Annual Review 09/10

HORSECROSS a fifth successful year

pic: audience at Biffy Clyro

horsecross

With another record year for visitors and events, a truly international programme and a powerful local impact, Horsecross Arts has demonstrated impressive resilience and proved itself the pride of Perth.

Iain Halliday, MBE, Chairman, Horsecross Arts

Five years ago Horsecross Arts was created to take Perth’s sparkling new Concert Hall, and our historic Theatre and fill them with drama, music, comedy, and audiences and visitors from near and far. We set out to create a buzz and to help Perth prosper through cultural events, community activities and conference business.

Five years later that project has proved a remarkable success. Thanks for this goes to the many artists who have brought applause to our halls and delight to our workshops, schools and halls across the region; to our funders and partners Perth & Kinross Council, Creative Scotland, The Gannochy Trust, Scottish Enterprise, Visit Scotland and others who have supported our growth; and of course to our award winning staff who have once again helped us add prizes to our trophy cabinet with the Scottish Thistle Award for Business Leadership and a Green Tourism Business Award.

While this report is about looking back over the past year, I hope you will also join me in looking forward to the next five years. There is much, much more to come!

Jane Spiers Chief Executive, Horsecross Arts

“Always an immense joy to play here – to be looked after so royally and play in such a stupendous hall!”

pic: Alasdair Beatson

Alasdair Beatson

classical music

Beatson laid out a deeply impressive set of credentials through his performance that leads me to suggest, without hesitation, that we have here a major Scottish musical figure. The Herald

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The reputation of the Hall as a classical venue of real significance on a national and international circuit received public recognition this year when the Hall was named the number one classical music highlight of the decade in The Herald.

The finale of the Polish Spring season was undoubtedly our first highlight of the year. We had four world class pianists come to Perth to play Chopin. The visit by Filharmonia Pomorska was just as special. It was a great pleasure to welcome this fine orchestra from Perth’s twin town to play an all-Polish programme to a very positive and warm audience.

Our third Schubertiad was well attended and is now a firm part of Scotland’s cultural landscape.

Highlights of the weekend included the Trout Quintet and the Octet in F major performed by a hand picked ensemble led by violinist Alexander Janiczek. We also introduced a popular series of impromtu concerts and pre concert talks.

Mitsuko Uchida’s recital in September was an event of real significance drawing a capacity audience to an exquisite and exclusive interpretation of Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas.

The Theatre of Voices/Bang on a Can Concert in October was an event of which any international venue would have been proud. We staged the UK premier of our Pulitzer Prize winning co-commission with Carnegie Hall in New York, David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion sung by the original cast and directed by Paul Hillier.

The inception of Llŷr Williams’ Beethoven piano sonata cycle in February 2010 has been truly inspiring with 5 star reviews and attendances growing steadily as the series continued throughout the year, in an exploration and interpretation of some of Beethoven’s boldest, most profound and personal music.

Alasdair Beatson’s residency has shown that this Perth born musician is a performer of real distinction. His performances of chamber music with members of the Scottish Ensemble and in particular his recital, taking in the full span of the Romantic Era, delivered a virtuoso performance.

A highlight of the lunch time concert performances was Alexander Romanovsky’s dazzling Rachmaninoff piano recital. It was a truly spectacular example of Russian fireworks delivered by an artist who is clearly going right to the top in a hurry.

Perth Concert Series and the Scottish Ensemble provide the trunk of the musical tree of the hall and continue to attract large and appreciative audiences. Highlights in 2009/10 include the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra performance of Mahler’s Symphony No 4 conducted by Donald Runnicles and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra with the legendary Neeme Järvi conducting Tristan and Isolde.

One thing is for sure, from the Scottish Ensemble performing Jacques Brel to the Tallis Scholars’ Renaissance polyphony, the range of classical concerts on offer has been second to none again this year.

