This post was originally published here
Although the schools are still off, I am having a very busy summer indeed!
The strangest part of last month was definitely seeing my face staring back at me from the magazine aisle in Tesco, Dumfries. I was absolutely delighted to have been featured in the July issue of Dumfries & Galloway Life Magazine, and can now officially call myself a cover girl!! Thanks to Bruce McKenzie for the interview, and David Moses for the photography.
A lot of my work recently has been with fellow singer and partner in crime; Robyn Stapleton. We recently performed together at West Sound Radio’s Ladies Lunch, which raised over £1600 for Cash for Kids. It was a lovely afternoon, and was great to see so much money raised.
We are also currently in rehearsals for a new show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival called ‘A Man’s a Man’, which tells the story of Robert Burns’ life, set to a contemporary score. Robyn is playing Jean Armour, and I am taking on the role of Nancy McLehose. We are really enjoying rehearsals so far, and the cast are fantastic. The show runs from the 3rd-8th August, tickets are available via the Fringe office and can be collected at the door:
https://edinburghfestival.list.co.uk/event/484035-a-mans-a-man/
Make sure and get them quick! (Haggis, neeps, tatties and a dram of malt whisky at the interval may tempt you!)
Another recent performance as a duo was at Newton Stewart Traditional Music Festival at the main Saturday night concert. It was lovely performing in our home region, and the concert was a huge success! It’s great to see such a new festival doing so well, and well done to Nathon Jones for all his hard work.
As Robyn and I are on the Live Music Now Scotland scheme, we are very lucky to be involved with lots of great projects. The most recent being ‘Sing Me a New Song’, in which we worked with Voicebeat Choir to compose new songs to highlight the regeneration of the Kelvingrove Bandstand, one of Glasgow’s most loved structures. We worked together for several weeks before performing the new pieces at the Bandstand on the 24th July. We had a wonderful time with the choir, and we were very proud of the songs which we created together. More info on the project can be found here: http://www.livemusicnow.org.uk/lmn_news/item/69033/date/2015-07-21/title/sing_me_a_new_song
I am looking forward to A Man’s a Man next week, then Robyn and I will be performing again at the Fringe on the 15th August with Live Music Now at the National Museum of Scotland, 2pm.
If you’d like to keep updated with latest news and gigs, please sign up to my newsletter: http://eepurl.com/boF7_D
Claire Hastings
http://www.clairehastings.com
Follow these topics: News, Newsletter, Young Trad