Photo of the week

Scotland AIYF Jam.jpg
Originally uploaded by hadroed

Midwest Young Artists from the USA at AIYF. Photo: Josh Hadro

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Opportunity for young singers

Aberdeen International Youth Festival today announces an opportunity for young singers to get involved in a special new project, working with Haddo Junior Choirs and the RSAMD, to present a performance of Britten’s Little Sweep at Haddo and in Aberdeen in August.

A first for Haddo Junior Choirs, AIYF & RSAMD

This special production, in partnership with the RSAMD to be performed as part of the 2008 Aberdeen International Youth Festival at Haddo House and in Aberdeen.

A wonderful opportunity has arisen for singers from Haddo Junior Choirs to work alongside Opera students and Music Director from the RSAMD, as well as a professional Theatre Director.

This will be a unique experience open to all singers aged 9-18. There will be soloists spaces as well as a large chorus of required, so there is plenty of scope for a large number to take part in this unique project.

There will be weekly rehearsals on Wednesday in Ellon from 16 April 2008, and daily rehearsals from Saturday 26 July until the performances on Wednesday 6, Thursday 7, Friday 8 and Saturday 9 August.

For more information about how to take part, visit the website at http://www.aiyf.org/ or telephone the Aberdeen International Youth Festival on 01224 213800.

The Little Sweep - an opera for children and families

The Little Sweep is part of Britten’s ‘Entertainment for Young People’. It is a morality tale which finds young Sam sold into service as a sweep to two cruel masters. He is discovered and hidden by the children of a big house he has been cleaning. Will they be able to help him escape from his cruel employers?

The production is a full theatrical experience with lots of dramatic opportunities, choral singing and even an audience song or two. It is a great way of introducing young audiences to the conventions of opera with a simple yet affecting story with which they can sympathise and identify.

Photo of the week

north shore celtic ensemble (2)
Originally uploaded by scotstonhill

North Shore Celtic Ensemble from Canada performing at Speyfest as part of AIYF 2006. Photo: scotsonhill (flickr)

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Photo of the week

P1050487
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/rob-cairns/

Festival Parade, 2005. Photo: Rob Cairns

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Scottish Youth Theatre presents Geordie

AIYF are proud to be presenting Geordie - A new musical for Scotland, at the Festival.

Geordie tells the story of a boy from the Highlands who, in the face of adversity, overcomes his weaknesses to become a champion athlete and a young man to make Scotland, his mum and of course Jean back home, very proud. A tale of personal triumph with a distinctly Scottish flavour, this heart-warming musical story is adapted for the stage by David Cosgrove and Stuart Thomas, directed by Mary McCluskey and has been developed by members of SYT Productions, the youth theatre’s high profile performance group. This production was premiered in New York, as part of the Tartan Week 2006.

Special price tickets for families are available.

http://www.aiyf.org/2008_theatre.htm

Photo of the week

Kutapira (AIYF) 7
Originally uploaded by longarmscotland

Kutapira at the Turriff Show, part of Festival 2007. Photo: Adrian Law

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Marketing Opportunities at AIYF

The Festival has a wide range of opportunities to suit all types of organisation and budgets, reaching a diverse audience groups, including web, direct mail and email, including:
Advert in main Festival programme
Flyering opportunities, at events, in our programme, mailshots to list
Email - inclusion in our monthly e-newsletter
IInclusion in information packs for participants and delegates

Check our website for a list of marketing options (http://www.aiyf.org/sponsorship_marketing.htm) We will also be selling advertising space on our website and are happy to offer space to local arts organisations / events at a significant discount.

Photo of the week

Aberdeen International Youth Festival 2005
Originally uploaded by Jennifer K Phillips

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New initiative announced for festival 2008

Festival in the City
Sunday 3 August, 1 - 4pm
Free performances across Aberdeen City Centre.

One of the new initiatives for Festival 2008 will be our Festival in the City day. The Festival will bring performances from the International and Scottish youth acts to sites across the City Centre including open air venues and Union Terrace Gardens. A fun day packed with a wide range of free dance, music and street theatre events in the city centre.

(photo - Lucy Davies)

New member of staff!

We are pleased to announce that Ruth McMillan will be joining the Festival as part time Administrator from the middle of March. Ruth has worked in broadcasting, as an opera agent as well as freelance for festival's including Rock Ness and the Tartan Heart Festival.

Ceol Mor gig a great success!

Review By Fiona Mackenzie at http://www.hi-arts.co.uk/:

FIONA MACKENZIE checks out the next generation of Scottish traditional music talent IMAGINE a younger version of The Unusual Suspects, say 25+ strong, mix in some of Harris Playfair’s commitment and musical passion, add a few exciting new commissions from Corrina Hewat, Dave Milligan and Aidan O’Rourke, and you have ‘Ceòl Mòr’ ...

An eventual by-product of the Splore event in Aberdeen and directed by Dave Francis, this is a large scale Youth Folk Orchestra, although right from the initial bars you’d be fooled into thinking it was more of a rock and brass orchestra, with some fiddles and clarsach along the way too. Donald Shaw’s ‘Harvest’ has set the pace for youth projects in the last few years at Celtic Connections, and it is encouraging that more exciting large-scale projects such as this are emerging to fill the gap for many young musicians who find themselves perhaps in between Fèisean and going professional. Encouraging, too, to see that the vocal aspect of the piece was not all left up to the female of the species. The commitment and enjoyment of the participants was hugely encouraging for the future of ‘traditional’ music.

Three new commissions were performed alongside some of Playfair’s arrangements, including Hewat’s vocal arrangement ‘Boy Fae Kelso’ and Milligan’s’ How did we get to here?’ Aidan O’Rourke’s magical piece will surely become a staple of the repertoire for large groups now. Solo opportunities for both vocalists and instrumentalists were afforded across the board, allowing each section of the ‘orchestra’ to shine at various points in the programme. The brass section lifted the arrangements out of the trad genre and into one all of its own at times, a sort of ‘jazzitional’, for want of a better word. The audience were baying for more. Great potential here for future development and plaudits to the directors for the logistical problems a project such as this must present.

Ceol Mor on Bebo:

http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=4528795374

Ceol Mor to play at Celtic Connections

Saturday 26th January 2008, 1.00pm
The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall : Strathclyde Suite

Ceol Mor will be playing at Celtic Connections alongside the six finalists from 2007's Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year competition.

http://www.celticconnections.com/whatson/event/68481