“My favourite gig of the entire UK tour! I love Scotland!! �

pic: Lucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams

contemporary, scottish and world music

This superb little festival of American roots music is back for a second year with some surprisingly big names… Close your eyes and it’s a little like being transported to the Appalachian Mountains. Sunday Times It has been a fantastic year for festivals at Horsecross. In May 2009 we staged the third and final weekend of our Polish Spring series as part of the Homecoming Scotland celebrations. It was very gratifying to see substantial numbers of the Polish community in Scotland flock to Perth for performances by rock legends Kult and Polish comedy superstars Ani Mru Mru.

Our second Southern Fried festival in July was an unqualified success with audiences doubling.

70% came from outwith Perth attracted by a very strong artistic line up including Booker T, Los Lobos, Lucinda Williams, Mary Gauthier and Hayseed Dixie. In addition to the Concert Hall shows and late night club, we introduced an extensive daytime programme of talks, workshops, family events and food which created a real festival atmosphere. After just two years, we are well ahead of expectation in terms of establishing the event with audiences, artists and the media.

November saw two new festivals work with us for the first time – Dougie MacLean’s Perthshire Amber and Assembly Direct’s debut Tay Jazz festival. Our other annual fixture, A National Treasure, brought together musicians from Scotland and around the globe to honour Pitlochry piper Gordon Duncan’s massive influence. The brilliant young Treacherous Orchestra premiered new commissions, the Vale of Atholl Pipe Band joined us for the first time and the international piping line up included Edelmiro Fernandez, known as the Galician Gordon Duncan, and Irish duo John McSherry and Francis McIlduff.

One of this year’s other major achievements was the creation of a new Celtic Big Band for 14-18 year olds under the musical direction of Corinna Hewitt and David Milligan. The band, the Gordon Duncan Experience, will debut at A National Treasure in 2010.

The first show of 2010 was the Perth debut of the True North Orchestra, hot from Celtic Connections. Our intimate Redroom gigs at Perth Theatre continued to charm public and performers alike with particular highlights being Going Across The Sea, Niki King’s Billie Holiday Tribute, Empirical, Emily Smith, the Graeme Stephen Sextet and Bobby Wellins.

Overall, the main programming impetus this year was to continue to present a diverse range of shows that appealed to a very wide range of people. Audiences turned up in large numbers to see a dazzling array of artists - The Hollies, Daniel O’Donnell, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Steve Earle, The Scottish Fiddle Orchestra, Vampires Rock, Paul Carrack and Jane McDonald.

We ended the year with the news that Perth Concert Hall was the first major concert hall to be named Scottish Traditional Music Venue of the Year at the MG Alba Traditional Music Awards.

pic: Proof

drama

Building Perth Theatre’s reputation for distintive, energetic interpretations of classic theatre.

This year saw growing audiences and an increase in subscribers. We staged three Horsecross productions, Proof, Jane Eyre and our Christmas show, Pinocchio, all directed by Ian Grieve.

A compelling and compassionate mystery, Proof won the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play. This delicate study of a fragile life in the balance was a tour de force from four accomplished actors.

With Jane Eyre we really threw caution to the wind. This production was definitely the most ambitious and daring project of the season, a unique and impressionistic take on Jane Eyre combining movement, music and some fearless aerialism to distil the forces at play in this passionate novel by Charlotte Brontë. Over 20 creative artists contributed to the myriad of aspects involved in Polly Teale’s critically acclaimed adaptation and the result was pure theatre. The production won a Critics Award for Theatre in Scotland for best technical team.

Both Horsecross productions continue to build Perth Theatre’s reputation for distinctive, energetic interpretations of classic theatre with first class production values and assured performances.

Pinocchio, based on the world famous tale by Carlo Collodi with music, book and lyrics by Paul Boyd, was an all singing, all dancing magical, musical adventure. It attracted large and appreciative audiences who joined us to try something new at Christmas in a break from traditional pantomime.

