The Cumnock Tryst and Crawick Multiverse in collaboration with the Coalfield Communities Landscape Partnership (CLLP) and organisation that provides an opportunity to re invigorate life in the landscape based on the lessons of the past, life in the present and a vision of life in the future, announce Compose The Environment. This is a ground-breaking musical project that aims to explore the process of regeneration of the landscape left scarred by the collapse of the open cast coaling industry in East Ayrshire and takes place as part of Scotland’s Year of Stories.
World-leading composer and conductor and Founder and Artistic Director of The Cumnock Tryst, Sir James MacMillan, is leading the project and working alongside music education specialist Naheed Cruickshank and two classes of primary school children from Cumnock’s Lochnorris Primary School. Over an eight-week period, they are working together and supporting the children to develop their creative potential and ideas and compose new music they will perform themselves.
The project will culminate in a performance of all the music composed at Barony Hall, Barony Campus on Friday 16th December and feature the Lochnorris Primary School pupils singing and playing alongside a trio of professional musicians including violinist Gordon Bragg, cellist Christian Elliott, and flautist Lee Holland, all led by Sir James MacMillan.
The Cumnock Tryst has a long experience in engaging with schools across the Cumnock and Doon Valley area. This first partnership with Lochnorris Primary School sets the foundations for a better understanding of climate change from an early age, delivered in a way that develops creativity rather than fear. This will help communities that suffer from multiple deprivations like the ones in East Ayrshire to address previously inaccessible issues such as climate change.
This event has been supported by the Year of Stories 2022 Community Stories Fund. This fund is being delivered in partnership between VisitScotland and Museums Galleries Scotland with support from National Lottery Heritage Fund thanks to National Lottery players.
Marie Christie, Head of Development at VisitScotland said “We are delighted to be supporting Compose The Environment through the Year of Stories 2022 Community Stories Fund. Events play an important role in our communities as they sustain livelihoods and help to celebrate and promote our unique places, spaces and stories. … By supporting events taking place within our communities, including Compose The Environment, new opportunities with be provided for locals and visitors to come together and find out more about the diverse stories, past and present, that our communities have to share.”
Irene Brown
Radio Summerhall Arts 