- Photos from Bach St John Passion now on our website
-
Date Posted: Sun, 21 Apr 2024
Photographs from the Bach St John Passion concert held on 30th March are now available on our website on the Photos page Attachment: 
- Marie Curie thank you
-
Date Posted: Sun, 21 Apr 2024
We have received a letter and certificate from Marie Curie to thank the orchestra and our supporters for the fantastic donation of £1024.46. Thank you to our musicians and audience members for raising this magnificent sum.
- Melrose Music Festival Preview Concert 11th May
-
Date Posted: Sun, 21 Apr 2024
The Borders Chamber Orchestra will next be performing at the Preview Concert for the Melrose Music Festival. The concert is on Saturday 11th May at 6:30pm in Melrose Parish Church.
The Festival, at its new dates of Saturday 7th - Sunday 15th September, will feature choral, orchestral and jazz evenings in its programme. Come and discover who will be performing at the 2024 Melrose Music Festival in September, where a world-class line-up of artists will be delivering a diverse range of music. All will be revealed at the Festival Preview on Saturday 11th May, at 6.30pm, in Melrose Parish Church.
Special guest at the Festival Preview will be Sir James MacMillan, who is one of today’s most successful composers and performs internationally as a conductor.
The event will be introduced by Robert Marshall, Melrose Music Festival Artistic Director, and artists performing at the Preview will include:
- Borders Chamber Orchestra conducted by Derrick Morgan, Assistant Conductor of the RSNO and featuring professional orchestral harpist Ellie Hetherington
- Ralph Vaughan Williams - Serenade to Music in conjunction with Borders Chamber Choir
- Constant Lambert - Aubade heroique
- Sergei Rachmaninoff - Intermezzo from his opera Aleko
- Borders Chamber Choir
- Melrose Vocal Ensemble
Adults: £15
Concessions (students and unwaged): £10
Under 18s: free - Borders Chamber Orchestra conducted by Derrick Morgan, Assistant Conductor of the RSNO and featuring professional orchestral harpist Ellie Hetherington
- Derrick Morgan conducts our next concert
-
Date Posted: Sun, 21 Apr 2024
Derrick Morgan, Assistant Conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, will be conducting us at the Preview Concert for the Melrose Music Festival on 11th May and our concert at the Festival on Saturday 14th September. Derrick, who was born in the Scottish Borders and is now based in Glasgow, is already known to some of our orchestral musicians. He studied Musicology at the University of Edinburgh and conducting at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where he received prizes for his achievements in conducting. Derrick is a musician who strives actively to engage with the community, collaborating with ensembles and communities across Scotland and we are excited to be working with him. Further information can be found on his website
- Eleanor Hetherington Concert Harpist
-
Date Posted: Sun, 21 Apr 2024
Eleanor Hetherington, who now lives in the Scottish Borders, will be our guest Harpist at the Melrose Music Festival Preview Concert on 11th May. She is a classically trained harpist with a deep-rooted background in Gaelic traditional music. Eleanor completed her schooling at St. Mary's Music School in Edinburgh before reading Music at the University of Leeds where she gained a First-Class Honours Degree. Eleanor then moved to Germany to study harp performance at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Weimar.
Since graduating in 2008, Eleanor has performed extensively as an orchestral harpist with many prestigious orchestras, including, the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, WDR Radio Orchestra Cologne, Staatskapelle Weimar and Beethoven Orchestra Bonn.
Eleanor is now enjoying a diverse career as a performer and teacher in Scotland, working regularly with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and other leading UK orchestras, as well as guest performances in Norway and teaching at festivals such as the Edinburgh International Harp Festival.
Further information can be found on her website
- Sir James MacMillan Guest Speaker
-
Date Posted: Sun, 21 Apr 2024
Sir James MacMillan will be the guest speaker at the Melrose Music Festival Preview Concert on 11th May. He is the pre-eminent Scottish composer of his generation and performs internationally as a conductor.
