Dr. Roger Williams MBE, Haddo Arts Trustee, introduces us to the Willis organ in Haddo House Chapel. The fine organ in the Chapel at Haddo House was built by Henry ‘Father’ Willis – the most renowned of British organ builders of the nineteenth century. An entry in a Day Book in the Haddo archives for…
A harpsichord is a stringed keyboard instrument that makes the sound by plucking the strings – rather like a guitar with a keyboard. The instrument at Haddo, which belongs to HHCOS, was built in 1978 by David Murray. It has been finished in highly coloured green and gold, and, as was common in the seventeenth…
This year award-winning painter, Leila Kleineidam will have a solo exhibition in the Mobil Room during the Haddo Arts Festival in October and here’s an opportunity to find out more about her sources of inspiration. My first link with Haddo was two years ago when I was invited by Margaret Preston to take part…
Everyone streamed out of Haddo House Hall with a smile on their face despite the fact it was pouring with rain on Tuesday evening. The reason? Opera Bohemia’s production of the Merry Widow was such a delightful evening of glamorous, humorous and highly musical entertainment that it was easy to ignore the downpour and escape…
Alistair Digges, musical director of Opera Bohemia, explains the origins of this youthful, innovative and highly professional company which comes to Haddo on August 27… We started Opera Bohemia when Douglas Nairne and I were finishing our operatic studies and wanted to stage one of our favourite operas, La bohème. The cast was made up…
Virtuoso – it’s a word we sometimes hear, but how often do we get a chance to see and hear a virtuoso in action? Well, when Rossano Sportiello put the Haddo Steinway piano through its paces last weekend (May 25) he demonstrated just what skilfulness, artistry and panache is involved when a master of the…
As a child I was fascinated by the joy and freedom that jazz pianists show and feel while performing their improvisations. My inspiration is constantly fed by virtually all the great masters in the history of jazz as well as the great classical music composers and performers. These are just a few of the musicians…
In advance of the David and June Gordon lecture on March 24, we meet this year’s speaker, Professor Murdo Macdonald, FRSA, HRSA, Emeritus Professor of the History of Scottish Art, of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee- and find out what makes him tick. What drew you to study the…
The last event in this year’s Festival is the premiere of the two act version of “Tipping the Hat to Flanders and Swann”, after its outing in Play Pie and a Pint format in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Haddo Arts’ Lucy Gordon recently caught up with actor John Bett,(The Cheviot, The Stag and the Black Black…
In the summer of 2017 I was one of the artists who were invited to create a sculpture for the Haddo Arts Festival which would be held in mid-autumn. The artists were given the opportunity to create works which used as a starting point the poem ‘Like Our Bodies’ Imprint’ by Yehuda Amichai. A key…