Welcome to the pre-Mod edition of the GG Newsletter and my sincere apologies for the long gap there's been since the last one. There have been a lot of things happening over the last few months but I really don't have any excuses - all I can say is "sorry".

The Mod "Away Day" was held last Saturday - the 4th of October - in the Hilton Grosvenor Hotel on Byres Road. The Away Day has been a regular feature of our Mod preparations for more than 10 years and it's become an invaluable part of our build up. Saturday's turnout was excellent and a lot of good work was put in and it's now a question of polishing up in the 4 remaining practices we have between now and the competitions on Friday the 17th of October.

This year's set pieces for the Falkirk Mod are "Siud a Bhalacha' / An Gille Mòr Foghainteach" (arranged by Frank Wooley) in the Puirt a' Beul; Purcell J Mansfield's arrangement of "Fhir a Dhìreas am Bealach" in the ladies and the male voice song is "Nach Gòrach Mi Gad Chaoineadh" arranged by Pol Mounsey. The prescribed piece in the Lovat and Tullibardine is Duncan Ban Macintyre's song "Blàr na-h-Eaglaise Brice" ("The Battle of Falkirk") arranged by Anne MacDiarmid. This is a brand new arrangement which has proved to be a test piece in its true sense, and it will be interesting to see how different choirs tackle it.

Our own choices are all Kenneth's own arrangements - the Ladies are doing "Morag Bheag," the men are attempting "Tioram air Tìr" and the choice for the shield is the choir favourite - "Miann Chridhe". We're last choir on in the Lovat and Tullibardine, so "Miann Chridhe" will be the last song of the whole competition - so irrespective of how well we do, a good rousing rendition of "Miann Chridhe" should ensure the competition at least ends on a high note.

The choir isn't staying overnight in Falkirk but during the day we will be based in the St Francis Xavier's Church Hall in Upper Newmarket Street (FK1 5AT for those of you with "sat-nav") right in the heart of Falkirk. We'll be having lunch there and friends and past members of the choir are most welcome to come and join us.

Our competitions are in Falkirk Town Hall (Puirt a' Beul and Lovat and Tullibardine), St Andrews West Church (Ladies) and Erskine Church (Men). The morning running order (subject to last minute changes) is likely to be Men, Puirt a' Beul and then the Ladies. All of the venues are within easy walking distance of the St Francis Xavier's Church Hall.

Immediately after the Lovat and Tullibardine Competition we're off to the Park Hotel in Falkirk (FK1 5RY) for the launch of Kenneth's book of Choral arrangements - "Slighe an Airgid" As I'm sure you know this book is part of Kenneth's 25th Anniversary celebrations and the choir will sing a couple of songs from the book at the launch. Coming immediately after the announcement of the results of the L&T it may either be a wonderful celebration or a question of getting straight back on to your bike after a nasty fall!! However, no matter how things pan-out on the day, the launch will take place at 6pm in the Park Hotel which is just opposite the Town Hall complex.

Later in the evening the choir will be taking up "residence" in the Antonine Hotel from about 10 o'clock onwards for a light buffet supper, cèilidh and so on.

As we all know this will be Kenneth's 25th Mod as conductor of the choir but there will be one very noticeable absence for the choir's ranks this year. For the first time for more than 30 years Calum Macarthur will not be singing with us.

Calum - as he pointed out at the "Away Day" on Saturday - hasn't retired from the choir but he's taking a bit of a sabbatical and he's probably not going to be taking part in competitive events so much. However, we hope we'll still see him performing with the GG on other occasions in the years to come.

Other regulars who will not be with us at the Mod this year are Fiona Mackintosh and Beverley Darroch who are both still on maternity leave, Amanda Millen who has work commitments, and Willie Mackie who will be enjoying the delights of Rome rather than Falkirk. We also said goodbye recently to Lindsey Young who is taking up a teaching job in Qatar for a couple of years. We wish her well in her new post and we look forward to seeing her back in the choir when she gets a job within easier commuting distance!

Catherine Hamilton and Lorena Fraser are two new sopranos who will be joining us at the Mod for the first time - and we welcome them on board.

It looks as if we've got 32 singers going to the Mod which means Kenneth has the usual headache of dropping a couple of people to meet An Comunn's limit of 30 voices in each competition. The final decision will be left until the day itself.