We had two visiting company slots in the subscription season in 2009/10. Classic comedy in The Steamie written by Tony Roper and The Silver Darlings from the novel

by Neil M. Gunn adapted for the stage by Peter Arnott, an epic adventure story based on one of the best loved Scottish novels of the 20th century. Both productions exceeded our audience targets.

We also had a well attended and well received programme of visiting work for all ages and tastes throughout the year. We were delighted to welcome Be Near Me in April 2009, a co-production between the National Theatre of Scotland and the Donmar Warehouse. Other memorable shows included The Curse of the Demeter presented by Visible Fictions and inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula and A Wee Home From Home directed by Gerry Mulgrew.

Plans for the redevelopment of Perth Theatre continued to take shape with the award winning Richard Murphy Architects leading the design team towards Stage D of design scheme development. Our plans, which include a new small scale performing space, new creative learning spaces and the restoration and concservation of our historic auditorium, will ensure our theatre remains a key cultural and community hub in Scotland long into the future.

pic: Vuk Cosic

threshold artspace

Threshold Artspace in Perth, shows a series of artworks in unusual public spaces... generating more attention than they would in a museum. The Wall Street Journal The Threshold artspace continues to enjoy the steady support of artists, funders and visitors alike. In 2009/10 our hugely successful fundraising efforts allowed us to present our most ambitious exhibition programme yet.

We staged 14 exhibitions featuring 68 artists, six curators in partnership with 10 organisations and supported by eight different funders. This included 25 exclusive Horsecross commissions by local and international artists showcased alongside works drawn from our collection as well as a wealth of works exhibited for the first time in the UK. All 25 new commissions were added to the Horsecross collection of contemporary art, which by March 2010 amounted to 107 works acquired since September 2005.

Julita Wojcik concluded our Polish Spring season in May 2009 with Domestic Modernism, a 22-channel video installation evoking some of the best and worst aspects of modern architecture and her first major residency and solo exhibition in the UK. In August we hosted the first major residency, commission and solo exhibition in Scotland of Vuk Cosic, who represented Slovenia at the Venice Biennale. The exhibition, Out of Character, was the artist’s first mini-retrospective featuring five seminal works plus two new commissions including Game Flags, our first public art project on banner posts outside the Concert Hall. This was supported by the Henry Moore Foundation and the Scottish Arts Council.

We also cemented our relationship with the Perthshire Visual Arts Forum (PVAF) with two exhibitions featuring works by selected PVAF artists in Redrooms at Perth Theatre.

Our most ambitious project of the year was the series of Portuguese Waves exhibitions launched in November 2009 celebrating the vibrant Portuguese contemporary art culture, curated by Iliyana Nedkova and Filipa Oliveira and generously supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Scottish Arts Council. Exhibitions featured the work of several prominent artists including the first solo exhibitions in the UK by Joana Bastos and Susana Mendes Silva and a programme of artists films, videos and soundworks never seen in the UK before. The season launched with a group exhibition, The Cinematic, exploring the relationship between the language of film and contemporary art. It was followed by three solo exhibitions from Susana Mendes Silva, Joana Bastos and Mauro Cerqueiro.

To date we have commissioned 10 issues of our online journal Read More including contributions in 2009/10 from Urszula Sniegowska and Timothy Weeks. We introduced our dedicated Threshold artspace YouTube channel showing online artworks from our exhibitions and collections, a new dedicated Threshold artspace Flickr group for high resolution exhibition views of our shows for our world-wide audiences and a Threshold Facebook page.

“It was a wonderful opportunity for the boys but also for me and I definitely feel inspired to encourage the boys singing more in school.�

pic: Only Boys Allowed

Teacher from St Johns Academy (Only Boys Allowed, May 2009)

creative learning

I think I want to be a person who plays in an orchestra now when I leave school.

S1 music participant, St John’s Academy (Samaagam)

Our dynamic Creative Learning team had another busy year working directly with more than 10,000 young people and adults of all ages and abilities.

Music Development 2009/10 was a great year for music development at Horsecross Arts with many exciting projects taking place.

