Ailie Robertson

Ailie Robertson (b.1983) is a multi-award winning composer, performer and creative curator whose work crosses the boundaries of traditional and contemporary music. Winner of the 2011 iCompose competition organised by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and 2nd in the Oslo Grieg Competition, Ailie has received commissions and awards from Creative Scotland, Enterprise Music Scotland, the CCA, Arts Council England, Culture Ireland, and Celtic Connections, along with residencies at the EIFF, Berwick Sound and CALQ Montreal. She was chosen for the 2016/17 RSNO Composer’s hub, and awarded a BBC Performing Arts Fellowship for her work with The Elias Quartet and Eleanor Turner.

She founded Lorimer Productions in 2012 with the aim of increasing the profile and visibility of both traditional and contemporary music in Scotland. The organisation is dedicated to bringing new and innovative work from both established and developing composers to wide audiences at home and internationally, and has worked with a diverse range of artists, projects and partners. In 2016 they curated and produced ‘Echoes and Traces’, a partnership between 8 Scottish composers, Cappella Nova, Historic Scotland and Sound and Music.

Interview with Ailie.

Ilan Volkov and Alasdair Campbell

Alasdair Campbell is Creative Producer and Director of AC Projects/Alternative Currents. AC Projects is an independent arts organisation based in Glasgow and founded to develop ideas, projects and performance opportunities that support the continued exploration of cutting edge music practices from the grassroots and underground music communities across Scotland, the UK and internationally. One of AC Projects’ main aims is to offer opportunities for artists to create new work that will challenge conceived notions in music making and that will allow musicians, composers and audiences the space and time to explore new ideas. He currently produces the Glasgow based contemporary music festival Counterflows and co-produces and co-curates the Tectonics Festival with Ilan Volkov and the BBC SSO, a residency series for new artists, and is developing a network of local international festivals and producers in new music.

Ilan Volkov

Born in Israel in September 1976, Ilan Volkov began his conducting career at the age of nineteen. Following studies at London’s Royal College of Music, he secured positions as Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony. In 2003 he was appointed Principal Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and subsequently became its Principal Guest Conductor in 2009.

Between 2011 and 2014 he held the post of Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Volkov’s arrival coincided with the opening of Harpa, Reykjavík’s visually striking new concert hall. During his tenure in Iceland, he created the Tectonics Festival, which features programmes of classical modern music combined with other new music genres such as improvisation, electronics and rock. Since then, Tectonics has expanded around the world with residencies in cities like Glasgow, Adelaide, Oslo, New York and Tel Aviv.

www.counterflows.com + www.tectonicsfestival.com + www.acprojects.org

Interview with Ilan and Alasdair

sound

Created in 2004 and based in North East Scotland, sound collaborates with around thirty local partner organisations to give audiences access to innovative contemporary music performances and workshops. Initially this was achieved through an annual festival, which has run successfully for 12 years.

sound has now developed into a new music organisation which promotes a wide range of events and workshops throughout the year, as well as being involved in a number of collaborative projects with national and international partners. 

Aiming to break down barriers to new music, sound invites audiences and participants to go on sonic adventures, discover new sounds and widen their musical horizons. sound encourages cross art form excellence and experimentation, and so commissions and produces new work, nurturing and supporting local and Scottish talent as well as artists from further afield. Since its creation, sound has commissioned 105 new works from a range of Scottish and international composers. Commissioned new works by Scottish composers have toured to Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and China.

“This is a festival that clinches that most elusive of ideals: it’s a genuine meeting point of community engagement and contemporary music. The programme happily blurs genre lines in the name of inclusion but doesn’t shy away from hard-hitting new works.”

(Kate Molleson, The Guardian 2014)

Interview with Fiona Robertson - Festival Director