Fusion, Citymoves Youth Dance Company

'Fusion', the youth company at Citymoves, perform a short taster of work created over the last year, choreographed by Lynn Brown and a short extract choreographed by Bare Bones Dance Company.

£4 full / £2 conc / £7 family ticket

Integrated Dance Week with Citymoves and Anjali Dance Company

Three days of inclusive workshops with Anjali Dance Company. This professional contemporary dance company is one of the first of its kind in the world.  All of Anjali’s dancers have learning disabilities and aim to show that disability is no barrier to creativity. By breaking down inhibitions and focusing energy, Anjali inspires and motivates workshop participants. Dancers from the company will work with us to produce a dance piece that will be shown on the final day. Dancers with or without learning disabilities aged 16+ are all welcome.

"One of the brightest companies in British dance" The Times

"Visibility, confidence and glamour..." The Guardian

"Anjali is an inspiring experience: check it out!" Lenny Henry

Workshops: 10am – 4pm - Tuesday to Thursday
Cost: £55 for 3 days of workshops

Performance: 4pm on Thursday 9th July - Free and open to all!

More details: citymoves@aberdeencity.gov.uk

Wild and Precious Life

Sandra Emslie, Fran Marquis, Liz Skulina, Jane Chisholm, Emma Cooper, Judith Burbidge and Annis Fitzhugh exhibit artwork together in a variety of media including painting, ceramics, weaving, print and photography. This exciting exhibition examines the theme of wild and precious in nature and life.

Opening Sunday 31st May 3-5pm All welcome. Runs until Friday 17th July. Open Monday - Friday 9.30am - 1pm and during all public events.

'Wish You Were Here' by Graeme Swanson

Graeme Swanson’s art is art which tells stories: ‘Wish You Were Here’ is a rich, vibrant and intimate travelog of colour, light, texture and mood.

Swanson’s interest is in what he calls “the essence and atmosphere of a landscape.”  “To me, colours are emotions that are conjured up by seeing a place in a particular light, at a particular time of year,” he says.  “I also like to record influences such as history, land utilization, change, archaeological sites, architectural designs, natural effects, weather and nature’s moods.”

Graeme Swanson exhibited in Florence in 2009 as a winner of Premio Firenze. Also, this year he exhibited at Agora Gallery New York, RSA Open Edinburgh, Glasgow Art Fair, and SSA Dundee.

Previously Graeme Swanson has been showing his art throughout his native Scotland and as far abroad as Chicago, New York, Sydney, as well as in London.

Opening Wednesday 22nd July 6.30-7.45pm. All welcome!

Runs until Friday 21st August. Open Monday - Friday 9.30am - 1pm and during all public events.

Trub-Brown Duo

As part of the Aboyne and Deeside Festival, Niall Brown, cello, and Isabelle Trub, piano, play Beethoven's Variations on a theme from the Magic Flute, Beethoven's Sonata in D major Op 102 nr.2, Schumann's Fantasy Pieces and Strauss's Sonata Op 8 in F major.

£10 full, £8 conc, £2 under 16    Bar

Folk Session Night at Crathes Hall

Everybody welcome at the Folk Sessions whether to play, sing or listen - come along and enjoy an evening of good company!

Bring your own refreshments

£2 on the door

Aberdeen International Youth Festival presents Patrick Kunka Quartet

Aberdonian jazz drummer and composer Patrick Kunka presents a transatlantic project featuring some of the top students from Boston's Berklee College of Music where he has been studying for the last 4 years. The Patrick Kunka Quartet includes award winning young Scottish musicians and fellow students Alan Benzie (piano), Leah Gough-Cooper (saxophones), Patrick Kunka (drums and compositions), and US bass player Dylan Coleman. Performing original music from their new CD "The Edge" recorded February 2009, expect an energetic mixture of hard-swinging and cutting-edge contemporary jazz.

£8 full / £6 conc / £4 under 16 and full time students Bar

Aberdeen International Youth Festival presents Umkhathi

Umkhathi is a drama and dance company from Zimbabwe. Their plays are developed by the members to educate and entertain both the local community and audiences all over the world. They also use traditional dance as a way of reviving indigenous African culture and traditions. The young performers involved are given an opportunity to develop creatively whilst establishing an economically viable career.

Umkhathi first visited Aberdeen five years ago and wowed audiences with their energetic performances and friendly enthusiasm.

