SCO NEWS|03
FOREWORD A very warm welcome to SCO News. Our big news, of which I am sure you will already be aware, is that City of Edinburgh Council has granted planning approval for our new home in St Andrew Square. This is, of course, magnificent news not only for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, but also for everyone throughout Edinburgh and beyond and turns the ambition for a world-class centre for music and performance into a reality. Once built, the effect of this new venue will be utterly transformational. It will enable the SCO to fulfil our greatest potential; not only by providing our audiences with regular concerts in one of the great concert halls of the world and by attracting the most exciting artists to perform with us, but most importantly by engaging with and involving as many people as we possibly can from all over the city and further afield from all walks of life. In doing so, we will transform and enhance people’s lives through the power of inspirational music-making. It is a truly exciting prospect and we all look forward to the day it opens.
Gavin Reid
I am particularly pleased that the new venue will be known as the Dunard Centre, supported by Royal Bank of Scotland, in recognition of the huge contribution Carol Grigor has made to this project through the charitable trust Dunard Fund. Carol and the Dunard Fund have been tremendous supporters of the SCO for many years and we are exceptionally grateful. The SCO is, of course, blessed with many wonderful supporters and in the pages that follow, you can read about one extraordinary partnership. We recently announced that investment management firm Baillie Gifford has become our Creative Learning Partner. Over the next five years, Baillie Gifford will support a broad range of our work. Projects include an expansion of our successful community
residency in Wester Hailes, a new social prescribing programme for young people diagnosed with mental health conditions, innovative digital resources for schools across all 32 of our local authorities and the development of our most recent project – a free Youth Academy training programme for young musicians. As our Winter Season draws to a close, there is no rest for the SCO. The second half of May sees the Orchestra recording a CD of French music with François Leleux before embarking upon a tour of European cities with stops in Birmingham, Copenhagen, Basel and Würzburg. Then it is straight into an expanded Summer touring programme which this year takes us as far north as Stornoway and south to Stranraer and Annan with a community residency in Caithness in between. I do hope you will be able to join us along the way
Gavin Reid Chief Executive
