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Eastern promise for chamber orchestra
26/12/2008
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) will be touring India in February 2009 thanks to an allocation of £200,000 from the Scottish Government's International Touring Fund.
This funding has allowed the SCO to secure further sponsorship from other sources and will allow the Orchestra to undertake a tour that will see performances in six cities across India.
In December 2006, the SCO collaborated with world-renowned sarod player Amjad Ali Khan, conductor David Murphy and composer Matthew Barley as part of a long-standing programme to develop SCO players' skills. The product of this collaboration was a new piece written for the whole Orchestra, and featuring a group of soloists drawn from its ranks. 'Samaagam', which means 'confluence' or 'coming together' explores the common roots of Indian and Western music. The piece will conclude a programme which includes a new improvisation by Amjad Ali Khan as well as works by Mozart and Beethoven.
Culture Minister Linda Fabiani said:
"I had the pleasure of seeing the SCO perform 'Samaagam' in Glasgow earlier this year and am very pleased that Indian audiences will now have the opportunity to enjoy this fascinating piece. The work shows clearly the SCO's willingness to embrace new ways of creating music and to maintaining its impressively diverse repertoire.
"In addition to hosting this exciting tour, next year's Kolkata Book Festival will take on a Scottish theme, reminding us of the strong historical links between our countries and demonstrating the continued interest in our country on the subcontinent. The existing links between Scotland and India are strengthened and renewed through such cultural exchanges and the SCO, and all our national performing companies, are tremendous international ambassadors for Scotland and our talented performers.
"The value to Scotland of such international touring cannot be overestimated. Not only is there potential for our economy to benefit from increased tourism as a result of our international presence, we are giving greater exposure to many of Scotland's talented musicians and performers and giving them access to new audiences."
Roy McEwan, Managing Director of the SCO, said:
"We are very grateful to the Scottish Government for this generous support for our groundbreaking tour of India. Without the Government's financial assistance the tour would simply not have been possible and this commitment has enabled us to attract further support from the British Council and a major India-based sponsor.
"This six city tour of India is a wonderful opportunity for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in our role as cultural ambassadors for Scotland and we look forward to building on our links with India in the future."
The International Touring Fund is open to all five of Scotland's National Performing Companies - the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Ballet, Scottish Opera, and the National Theatre of Scotland.
The Scottish Government's International Touring Fund is worth a total of £350,000 per annum. In 2008-09, in addition to the £200,000 announced for SCO above, £90,000 was made available earlier this year for the National Theatre of Scotland to take its critically acclaimed 'Black Watch' to the USA, Canada and Ireland. The International Touring Fund has also supported the Royal Scottish National Orchestra's Spring 2008 tour of six Spanish cities with Nicola Benedetti with an award of £60,000.