He studied composition at the University of Edinburgh with Rita McAllister and Kenneth Leighton, and at Durham University with John Casken, where he gained an undergraduate degree and then a PhD degree in 1987. After his studies, MacMillan returned to Scotland, composing prolifically, and becoming Associate Composer with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, often working on education projects.
He came to the attention of the classical establishment with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's premiere of The Confession of Isobel Gowdie at the BBC Proms in 1990. Isobel Gowdie was one of many women executed for witchcraft in 17th-century Scotland. Sir James founded the Cumnock Tryst festival in Scotland in 2014 and was awarded a Knighthood in the 2015 Queen's Birthday honours. Further biographical information can be found here
- Thank you Alison!
-
Date Posted: Sat, 24 Feb 2024
The orchestra committee would like to express its grateful thanks to Alison Rushworth, our conductor for our Winter Concert, on behalf of all the musicians. Alison did a fantastic job getting through a busy single rehearsal on schedule and always with good humoured encouragement. She conducted the concert with great aplomb and very generously waived her conducting fee, enabling the orchestra to make a larger donation to Marie Curie. The committee presented her with two bottles of locally produced craft gin and two Borders Chamber Orchestra engraved gin goblets as a token of our gratitude.
The photograph from left to right: Nicky (Secretary), Paul (Treasurer & Webmaster), Alison, Simon (Chair), Cath (Orchestra Leader & Music Librarian) and Gillian (Charities & Front of House)
- Photos and videos from our Winter Concert now on our website
-
Date Posted: Sat, 24 Feb 2024
Photographs from the Winter Concert are now available to view on our website on the Photos page along with some video clips from the concert.
- Marie Curie funds raised
-
Date Posted: Sat, 24 Feb 2024
Our chosen charity for our Winter Concert was Marie Curie whose nurses help with the provision of end-of-life care at home for people in the Borders. We collected £274.46 in donations at the concert and the orchestra has been able to contribute a further £750 from our ticket sales to make a magnificent total donation to Marie Curie of £1,024.46. The photograph shows our Treasurer, Paul, with Caroline Green, a fundraising volunteer with Marie Curie in the Borders, at the concert on Saturday.
- Bach St John Passion – Borders Chamber Choir in association with Borders Chamber Orchestra
-
Date Posted: Sat, 24 Feb 2024
Borders Chamber Choir will be performing the St John Passion on Saturday 30th March at 2pm in Melrose Parish Church with 5 professional soloists and accompanied by the Borders Chamber Orchestra.
Tom Raskin (Evangelist) is a tenor with the BBC Singers and The Sixteen and has performed many roles both in the UK and abroad
Georgie Malcolm (Soprano) is fast establishing herself as a versatile singer of opera, oratorio and song.
Judy Brown (Alto) is a Scottish singer based in London, singing a wide range of early, classical and contemporary music for mezzo-soprano/contralto. She is an experienced recitalist, consort, opera and oratorio singer.
Chris Elliott (Tenor) is a Lyric Tenor with bases in Scotland, Northumberland, London &
New York. He is best known for opera and oratorio
Jon Stainsby (Bass) is a lyric baritone establishing a varied career in opera, oratorio and recital.
Tickets are available online from Borders Chamber Choir on Trybooking.com and at the door: £15, Concessions £10.
- Winter Concert 17th February 2024
-
Date Posted: Sun, 21 Jan 2024
Our winter concert will take place at Melrose Parish Church on Saturday 17th February 2024 at 7pm
Conductor: Alison Rushworth
Leader: Cath Cormie
Soprano: Claire Taylor
PROGRAMME
Mozart: Overture to La Clemenza di Tito
Mozart: Aria "Parto, parto ma tu ben mio" from La Clemenza di Tito
Dvorak: Czech Suite Op.39
Interval
Elgar: Serenade for Strings Op.20
Beethoven: Symphony No.2
TICKETS
Adults £10, 18 years or under free. Tickets may be purchased in advance on our website (click here) or at the door on the evening of the concert. Programme and interval refreshments are included in the ticket price.
