The season was originally planned as a series of live concerts but, as the coronavirus pandemic progressed and restrictions on gatherings continued, plans for the season were adapted.

Instead of live concerts, recorded concerts were provided by some of the artists: the Maxwell Quartet, Craig Ogden, and Lana Trotovšek and Maria Canyigueral. These were arranged in collaboration with several other music societies in Scotland, and were provided with exclusive access to supporters of these music societies. Inverurie Music was fortunate to be included in an initiative from Chamber Music Scotland which arranged a recorded concert from the Kowalski-Reyes Duo, and also in The Wallace Collection plans for live-streamed events. So, although the season did not go ahead as planned, Inverurie Music was able to provide some lovely music for subscribers and supporters, and to support artists in providing opportunities for them to perform.

Highlights from the season can be found below:

The award-winning Maxwell Quartet, the quartet pulled out all the stops for us and produced an exclusive recorded recital, with two of them flying up from London to make this.

The quartet was awarded 1st Prizewinner and Audience Prizewinner at the 9th Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition 2017, since which time their career has really taken off with tours in Europe and more recently in 2019 the USA, where they performed to sold-out venues in New York, Florida, California and Washington. More information available here.

A review of the concert can be found here.

The renowned Australian classical guitarist Craig Ogden, described as one of the most exciting artists of his generation, is certainly the most sought-after guitarist for chamber music concerts in the UK.

Craig, who is Director of Guitar at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, readily agreed to collaborate in producing an exclusive video recording as a replacement for the planned live concert.

The venue he chose for this is the beautiful Moorish Pavilion at Kingham Lodge in the Cotswolds. Equally beautiful is Craig’s programme, with music spanning several centuries from late 17^th/early 18^th century – JS Bach and his contemporary, Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti – to the contemporary guitarist and composer Gary Ryan. A review of this concert is here.

For more information about Craig, see his website here. 

The Wallace Collection had planned a concert in January 2021 from St Andrews, but sadly, it was not possible for this plan to go ahead. Instead they provided a ‘behind the scenes’ treat. As described by John…

“A Slight Change of Plan for 31 January 2021
Because of current Covid-19 regulations The Wallace Collection will not be travelling to St Andrews to give the concert originally intended at 6.30pm on January 31.

However, we are going to keep the January date live and, instead, give your clubs, societies and music lovers an intimate insight into ‘Behind the scenes with The Wallace Collection’.

You will meet all of us in our home studios and practice rooms and find out how we’re coping with the new on-line world. It’ll be at exactly the same time, we’ll all play little solos, bits and pieces, chat and demonstrate some of the weird and wonderful instruments we play. 

Our players are scattered far and wide – from Fauldhouse, Stirling, Pollokshields, Strollamus, to Cork, Lancaster and New York.  It promises to be a fascinating evening!”

In April 2021, Chamber Music Scotland, working in partnership with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and a group of music societies, brought us the Kowalski-Reyes Duo. The concert was followed by a live Q&A Zoom event immediately after the recital.

Madelyn Kowalski (cello) and Maurizio Arroyo-Reyes (piano) performed a programme of Debussy, Brahms, and Martinů.

Later in April 2021, we had a delightful recorded concert by Lana Trotovšek and Maria Canyigueral.

Lana and Maria recorded their recital at the beautiful Hinde Street Methodist Church in London’s West End. The recording has been made exclusively for Inverurie Music, musicinverness, Aboyne Arts and Theatre Development Group and Aberdeen Chamber Music Club, all of whom were sponsors.

Slovenian violinist Lana Trotovšek first performed for Inverurie Music as a member of the Tunnell Trust Award-winning Greenwich Trio in 2012. More information about Lana can be found here. More recently she has performed for Inverurie Music with the Catalan pianist Maria Canyigueral in March 2019. Further information about Maria can be accessed here. Whilst each of these London-based award-winning musicians can be celebrated in their own right, their partnership certainly amounts to more than the sum of their individual contributions. During performance, their intuitive communication is remarkable. The reviewer Tim Homfray in the Strad magazine review of their 2019 Wigmore Hall recital commented of the Prokofiev that “This was a remarkable performance” and that “Beethoven’s ‘Kreutzer’ was theatrical, with extrovert, hall-filling soliloquy turning instantly to confessional whisper”.

The Wallace Collection returned in May 2021 for a live-streamed concert from St Cecilia’s Hall in Edinburgh.

The concert was the Finale Concert of the Historic Brass Society’s 2021 Virtual Symposium Pond Life: Crosscurrents over the Atlantic. The music was performed by The Wallace Collection on period instruments from the legendary Webb Collection (courtesy of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland archives) and other private collections.

Concert Programme
August Mimart Septuor no 2
Jean-françois Bellon Quintette no 1 movt. 1
Bellon Quintette no 4 movt. 3
Bellon Quintette no. 8 movt. 2
Bellon Quintette no. 10 movt 3
Mimart Quintet no. 5
Beethoven Die Alte Gute Zeit

The Clova Quartet ended this unusual season with their concert from the Menuhin Hall at the Yehudi Menuhin School.

The concert programme was Mozart: String Quartet No. 16 in E flat major, K428 and Schumann: String Quartet No. 3 in A major Op. 41. The Clova Quartet was formed in 2019 at the Royal Academy of Music. It is an exciting young and innovative quartet, consisting of violinists Gabriel Bibao Toledo from Bolivia and Rodrigo Checa Lorite from Spain, the Welsh violist is Edgar Francis and  the Scottish ‘cellist is Hugh Mackay. Their early development was through Youth Orchestras in their own countries. Their musical interests are wide, spanning historically informed performance to contemporary repertoire, Jazz and Latin. During lockdown they were unable to be together for about 3 months, and since lockdown eased, they have sat their final exams in their 4th under-graduate year at Royal Academy.

These concerts are still available to view and, if you would like access to the exclusive links, please contact inveruriemusic@gmail.com and join the growing list of Inverurie Music supporters. Details about how to access any of the concerts can be sent on request.

Donations to Inverurie Music are always welcome and can be made via PayPal here, by cheque, or by bank transfer (please see details below).

Account Name: Inverurie Music

Sort code: 80-08-41

Account number: 00842458

Alternatively, you can send a cheque payable to Inverurie Music to Benview Cottage, Chapel of Garioch, Inverurie AB51 5HE.