Haddo Arts Festival 2024

Haddo Arts Festival 2024 ran from 12 15 September with a programme encompassing visual arts, an arts lecture, classical, choral and jazz music, a family concert and a Festival Service.

Furthering our collaboration with Aberdeen Art Gallery, Haddo Arts presented the Lunchbreak Concert on Thursday 12 September. Following on from their appearance at the Gordon Contemporaries Exhibition Private View, pianist Neil Birse and saxophonist Matthew Kilner returned to give the premiere performance of North Sea Sketches. This original concert of pieces rooted in the world of jazz combined genres and soundscapes presented an enthralling programme of improvised music from the North East of Scotland.

An Evening with Alis Huws on Thursday 12 September was a warm, lively and engaging introduction to the harp repertoire. The former Royal Harpist shared 100 years of harp music and, in conversation with Dr. Robert Lovie, the highlights and impact of her appointment as the Royal Harpist. The concert was followed by a reception in the Library where audience members had the opportunity to talk with Alis Huws in a more informal atmosphere.

We were delighted to welcome Joanna MacGregor back to Haddo for a mini residency and were thrilled to announce that she had accepted our invitation to become Haddo patron. On Thursday afternoon she gave a masterclass with four students (Heather Poore, Linden Stewart, Shaohng Chu and Andrew Sammon) at the North East Scotland Music School in Aberdeen (NESMS), developed as part of our ongoing collaboration with NESMS. Two of the students then attended her Call of the Birds recital at Haddo on Friday 13 September and engaged in the Q&A session with her during the interval. This opportunity to learn more about and engage with a approach and inspiration has been a highlight of this Festival and is an element on which we intend to build for future programmes.

As in previous years, the Haddo Arts YouTube channel hosted the video of Haddo spring production. Peter Pan -- The Musical was recorded live at Haddo in March; the video premiered on Friday evening and remains online for viewing.

On Saturday afternoon Joyce W. Cairns, PPRSA, the first female President of the Royal Scottish Academy, gave a wide-ranging talk with examples from her own work.

In the June Gordon Room, throughout the weekend an exhibition by Rae Cowie and Susan Orr, titled Haddo Reimagined, explored forgotten stories and secret places, through the medium of photography and flash fiction.

As ever, a key presence in the Festival programme is the performance by Haddo House Choral & Operatic Society (HHCOS). This concert, conducted by Dr. Paul Tierney,

included what was most probably the first UK performance of a work by Scottish composer, Thea Musgrave: Black Tambourine for female voices and percussion. This was followed by a stunning performance of Carl Carmina Burana in the arrangement for choir accompanied by two pianos and percussion.

On Sunday 15 September, Joanna PianoWorld was a marvellously inspiring whirlwind journey introducing a young audience to the different styles of piano music and ways of playing, culminating in the youngsters crowding around the instrument to play its strings, before Joanna MacGregor finished her programme with one of Tangos.