Umkhathi will be offering an afternoon workshop from 2 - 4pm for age 10 +. It will offer participants the opportunity to learn about African storytelling, music and dance.
This will be followed by an evening performance at 7.30pm.

Workshop tickets £6
Evening performance £5 / £3 under 16

Aberdeen International Youth Festival presents Groove Academy and Stavanger University Jazz Ensemble

The Groove Academy is a community music school founded by Mark and Angela Ramsay. They launched in April 2004 with the aim of offering unique opportunities to musically-gifted young people in the local community. With many public performances to their credit and the release of the first Groove Academy album in June 2005, the academy has grown significantly - attracting students and volunteers from across the borough and beyond.

They will be joined tonight by the Stavanger University Jazz Ensemble in a refreshingly vibrant and creative evening  of jazz, funk and soul!

The Department of Music and Dance of Stavanger University has in recent years developed exciting new programmes in jazz and dance. With this multi-disciplinary approach, the Department has established a uniquely innovative environment within Norwegian higher education! The ensemble visiting AIYF is led by Wayne Brasel, leading international jazz guitarist and tutor at Stavanger University.

£8 Full / £6 conc / £4 under 16

Michael Marra

Michael Marra, widely acclaimed as one of Scotland's most talented and original songwriters and performers, is an inspiring act. His songs are finely crafted works of art, offering insightful observance into human behaviour tinged with wonderfully dark humour. As a performer, his years of experience have given him the ability to put an audience instantly at ease, allowing them to fully enjoy his startling musicianship and spine tingling voice.

£10 / £8 / £5 under 16 Bar

The Spooky Men's Chorale

The Spooky Men’s Chorale are a fearsome bunch of larrikins with a full range of body and facial hair configurations and the sometimes accidental ability to make audiences both weep and cry at the hopeless beauty and hapless stupidity of their vocal machinations...

"Take 15 men, dress them in black, school them in the Georgian choral tradition, and let them loose on the subjects of politics, untidiness and, er, tools. Then stand back and enjoy the beautifully sung anarchy." Glasgow Herald, 22 Aug 2006 [Edinburgh Festival Fringe]

Visit the Spooky Men's Chorale website.

£12 full, £10 conc, £5 under 16.  Bar

Folk Session Night at Crathes Hall

Come and join in our friendly folk session nights whether to play, sing or listen - all are welcome!

£2 on the door  Bring your own refreshments

North Sea Gas

Going on twenty-nine years and stronger than ever, North Sea Gas are one of Scotland’s most popular bands, with guitars, mandolin, fiddle, bouzouki, bodhrans, whistles, banjo and great vocals with tremendous three part harmonies. With Gold and Silver discs from the Scottish Music Industry Association and sell out shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, this is a highly entertaining Scottish folk band!

'No airs and graces just fantastic music' ... EdinburghGuide.com

£10 full / £8 conc / £5 under 16  Bar

New Work by Sera Irvine

An exhibition of new drawings and paintings by Welsh artist‚ Sera Irvine.

"I have never felt the least desire, compulsion or necessity to explain my work, which is not to say that I don't have thoughts and observations about it.
Perhaps this is because I see it as part of a process; it is the process of making that interests me and not the finished drawing. One piece is simply part of the process of creating the next and therefore none can be said to be the finished thing.
Perhaps it is because it comes from a very personal urge to create that I feel no need to share.
Perhaps it comes from the fact that the work has no hidden meaning; it is a response to  space and form in a moment in time.
This collection of new work is of drawings made in response to the spaces and landscape that I inhabit."

Opening Sunday 30th August 5pm-7pm. All welcome to preview!
Runs until Tuesday 29th September. Open Monday - Friday 9.30am - 1pm and during all public events.

Different opening days and hours during North East Open Studios.

Brigitte Beraha

Playing Original Melodic Contemporary jazz with World and Latin Flavours, the Brigitte Beraha Trio is an imaginative vocal-led Modern Jazz Ensemble who sidestep obvious Standards to tackle lyrical material.  The music, mainly written by Brigitte Beraha but also by other band members, is very much influenced by Brigitte's multi-lingual background and by the likes of John Surman, John Taylor, Kenny Wheeler and Azymuth, Chick Corea, Milton Nascimento and Hermeto Pascoal. The Ensemble, fronted by a vocalist singing songs with lyrics, also becomes an instrumental group when the voice is used as an instrument, allowing to blend in with the trumpet and fluegelhorn so as to create a unique soundscape.

