Year: 2019

Jean Paul Baptiste: I Am An Immigrant

Jean Paul Baptiste’s piece “I Am An Immigrant” was displayed in the South Wing Courtyard as part of the Experimental Use of Space: Connections exhibition at the 2019 Haddo Arts Festival and was later awarded the RSA Open Prize. We asked him to tell us how and why he came to create the work. As…

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Experimental Use of Space: Connections

  Experimental Use of Space “connections”  attracted thirty artists to Haddo many of whom produced “site specific” work inspired by Haddo House and estate. In the Mobil Room Grays BP painting prize winner 2019, Leila Kleineidam, produced paintings especially for the show. Environmental in theme and following the connections brief,  many of the textile sculptures…

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An Exhilarating Journey through the Baroque

Truly Madly Baroque – Red Priest Richard Hammond, Cat Stevens and a recorder that looked like a cross between a drainpipe and a saxophone are just some of the impressions I took away after listening to Red Priest’s fizzing Truly, Madly Baroque concert. Why Richard Hammond, you may ask? Piers Adams, described by the Washington…

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A Richly Woven Tapestry

Opera Highlights -Scottish Opera Preparations for a drama-laden garden party provided the setting for Scottish Opera’s ‘Highlights’ show in the Hall on the last night of  Haddo’s highly popular Arts Festival. Four young gifted singers Charlie Dummond, Martha Jones, Alex Bevan and Mark Nathan rose to the challenge of delivering extracts from over 20 popular…

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An Inspirational Day at Haddo

A Song for Haddo If you’ve ever wanted to escape the daily grind, seeking to cast your cares aside and search for inspiration, then look no further than A Song for Haddo. The sight and sound of 120 young musicians aged between 7 and 17 years of age singing and playing instruments with such skill…

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Haddo Arts Festival goes to town

Angela East at St.Machar Cathedral One of the features of the Haddo Arts Festival, now in its eighth year, is the sheer variety of events that it embraces, ranging from the hundred or so combined forces of the Choir, soloists and Orchestra necessary for Handel’s Samson on Saturday last, to the unaccompanied cello of this…

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Jamie and the Knight – at Haddo!

Jamie pays tribute to the first knight of the music hall – Sir Harry Lauder Whether you’re ninety or nine years old it’s perfectly possible that the jaunty Scottish songs of Sir Harry Lauder will in some way have formed your musical education. In a top quality production featuring Jamie MacDougall as Sir Harry and…

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Jackie Kay Delights a Haddo Full House!

It was the number and variety of questions the audience asked at the end of Jackie Kay’s poetry evening that demonstrated how Scotland’s Makar had entranced, entertained and ingeniously re-invigorated all those who had the good fortune to participate in this highly popular event. Taking place in the atmospheric surroundings of the Haddo House library,…

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The Maxwell Quartet – Sunday Perfection!

It’s just the beginning of the Haddo Arts Festival but one theme beginning to emerge is youthful vitality. The concert by the Maxwell Quartet on Sunday was another example, after the young professional soloists singing in Samson on Saturday, with four energetic musicians playing in perfect synchronisation. Being in the company of such gifted performers…

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Storming Samson Launches the Haddo Arts Festival

The story of Samson, sometimes described as the biblical Hercules, a man of super-human strength, is full of drama and Haddo House Choral Society (HHCOS) channelled all its energy into ensuring Handel’s oratorio was a tour de force in the opening event of Haddo Arts Festival. Together with a full orchestra and four extremely talented…

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