As Kingfishers Catch Fire
Inspired by the poem of Gerard Manley Hopkins, this programme is a mosaic of pieces: each piece glowing with the colours of light, reflection, and renewal. The music of Ireland, France, and Scotland unfolds like the flicker of a kingfisher’s wings. As Kingfishers Catch Fire is a signature ecstatic sonnet by the Victorian Jesuit priest Gerard Manley Hopkins, written around 1877. It is a celebration of "inscape" - Hopkins's term for the unique, inner essence that makes every creature exactly what it is: every creature revealed for what is by its actions and is a reflection of the divine.
Colin Stuart was born and educated in Aberdeen. On graduating from university, he moved south for post graduate studies as a performer at Birmingham Royal Conservatoire. He was Organist at St John’s Wood Church in London for 34 years. During that time, he worked as a freelance accompanist, held the positions of Director of Music at the junior branches of Mill Hill and University College Schools and was, for a time, Manager of the BBC Sheet Music Library. He ‘retired’ to the North East in 2024, was appointed Director of Music at St Andrew’s Cathedral in 2025 and, over the last 18 months, has been delighted to work with an extraordinary array of choirs, musicians and teachers across Aberdeenshire.
Flautist Margaret Preston could be considered ‘B list’, having played Buckie, The Barbican, Blue Peter, New Brunswick and Brussels! Her career has spanned the decades during which time she has played in Baroque, Medieval, and Renaissance bands as well as being a busy chamber musician with a variety of duo partners. On one memorable occasion, Margaret played a duet with herself, daring to play the bravura flute obligato as well as simultaneously singing the part of Mad Margaret in Ruddigore - a feat probably not attempted by anyone else! She enjoys playing with Aberdeen Sinfonietta and The Corten Quintet and is currently looking forward to re-establishing associations with The Kincorth Waits. As a young musician she performed Early Music in the United Kingdom, Norway and Russia and counts this as one of her most formative experiences.