"If sheer talent were the only ingredient needed for success in music, Brigitte would already be up there with the stars. She has a tremendous future to explore, one which we’ll be watching with great expectations”.  Dame Cleo Laine and Sir John Dankworth CBE

"Brigitte Beraha is a young multilingual singer-songwriter with alert jazz instincts and a lot of promise... She's a skilful writer of patiently curling, subtly resolved tunes." John Fordham, The Guardian

£8 full / £6 conc / £4 under 16  Bar

Singing for Joy

If you think you cannot sing but would like to try, come and sing for joy with a group led by Fiona Hope. All welcome!

Seven Tuesdays starting 1st September.

10am to 11.30am. Tea and coffees available from 9.30am.

£15 for seven weeks or £3 per session

NTC presents 'Whisky Galore'

Scotch on the Rocks, Love in the Air, Mayhem masked by mischief all around.

In a new adaptation by Stewart Howson of Compton Mackenzie’s famous comic novel, of life on an Hebridian Island,  NTC will once again weave their own brand of theatrical magic as the SS Cabinet Minister heads for the rocks with its cargo of the finest scotch just in time to wash away the obstacles in True Love’s path.

Although prolific in other areas of fiction Compton Mackenzie’s was most famous for his comic novels, set in Scotland and peopled by marvellous characters; Not only Whisky Galore but also the Monarch in the Glen series on which the recent TV version was based. Many people will remember that Whisky Galore was also turned into film as one of the celebrated Ealing Comedies. Although successful it did become a bit of a “blend” whilst NTC are sticking to the single malt, sea salt, peaty taste of the original book so if you think you’ve seen this before you might be in for a few surprises…

£9 full / £7 conc / £5 under 16

Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Hass

The musical partnership between Alasdair Fraser, Scotland’s premier fiddle ambassador, and the sizzlingly-talented young California cellist Natalie Haas may not seem an obvious one. Fraser's career spans 30 years, with a long list of awards, accolades, television credits, and performances on movie soundtracks (Last of the Mohicans,Titanic).

The 25-year-old Haas, a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, wasn’t even born when Alasdair was winning national fiddle competitions on the other side of the Atlantic.

This seemingly unlikely pairing is the fulfillment of a long-standing musical dream for Fraser, whose cutting-edge musical explorations took him full circle to find a cellist who could help him return the cello to its historical role at the rhythmic heart of Scottish dance music. Now regularly touring with Fraser and creating a buzz at festivals and in concert halls throughout Europe and North America, Natalie is in the vanguard of young cellists who are re-defining the role of the cello in traditional music. “Cellists are coming out of the woodwork to study with Natalie, to learn how she creates a groove and a whole chunky rhythm section,” says Fraser. “It’s inspiring to hear the cello unleashed from its orchestral shackles!”

A musical partnership of dazzling teamwork, driving, dancing rhythms and a shared passion for improvising on the melody and the groove of Scottish tunes.

"Fraser, one of the most respected of all exponents of the Scots fiddle, would look long and hard to find a more appropriate cellist as a partner. Haas can switch just as effortlessly as Fraser from a gentle singing tone to driving, dancing melody. A positive joy." —The Scotsman

www.alasdairfraser.com   www.nataliehass.com

£14 full, £12 conc, £5 under 16   Bar

WMS presents Piano4Hands - Joseph Tong and Waka Hasegawa

We are very lucky to have this rare opportunity to hear music for two pianos played by two outstanding pianists. They play regularly at the Wigmore Hall and the South Bank in London and are well known and loved in Britain and Japan.

Julius Rontgen: Variations on a theme by Cesar Franck
Nicola LeFanu:  Echo and Narcissus (2006)
Ravel: Rapsody Espagnole
Milhaud: Scaramouche
Rachmaninov: Suite No 1 ‘Fantasie-tableaux’ Op 5
Chick Corea: Contest for Two Pianos

£10 ( includes glass of wine) / £2 students in full time education / free for under 12

Friday Morning Art Class with Neal Macdonald

Neal returns to the Barn to run a new series of oil painting workshops for beginners and experienced artists. Unleash the artist within you!  These workshops are always popular so book early to avoid disappointment!

