Another fantastic day touring yesterday, starting with the train ride back down from Inverurie – accompanied by huge numbers of rugby fans on their way to the six nations at Murrayfield! Four (somewhat lively) trains later, we found ourselves back in Glasgow for a short rest before the drive down to Alloway for our evening concert with Ayr Music Club.

Our venue for the evening was Alloway Parish Church Halls, an intimate space set up with tables – cabaret style! As we warmed up in the space there were some beautiful skies over Ayr and Alloway, much better than the sleet and snow we had up north on Friday! Later on after the concert the sky was extremely clear, and once we got back to our digs for the evening we got a chance to see the sky lit up with stars (sadly very difficult to photograph!).

     

After rehearsal we were treated to some more delicious food from a local hotel, and had a chance to rest before getting ready for the second performance of the weekend.

We had another very enjoyable concert together sharing our ‘Red, White and Blue’ programme with the local crowd, and speaking to Ayr Music Club members. We were privileged to be their first classical saxophone feature, and it was great to be able to introduce them to lots of new and exciting repertoire – we had many comments from listeners about the surprising versatility of the saxophone!

    

We are looking forward to our third Tunnell Trust sponsored performance tonight in Helensburgh, our sixth and final concert of the ‘Red, White and Blue’ tour!

Hello! We’re the Scholfield-Clarke Duo, and we’ve just started our Tunnell Trust sponsored tour in the lovely Scottish town of Inverurie! We’ve got another two concerts this weekend in Ayr and Helensburgh, and we’re bringing along our ‘red, white and blue’ programme of original saxophone repertoire from France, Britain and America, taking audiences on a journey through the life of the classical saxophone over the last 100 years.

We started our day in Glasgow, jumping on a train up to Aberdeen – typical Scottish weather on the journey (although thankfully the snow held off at least!), with some amazing views of the very wild North Sea out of the window as we made our way up the coast.

Once we got to Inverurie we were met by the lovely Sylvia, who showed us around the local area before our rehearsal in the afternoon. Our venue for the evening was Inverurie Town Hall, a grand Victorian building at the centre of the town with a splendid Schimmel baby grand which Iain quickly got acquainted with!

After our rehearsal, we were treated to a delicious curry at a local restaurant, joined by music club members Margaret and Roy, along with composer John De Simone and his wife Emily.

After that it was time to get ready for the performance, and begin our exploration of the saxophone’s amazingly rich and varied original repertoire! We thoroughly enjoyed the concert, and were delighted with how receptive and invested the audience were in all of the new music we introduced them to.

A highlight of the programme was a brand new work written for us by composer John De Simone entitled ‘Another Life’. Working on this piece has been an amazing experience for us as it’s our first premier together as a duo, and it was very exciting to premier it last night – especially with the composer, who happens to be on the board of Inverurie Music, present at the performance! John also happens to be a former teacher of us both from our time at the Junior Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, so it was such a nice experience to reconnect and work together in a professional capacity on this new piece.

 

Now it’s back to Glasgow, and a quick turnaround to get down to Ayrshire for our concert this evening for Ayr Music Club!