We've got a few soloists performing at the Mod amongst them Donald Macleod, Sandy Brodie and Gordon McKeeve and we wish them all the very best.

If you're in Falkirk on the day of the Mod please feel free to drop in to say hello at any point.

It was with great sadness that we learnt of the passing of Willie Farmer who was a former president and key member of the choir for many years. Willie and his wife Margaret joined the choir in the late 1940s and stayed with us until they retired to Braes (Skye) in 1987. Willie's health had been deteriorating for some time and he had been in a nursing home in Portree for the last 3 years. We send our sincere condolences to Margaret.

A few new people have joined the choir since our last newsletter. As mentioned earlier Catherine Hamilton and Lorena Fraser will be joining us in Falkirk. Catherine is from Ardrishaig and has previously sung with junior choirs in Mid-Argyll and Lorena is from Strathpeffer and she's another of our growing band from the BBC.

Other new members who have joined but who will be with us at the Mod are Coinneach Maclean from Skye and Fenella Gough who is originally from the Isle of Man. Unfortunately both of them have prior commitments at the time of the Mod.

Congratulations to Alastair Macarthur in the basses and of course his wife Claire on the birth of their son Calum who was born in May. (Who said there was only room for one Calum Macarthur)

Congratulations to the Mactaggart sisters Deirdre and Iseabail who have both been members of the choir in recent years. Deirdre - who appeared at the concert (see below) got married in the summer to Jim O'Donnell, while Iseabail had a wee girl (Maeve) back in March. Look out for Iseabail at the Mod as she's conducting the Isle of Islay choir.

We've also had a few significant birthdays in the last few months - Gordon McKeeve our senior Vice President was 40 in June, Carolyn Ferguson was 40 at the end of September ("Thanks for the super shoe-cake at the away day" - CF) and I had a slightly larger significant birthday in March - again thanks for the cake and fizz.

We also send our best wishes to Mabel Weir. Mabel had major surgery before the summer but we're glad to say she's making good progress.

The website has now been up and running for a number of months and an encouraging number of enquiries have already come through to us. Can I remind you that the address for the website is www.ggma.org.uk and can I encourage you to give it a visit as it's a useful source of information for choristers and friends, and it's a great way of keeping up to date with what's going on in the choir.

We're indebted to Duncan Macdonald for all the hard working he's put in to get it up and running and for his continuing efforts to keep it up to date.

Kenneth's 25th Anniversary Concert

Kenneth's 25th Anniversary Concert was held in the Concert Hall of the RSAMD on the 29th of March and a near capacity audience heard a full programme featuring the choir and a host of soloists.

The choir's performance was well received and the audience was treated to some excellent solo performances from Jean Mackay, Deirdre Mactaggart, Kirsteen MacDonald, Norman Mackinnon, Alastair Whyte and James Graham. All of the choir's songs were arranged by Kenneth and they included many of the tracks which are featured on the choir's CD "Slighe an Airgid". The CD along with a small souvenir programme to mark Kenneth's 25 year reign were released to coincide with the concert.

The feedback we received after the concert was all very positive and we thank everyone who came along and everyone who took the time to contact us after the event. It was nice to see so many friendly and well kent faces in the audience, and at the risk of offending others we haven't seen for a while, can I say I was particularly pleased to see Peter and Joey Farmer who have not managed to get to many of our events recently.

There are still some souvenir programmes available and if you didn't manage to get along to the concert, or if you didn't pick up a souvenir programme on the night please get in touch with us and we'll send one out to you.

In May the choir eventually managed to fulfil a long standing commitment to put on a concert in Campbeltown. The concert, in aid of Auchinlee Nursing home was originally planned for last year but unfortunately the choir had to cancel at that time.

The concert on the 10th of May was held in the Lowland Church and an audience of more than 300 turned up to hear the choir reprise the main parts of the Glasgow concert. It was particularly appropriate to have a concert in Kenneth's home town during his Anniversary year and the audience was warm and appreciative.