From Friday 25 September to Friday 16 October 10am - 1pm

£60 for 4 weeks, Third Stage £50

Magnetic North presents 'Walden'

"My purpose in going to Walden was not to live cheaply or dearly, but to live deliberately."
On 4th July 1845, Henry David Thoreau walked into the woods near his hometown of Concord, Massachusetts and decided to stay. He found a spot next to a lake called Walden Pond and built a hut. For the next two years he attempted to live entirely by his own resources.
Walden, Thoreau's account of his life in the woods, is one of the most extraordinary and unclassifiable books ever written. Magnetic North's adaptation reflects the book's many facets and contradictions in a piece of theatre that is part-performance and part-philosophy class. Directed and adapted by Nicholas Bone, the production has been designed by environmental artists Sans façon (Charles Blanc and Tristan Surtees) and is performed by Ewan Donald

"Ewan Donald puts in a faultless performance in Nicholas Bone's amazing adaptation." Evening News

"Works beautifully...a finely pitched performance from Ewan Donald." The Scotsman

£9 full / £7 conc / £5 under 16

Folk Session Night at Crathes Hall

Everybody welcome at the Folk Sessions whether to play, sing or listen - come along and enjoy an evening of good company!

Bring your own refreshments

£2 on the door

Saltfishforty

Saltfishforty are Douglas Montgomery (fiddle/viola) and Brian Cromarty (guitar/mandola/vocals).

Combining the traditional music of Orkney with original compositions, their reputation as a fresh and dynamic live act now has the band well established on the Scottish scene, as well as in Europe and the US.  Firm favourites on Deeside, Saltfishforty are a powerhouse of a duo, always playing to capacity audiences and winning new fans wherever they go.
Supported tonight by Twelfth Day, another duo, made up of Catriona Price, an ex pupil of Douglas, on fiddle, and Esther Swift, an ex pupil of Catriona McKay, on harp.

“The stars that shone brightest were the deadly double act Saltfishforty … barnstorming their way through a sizzling set … While traditional Orcadian tunes are sprinkled throughout their set they playfully throw hints of jazz, blues and country into the mix, but the overall impression was of a footstomping feast of fun.” Brian Ferguson (Living Tradition)

“… Their sound reveals a fluency across [a] range of styles, and a dab dual hand at knitting them all together, all propelled by a punchy drive … An alchemic blend of superb musicianship and empathy, adding up to a fiery new force.” Sue Wilson (The Sunday Herald)

£12 full / £10 conc / £5 under 16   Bar

Emily Smith and Band

Though only in her mid twenties, award winning Scottish singer and songwriter Emily Smith has firmly established herself as one of Scotland’s leading lights in folk music.

Since winning the 2002 ‘BBC Young Traditional Musician of the Year Award’ she has released three critically acclaimed albums ('A Day Like Today', 'A Different Life' and 'Too Long Away'), toured extensively with her band on the international folk circuit and is recognised not only as one of Scotland’s finest interpreters of traditional song but also as a talented songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.

“As far as I’m concerned she can walk on water.”
Mike Harding, Radio 2

“Smith could become to Scottish folk what Joni Mitchell is to its Californian cousin.”
Q Magazine

“Smith deserves to become yet another new folk celebrity.” 
The Guardian

£12 full / £10 conc / £5 under 16   Bar

Licketyspit presents 'Hare and Tortoise'

As the race begins, we follow Hare and Tortoise's great adventure meeting various characters en route - The singing Bun Brother's baking The Race Cake from ludicrous ingredients, the washer woman full of rhymes down by the river and various extraordinary spectators.

The relationship between the central characters develops throughout the play. They of course have more in common than they think and find they are in fact rather glad of each other's company to cross the river and survive a night in The Spooky Wood. The climax of the piece is an unexpected draw reflecting the deep need that children have to see fairness done, as Hare and Tortoise reluctantly and then delightedly, share their victory in triumph!

Hare and Tortoise was originally adapted by Virginia Radcliffe and Deborah Arnott in 2001. It's a hugely popular, hilarious interactive, highly energetic 60-minute theatre show, with irresistible catchy songs in the Licketyspit style.

“Wit, resourcefulness, nimble imagination and heart-warming attention to the kind of teensy wee details that add magic and surprises to the narrative..nuances of cartoon capers, nursery rhymes slapstick silliness, and opportunities for vociferous audience participation, with..audiences winners all the way.” The Herald

Suitable for 3+

£5 for all