.Join the Sine Nomine Singers, directed by Daniel Gethin, and the talented young Scottish violinist Oliver Michael for a captivating musical and poetic pilgrimage through Scotland.

Date: Saturday, 8 February 2025
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: St George’s Church, Bickley, BR1 2BE (at the intersection of Bickley Park Road [A222] and St George’s Road) (map).

The programme is an extended love song to Scotland, its music and its poetry.   Throughout the evening, readings from Scottish poets will enrich our journey, taking us to the furthest corners of the country.

Our concert opens with a rare example of early Scottish polyphony by Robert Ramsey, who followed  King James VI of Scotland to London when he became King James I of England.  Then at the heart of our journey come James MacMillan’s striking Strathclyde Motets with their unmistakable harmonic language. Oliver Michael will then play some Wieniawski and Joseph Joachim’s Schottische Melodie.  The choir return with two folk songs – Ralph Vaughan Williams’ setting of Ca’ the yowes’ for male voices and Anna Semple’s My bonny lies over the ocean for female voices.  We conclude the first half with more polyphony from Robert Ramsey in How are the mighty fallen.

Opening the second half, we find the man whose poetry has symbolised Scotland throughout the ages, Robert Burns, in a rather surprising setting of five of his poems in German by Robert Schumann.

Oliver Michael will then perform a medley of Scottish folk tunes, specially composed for this concert by his grandfather Richard Michael, the eminent Scottish jazz pianist and educator.

With MacMillan’s wistful Gallant Weaver we then pivot towards well-known folk songs by some of the finest contemporary arrangers, finishing with a King’s Singers arrangement of perhaps the most charming of all Scottish lyrics My love is like a red, red rose.

We look forward to an enchanting evening celebrating Scotland’s rich musical and literary heritage and very much hope that you will be able to join us.  Tickets are available at the door (£15; £5 for students and job-seekers).