Updates

Great news for fans of contemporary and experimental music in Aberdeen! The city council has awarded £37,000 in funding to the Sound Festival to support its groundbreaking work with young people and the local music community.

This significant boost comes from the Aberdeen City Council's Shared Prosperity Fund, which awarded grants to a variety of impactful local organisations. The fund promises to support the Sound's existing programs and pave the way for exciting new initiatives.

What Does This Mean for Aberdeen?

The funding will primarily support the following aspects of Sound’s work:

• Get Creative: A dynamic outreach project focused on unlocking creativity and music composition in young people.
• Any Enemy: Sound’s collaboration with our local new music ensemble, which performs new and experimental music.
• Con Anima: Sound’s collaboration with our local chamber choir known for its adventurous repertoire.

Aberdeen Jazz Festival has announced its eagerly awaited lineups for popular Jazz the Day and Soundbath events. With last year’stop-class shows selling out in record time, fans are advised to book early in order to enjoy the rich variety of acts on offer. This year, as well as a host of top-class performers, the festival includes a record number of free events, family-friendly shows and chances to participate, making this a truly welcoming and inclusive festival with something for everyone.

Jazz the Day is a one-day musical melting pot brimming with varied performances, jam sessions, family events and more. With one ticket giving access to a whole range of events throughout the afternoon, Jazz the Day is the perfect opportunity to sample a wide range of different acts and activities. All of the Jazz the Day venues are open to children of all ages, making this a great day out for the whole family. Following the success of previous years’ Jazz the Day shows, the concept has been expanded to cover two different areas of the city on two consecutive Sundays.

Inverurie Orchestra is looking for a new Musical Director from late August 2024. 

The ideal candidate must be able to create an enjoyable social space for members to make music together whilst helping to develop the musical progression of the orchestra.  They will need to programme material in advance of concerts, working with the orchestra committee, and conduct the majority of rehearsals prior to a concert.

Rehearsals currently take place on Thursday evenings from 7.30 – 9.30pm in Inverurie town during school terms. There are two to three concerts per year, and we are open to considering either a longer-term Musical Director or a rotation system with different directors taking on different concerts. 

You can download the full job description from our website and the Making Music website. The closing date for applications is March 15th, 2024.

We are excited to announce that our weekly newsletter is now live! 

You can sign up on our website and look forward to receiving a weekly email, every Thursday, with what's coming up in the week ahead, plus any last minute additions, our own recommendations, news from our members and more. 

In the future, we hope to be able to allow you to tailor these emails to be more relevant to you, but more on that later. For now, we hope you'll make use of this amazing resource to help you keep track of all the incredible music-making in our city and beyond. 

Speaking of which, we've recently added the University of Aberdeen's Concert Series as well as the Aberdeen Jazz Festival's line up for March 2024. Make sure you check them out! 

Last night, we bid a fond farewell to a true pillar of the Aberdeen music scene, Pete Stollery. As Pete embarks on a new chapter in England, it's hard not to reflect on his immense impact on our community.