Edinburgh Young Musicians

Director: Jean Murray, B.Mus, 11 Melville Place, Edinburgh, EH3 7PR

Phone/Fax: 0131-226-3392

Click here to send an e-mail

Emergency phone (Saturday mornings only) 07956-315913

Come & Sing Haydn's Creation

conducted by Colin Touchin

with soloists Alex Goskirk (soprano), Elizabeth McKeon (soprano), Bruce Davis (tenor) and Andrew Jenkins (bass)

Sunday April 27th 2008, 11.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m.

Adult and older teenage singers are invited to help Edinburgh Young Musicians celebrate its tenth anniversary with a Scratch performance of Haydn’s Creation (abridged, but to include all choruses except "By Thee With Bliss") with full orchestra. Rehearsals will take place from 11.30 a.m. until 5.15 p.m. with plenty of break-times, including an hour’s lunch-break and a 45-minute afternoon tea break for the chorus. An informal performance will run from 6.30 p.m. until approximately 7.30 p.m. The cost for singers will be £12 for applications received by April 17^th or £15 for those received later (£8/£10 for concessions). Scores (Novello, to be sung in English) can be hired for £2 and will be sent out in advance if requested on the booking form at least 2 weeks before the event. Tickets for audience members for the performance will be £5 (concessions £3, schoolchildren free). Singers are encouraged to book early in order to help with the planning of the event. Further information including details of refreshments will be sent to participants nearer the time.

Colin Touchin’s experience as a conductor covers choirs and orchestras at school, university, amateur and professional levels. For fourteen years he was Director of Music at the University of Warwick, where he inspired a growth in campus music-making from six regular ensembles to twenty. These included the 250-strong Chorus and the international award-winning Chamber Choir, which appeared in the semi-finals of the Sainsbury Choir of the Year Competition and won gold or silver awards in every European festival entered. He has prepared the Chorus for major performances with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. His current conducting commitments include being Associate Conductor of the London Charity Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Essex Chamber Orchestra, Conductor of the Warwickshire Youth Orchestra and Founder/Conductor of the Spires Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, based in his home city of Coventry. He has led several workshops and short courses for EYM during the past four years and has been commissioned to compose a piece for EYM children to perform at their tenth anniversary concert on Sunday June 22^nd.

The Come & Sing Day will take place at the Performing Arts Centre at Stewart's Melville College, which officially opened its doors to the public in September 2007, providing a wonderful new facility for the Edinburgh arts community as well as for pupils from the Erskine Stewart’s Melville schools. Sculpted out of the body of one of Edinburgh’s foremost architectural landmarks, the Centre offers outstanding acoustics and superb sight lines for audiences and performers. The address of the Centre is The Performing Arts Centre, Stewart’s Melville College, Queensferry Road, Edinburgh, EH4 3EZ, although it is entered from Ravelston Terrace.

This event is being supported by the Erskine Stewart's Melville Community Arts Fund.