost of £15, with low admission charges for individual sessions. All the sessions are open to the general public.

Programmes are now available, priced £3, from Concorde Music Shop, Scott Street, Perth.

Further details, including a nightly update of the trophy winners, admission charges etc, can be obtained by logging-on to the festival website at - http://perthshire-music-festival.org.uk/