Soloists on the night were Alasdair Whyte, Calum MacArthur, Gordon McKeeve, Duncan Macdonald and there was a first time solo slot for Aonghais Rowe. Jean Mackay, who also appeared in Glasgow, made the long journey from Inverness to sing with us again in Campbeltown. Many thanks to Jean for once again going above and beyond the call of duty.

The post-concert cèilidh in the White Hart Hotel was enjoyed by everyone (who would have guessed Ian Mcalister knew so many songs!) and the alternative entertainment in the bar downstairs provided by none other than Les Oman and his band also hit the spot.

The choir was honoured to be asked to appear at the BBC's "Proms in the Park" event at Glasgow Green on Saturday the 13th of September.

"Proms in the Park" events have been running for the last few years to coincide with the "Last Night of the Proms" from the Royal Albert Hall. Satellite events are held in Hyde Park and major provincial centres such as Swansea, Belfast and of course Glasgow. Despite poor weather conditions an audience of possibly 10,000 people turned up at Glasgow Green to hear Evelyn Glennie, the Red Hot Chilli Pipers, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, The National Youth Choir of Scotland and the Glasgow Gaelic Choir (sic). The choir sang with the BBC SSO and NYCOS in a new arrangement of "Cànan nan Gaidheal", and "Oran Mòr" a new composition by Gordon Rigby with Gaelic words by Aonghas Macneacail.

The timing of the event - bang in the middle of our Mod preparations - was not ideal, but despite the hard work and the added stress I think it was something that, in the end, everyone felt was well worth doing. It's not everyday that a Gaelic choir will be asked to sing with the SSO led by an internationally renowned conductor, in front of an audience of thousands, so despite our misgivings and our tentativeness, I think it ended up being a unique and enjoyable experience.

The recording of "Cànan nan Gaidheal" was also used as part of the launch event for the Gaelic digital TV channel BBC ALBA on Friday the 19th of September.

If you're interested, you can still see the choir's performance on the BBC website. If you go to the BBC home page and type in "Proms in the Park" and then click on the link "Scotland: Proms in the Park - Glasgow" you'll then be taken to the Glasgow Proms in the Park page, and if you click on the NYCOS picture, you'll then see by far the oldest member of the National Youth Choir of Scotland.

"Proms in the Park" is not the only TV work we're involved in at the moment. Throughout the year a BBC film crew has been putting together material for a programme about Kenneth's 25 years at the helm of the GG.

Parts of the concert were recorded and Kenneth has also been involved in some filming work in Stornoway, Campbeltown and Lucca in Italy! Backstage scenes at "Proms in the Park" were recorded and it's likely that the crew will also be around in Falkirk at the time of the Mod. The programme is due to go out on BBC ALBA towards the end of the year.

It's definitely our turn to host the Post Mod Cèilidh this year and this will be held in Hillhead Rugby Club at Hughenden on Monday 27th October at 7.45pm. This is an opportunity for all the Glasgow (+ Cumbernauld) choirs to get together and although it's mainly for choristers everyone's welcome to come along.

We're also singing at the Paisley Choral Festival on Thursday the 30th of October. The Còisirean nan Gaidheal competition at the Festival is part of Paisley's bid to host the 2011 National Mod. The competition for the Provost Celia Lawson Cup will see ourselves lined up against the other Glasgow and West of Scotland Gaelic Choirs.

The final part of Kenneth's Anniversary year celebrations is a black-tie dinner in the Hilton Grosvenor Hotel on Byres Road on Saturday the 22nd of November. The dinner (7 for 7.30 pm) will take the form of speeches from a handful of people who have been associated with Kenneth and the choir over the last 25 years. The choir will perform a short set, and there will also be a couple of soloists.

I promise I'll get another newsletter out by the end of the year and this will include all the latest news, views and gossip from the Mod. The next newsletter will also be my last, as my term of office as Choir President is coming to an end and I will be stepping down at this year's AGM. The AGM incidentally will be held on Monday the 15th December at 7.30pm in Partick South Parish Church and all members and life members are cordially invited.

Please come and see us if you're at the Mod and remember Kenneth's Anniversary Dinner on the 22nd of November. If you've any comments, criticisms, complaints or compliments please feel free to get in touch.

Angus Ferguson

06/10/08

Contact Details:

Angus Ferguson – President

18 Kensington Gate, Glasgow, G12 9LG