Welcome to our first newsletter of the new term – we have 360 people enrolled in our classes, and although we’re still online, we’re delighted that so many of you are joining us there.
DAY OF SONG 2
An afternoon of workshops linking up with the Let It Grow project to give singers the songs, video-making skills and inspiration to make their own contribution to the growing creative movement to make our voices heard at the COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow in November. The project centres around the song Enough Is Enough, performed by Karine Polwart, Oi Musica and many others.
More info and tickets here.
Finance update from the Treasurer
We are glad to be running our classes and workshops, even though these have been on Zoom over the last 18 months. Our finances remain challenging, as we had a deficit in the year to June 2020 of £10k and a projected deficit of £5k in the year to June 2021. Fortunately, financial reserves built up gradually in preceding years has covered these deficits. Despite not having classroom hires to pay, we have had an almost complete loss of essential fundraising activities, which we hope will restart in the current year. We are immensely grateful to those members who have donated monies to our charity, as these have helped to offset the loss of fundraising monies. Despite investigation, we were not eligible for any government Covid grants. The board continue to closely monitor our financial situation. Paul McIntosh
IN-PERSON CLASSES UPDATE There are ongoing issues with class venues, in terms of availability, size (incorporating social distancing), room ventilation and so on. We know that a number of students can’t attend classes in person at the moment, or have signed up from further afield because we’re online. We have about 60 fewer students than we did in September 2019, but we’re continuing to run some smaller classes to support student learning.
We are looking carefully at what’s possible, and will be consulting all classes this term. We may be able to run some pilot hybrid classes (in person and online). We know that this is a frustrating situation for many of you, particularly when other big events are happening, and we’d like to thank you for your continued support while we try to navigate our way through this. Sarah Northcott (Development Worker)
SMG CEILIDHS
Although we currently have no fundraising ceilidhs booked at St Bride's, we are in communication with them and are waiting for an update from both the Centre & Edinburgh City Council regarding the safe use of the auditorium.
Please check our website later this term for any further info.
NEW TUTORS AND A NEW STYLE OF CLASS We’re delighted to welcome back Luisa Brown who is teaching Fiddle 6 this year. Also making a return to SMG is Eilidh Steel, who took over Claire Campbell’s class in the summer and will continue to teach Fiddle 7 while we’re online. Good to have both of you back with us.
We’re also trying out a new style of advanced class. Smallpipes 4 are meeting every week without a tutor, sharing tunes and tips, and are having a tutor-led workshop once a month. This may be a model which would work for other groups of more advanced players, so we’ll see how they get on!
The Ian Maclennan Collection Ian Maclennan’s unique and significant eclectic collection of CDs, gig tapes, records (some 50 years old), sheet music and magazines which had been left to Scots Music Group has found a new home with the Traditional Music Forum.
Many thanks to the volunteers who archived this collection, to Edna & Fraser who helped move the collection to the Scottish Storytelling Centre & to Dave Francis and the TMF.
SMG Merchandise
The merch page on our website is under construction. Email your order or enquiry to the SMG office here.
Sarah recently visited the folk at Music Broth in Glasgow to donate a number of instruments which we had in the office, including some from our Inspire Project (plus some from Sarah’s neighbours!) Music Broth is a social enterprise which runs all kinds of music activities centred around an affordable instrument and equipment lending library. They have now teamed up with Edinburgh Tool Library so that Edinburgh folk can also borrow instruments. If you would like to try something new, you can join Music Broth, order your instrument online and collect it from the Tool Library’s Portobello premises. You can also donate instruments too.
For more info visit www.musicbroth.org
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