The year began in spectacular style as ‘Only Boys Allowed’ came to the Concert Hall – the first singing project of its kind in Scotland with over 1000 Primary 7 boys from Perth and Kinross primaries coming together for a day of song led by The National Youth Choir of Scotland’s Changed Voices Choir and Artistic Director Christopher Bell.

We were awarded £216,000 from the Scottish Arts Council’s Inspiring Communities Fund for our Home and Away projects. The first of these, Samaagam, was launched in November. It culminated in March 2010 with nearly 100 adults and young people, predominantly from North Perth, performing music and dance on the Concert Hall stage alongside Amjad Ali Khan, Scottish Chamber Orchestra Lab players and Dance Ihayami to an audience of nearly 600.

The schools took this project and embedded it in the curriculum using Curriculum for Excellence techniques - the Indian Gods became the topic of study for the Spring term, giving the children an in-depth knowledge of Indian culture and tradition.

We were on song elsewhere too. The Horsecross Voices drop-in singing group continued from strength to strength with higher than ever attendances and fantastic visiting artists including a five-strong Zimbabwe choral group, Mark Hindley leading a crash course in Handel’s Messiah and Sophie Bancroft’s jazz evening.

Old favourites, such as In the Mood’s musical entertainment sessions for older people, continued to thrive and be a big hit in 2009.

Drama Development This past year has provided the opportunity to really develop our work and our partnerships with Drake Music Scotland to develop music and drama provision for adults with additional support needs.

Horsecross Players, our diverse group of people keen to be part of the life of the theatre, engaged with rehearsals for both Proof and Jane Eyre.

There isn’t an inch of the Theatre that hasn’t been covered this past year including the fly floor for those with a head for heights! The Players also took part in a dance and movement workshop with Scottish Dance Theatre and made props for Pinnochio.

Also, in this past year our production of Pass the Nuts was performed for Tayside Carers Support Project as part of Mental Health Week 2009.

Our drama team worked with pupils and teachers right across Perth and Kinross helping to develop the creative potential of our young people by compiling education packs for Perth Theatre productions, running workshops and talks exploring themes and issues.

pic: Macbeth

perth youth theatre

PYT is amazing‌ I never thought I would be able to perform on the main stage and now I do!

Perth Youth Theatre participant (Seniors 1)

In 2009/10 Perth Youth Theatre (PYT) had 150 members aged from 12 – 25 years and presented four main stage productions and two Studio Theatre performances at our annual Festival of Youth Theatre over the month of June, attended by over 1600 people. The festival received a great deal of positive audience feedback and favourable review.

This year the PYT Beginners presented Cornered, a devised piece which really brought their ensemble skills to the fore.

PYT Intermediates performed Magico Resa, a new commissioned play by Susan McClymont and David Gray Buchanan. Written for a cast of 50 over four months, this adventurous project involved the group contributing their ideas to the process.

Seniors 1 presented Alien Nation by Roderick Stewart, a comedy featuring a host of characters, all with an obsession.

Seniors 2 helped to devise and perform a newly commissioned play by Ajay Close about the life of Perth poet William Soutar, funded by The Friends of William Soutar.

PYT Young Playwrights presented their showcase in the Studio Theatre and continue to go from strength to strength with increased membership year on year.

We continued to support the Chaos Youth Theatre group in North Perth with our staff and trainees giving advice and leading sessions.

The young perfomers, all aged from 7-12 years, participated in the Youth Theatre Festival, performing in the studio to an appreciative capacity audience.

PYT Seniors travelled to France in July 2009 for our first ever International Exchange Project.

13 young people and three staff travelled to the town of Tournon Sur Rhone to meet up with young people from Theatre Du Sycomore and to perform an adaptation of Othello by Tim Primrose as part of a two week long Shakespeare festival.

PYT Seniors participated in three workshops and had the opportunity to watch seven performances by professional and Youth Theatre groups from France, Morocco and Germany. We welcomed them in a return visit in April 2010.