- Marie Curie will be our chosen charity for Winter Concert
-
Date Posted: Tue, 9 Jan 2024
The orchestra committee has chosen Marie Curie to be the charity that we will support at our Winter Concert on 17th February 2024. Marie Curie is the leading charity for end of life care in the UK. They run a number of hospices in the UK, the nearest being in Edinburgh, but they are best known in the Borders for providing Marie Curie nurses to help care for terminally ill patients in their own homes. There will be an opportunity for audience members to donate at the end of the concert and Marie Curie daffodil badges will be available as this will be the start of their annual daffodil fundraising campaign. For more information, see: www.mariecurie.org.uk/
- Donation handover to Postnatal Depression Borders
-
Date Posted: Sun, 26 Nov 2023
Barbara Wright, Chair of Postnatal Depression Borders, accepts the donation of £400 raised for our associated charity at our inaugural concert in November.
- Charity Donation to PND Borders
-
Date Posted: Thu, 9 Nov 2023
The orchestra committee are pleased to announce that our Inaugural Concert on 4th November raised £400 for PND Borders, our chosen charity for this concert, which we have paid into their bank account, Thank you to all who donated. We will announce the charity to be associated with our next concert shortly.
- Photos of our Inaugural Concert now on our website
-
Date Posted: Thu, 9 Nov 2023
Photographs and two 30 second video clips of our Inaugural Concert and rehearsal on 4th November are now on the website on our Photos page. There are photos of the orchestra and Borders Chamber Choir who also had their first performance.
- Borders Chamber Orchestra Winter Concert
-
Date Posted: Wed, 8 Nov 2023
Our next concert is scheduled for 17 February 2024 at Melrose Parish Church when we will be directed by the talented Edinburgh-based conductor Alison Rushworth. The programme is almost finalised. This concert will be ticketed, adults £10, 18 and under free. We very much look forward to that concert and to seeing you there.
- Borders Chamber Choir
-
Date Posted: Fri, 20 Oct 2023
The Borders Chamber Choir is Scotland’s newest choir. It is made up of gifted amateurs and semi-professionals and seeks to perform a wide variety of accompanied and unaccompanied music, from Carver to Tallis, Bach to Purcell, and Poulenc to MacMillan. Amongst our aims are promoting young Scottish/Scottish-trained musicians/soloists as well as using the best orchestral players from in and around the Borders.
"The choir are delighted to be giving their first performance on 4th November at the inaugural concert of the Borders Chamber Orchestra - a ‘showcase’, if you like, of who we are and how we sound. Our conductor will introduce our short programme, which will include a variety of pieces in a variety of styles."
"We begin rehearsals proper in the New Year, preparing for our inaugural concert - a performance of Bach’s St John Passion on the Saturday immediately prior to Easter 2024, accompanied by the Borders Chamber Orchestra. Our Evangelist will be Tom Raskin, a tenor who trained in Scotland and went on to sing with The Sixteen and the BBC Singers. Beyond that, we will present a regular programme of concerts throughout each year as well as taking part in the Melrose Music Festival."
The Choir is the creation of its Director, Robert Marshall, a professionally trained conductor, choir trainer, and singer who has extensive experience making music in the Borders and beyond. Having studied under Kenneth Leighton at Edinburgh University, Robert trained as an orchestral conductor (founding the Edinburgh University Chamber Orchestra along the way, which celebrates its 40th anniversary next year). He also set up and conducted the Glasgow Chamber Choir (which will turn 30 next year).
He went on to become the Chorus Master of the Edinburgh Royal Choral Union, performing with professional orchestras including the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and the BT Scottish Ensemble in Edinburgh’s Usher Hall and further afield.
As a singer, Robert began as a Lay Clerk at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh, before joining Cappella Nova and singing with a range of choirs and organisations performing oratorios and performing the part of the Evangelist. On Good Friday this year he was the Evangelist in a performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion given in this very church.
Robert was recently appointed the Artistic Director of the Melrose Music Festival for 2024 and beyond. He lives in the Borders.