Our Trainee Youth Theatre Director Scheme continues to offer opportunities for young people to enter the field of youth theatre as experienced professionals. In 2009 we recruited three high calibre trainees on to our scheme who will be mentored by our professional team.

conferences

Perth Concert Hall is an excellent venue, equipped with modern, high tech facilities that make it ideal for conferences. We have used the venue for a number of years and have been impressed by the professionalism of the team from the production and technical staff to front of house. Stagecoach In 2009/10 we had over 22,300 delegates come to conferences and meetings at Perth Concert Hall, bringing with them a new record income for the Hall and a huge boost to the Perth economy.

Customer feedback has remained high with over 95% of conference bookers rating the venue Good and Excellent across the board. The result - over 60% of conference bookings were once again from regular visitors choosing to return to Perth and the high quality facilities and service they have found here.

As the climate gets tougher we have looked to diversify our clients, welcoming a broad range of commercial and community hires including vaccination clinics, shop sales, workshops, competitions, fashion shows and various other functions, from small drinks receptions to dinners in the foyer and gala events in the auditorium.

We raised the bar with our biggest ever conference as the Difficult Airway Society’s 400 delegates filled the venue and Perth’s hotels with their three day conference and record numbers of visitors attended the Scottish Bead Fair.

We were particularly delighted to welcome Maxxium UK’s annual sales conference and dinner which was a new kind of conference for us and received excellent feedback on food and service.

2009/10 conference highlights were the STUC Congress, Conservative Party Conference, Liberal Democrats Conference and Hospitality Industry Trust Scotland. The Perth & Kinross Teaching Festival challenged us to cater for over 800 delegates for two days, including coffee breaks and lunches, Our foyers were filled, creating a lively and successful event .

Finally, we were all excited to play host to Perth’s own St Johnstone Football Club on the historic occasion of their 125th anniversary dinner.

about us

Horsecross – the story so far...

Five year achievements In 2010 Horsecross Arts was five years old. While still a relatively young company, we have grown from strength to strength reaching and exceeding targets year on year. Every year becoming more efficient and every year delivering more for Perth and Kinross, its people and its visitors.

In 2006/7 it was estimated that Horsecross Arts venues contributed £9 million annually to the local economy (based on 2006/7 independent EKOS economic impact study and Horsecross directly generated turnover.) Since that time we have increased the number of conference and meetings delegates by 13%, increased both performances and community participation by 10%, and grown audiences by 13%. We are now making more of an impact than ever before, helping Perth prosper. highlights and headlines from the first five years

200000

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15,000 people attending our launch weekend – Come Away In

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28 Awards won across all areas of our business including two Thistle Awards for Leadership and Business Tourism, two CATS awards for our theatre productions and MG Alba’s Scottish Traditional Music Award for Venue of the Year

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Two new national festivals created for Scotland with Schubertiad and Southern Fried

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Creative working with every primary and secondary School in Perth and Kinross

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Over 100 artworks commissioned and added to our international digital art collection

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£7million of external funding brought to the region

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Welcoming all of Scotland’s national performing companies to Perth

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Commissioning and presenting David Lang’s Pulitzer Prize winning Little Match Girl Passion with Carnegie Hall, New York

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Hosting international artists residencies including Trilok Gurtu, Colin Currie and Nana Vasconcelos

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Welcoming visiting artists from Van Morrison and Biffy Clyro to Mitsuko Uchida and Billy Connolly

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Over 10,000 people joining us for our 5th birthday weekend celebrations

cultural attendances

250000

150000

200000

100000

150000

100000

50000 at launch*

2006/7

2007/8

2008/9

2009/10

* figures from Perth 2000 business plan drawn up by The Market Specialists at launch

conference income

at launch*

2006/7

2007/8

2008/9

2009/10

The Horsecross Way Business culture + community + conferences Mission

to create a buzz – in our venues, Perthshire and Scotland

Vision

to keep raising the bar to inspire entertain and delight to help Perth prosper