Usher Hall: Listings from October to January 2010

Music and
More @ the Usher Hall,
Edinburgh

Jon Lord in Concert

Monday 5 October 7.30pm

£25/£20
+ £2 booking fee

Jon
Lord, founding member of Deep Purple, rock legend and composer - premieres his
Concerto for Group and Orchestra in Scotland.  Jon has prepared exceptionally talented music
students from Stevenson College Edinburgh, The Royal Scottish Academy of Music
and Drama and The City of Edinburgh schools to perform his contemporary
masterwork.

Tim Minchin

Saturday 10 October 7.30pm

£17.50
+ £1.50 booking fee

The
Edinburgh Fringe Festival superstar is here; Tim Minchin lugs his piano around
the UK to make you laugh with
his award-winning musical comedy.

Music at the Brewhouse "The Songbook
of Unsingable Songs"

Tuesdsay 3 November 7pm

£5/£16 family (2 adults, 2 children)

Award
winning composer and band leader Stephen Deazley has teamed up with BBC Radio
4's Saturday Live poet Matt Harvey to create a quirky and cantankerous
collection of songs for young children to sing and children and grown-ups of
all ages to enjoy!

The Nolans

Thursday 5 November 7.30pm

£35
+ £3 booking fee

The
Nolans are back!  More than 25 years
since they last toured, the nation's original girl group is back together for
the ‘Back in the Mood Again' tour!

The Proclaimers

Tuesday 10 and Wednesday 11 November 7.30pm

£25/£22.50
+ £2.50 booking fee

Internationally
famed Scottish duo perform all their classic tunes, as well as some new
material, with unrivalled energy and humour.

Yes

Thursday 19 November 7.30pm

£35.50
+ £3 booking fee

As
a dominant force for more than four decades, YES has sold more than 30 million
albums worldwide, stretching the boundaries of progressive art-rock with their
dynamic instrumental contrasts and abstract lyrics.

Fanfare Concert

Monday 23 November 7pm

£20
family (2 adults and 2 children)

An
evening with Edinburgh's most talented young
musicians.  Something for everyone with
Edinburgh School's rock, jazz and traditional ensembles, symphony orchestra and
choirs, Edinburgh's got talent!

ChildLine Winter Concert

Tuesday 24 November 7pm

£9/£4.50

Hundreds
of talented musicians and singers from Edinburgh schools join together to
provide a joyous evening of Christmas music, carols and popular classics.  All proceeds will go towards the NSPCC
Child's Voice Appeal in Scotland.

The Band of Her Majesty's Royal
Marines

Wednesday 25 November 7.30pm

£16/£14/£12 + 50p credit card charge
per ticket

The
wonderfully versatile musicians of the Royal Marines together with the
exuberant singers of the Edinburgh Gilbert & Sullivan Society combine to
deliver a real musical treat.  Proceeds
to Seafarers UK (King George's Fund for Sailors).

National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland presents "The Dragon's Lair"

Saturday 28 November 7.30pm

£15

Featuring
the talents of some of the country's brightest young piping and drumming starts
- in their first Edinburgh performance.  An exciting mix of traditional music with a
contemporary twist!

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra : A
History of
Scotland

Sunday 29 November 7.30pm

£15

Highlights
from the soundtrack to the highly successful History of Scotland TV
Series.  Ricky Ross and Lorriane McIntosh
(of Deacon Blue fame), Eddi Reader and God Help the Girl are included in the
line-up!

The Bootleg Beatles

Wednesday 9 December 8pm

£22.50 + £2 booking fee

Enjoy
all your favourite Beatles' hits from the UK's number one tribute
band.  The Fab Four are back to entertain
with songs from the superb Beatles' back catalogue.

Origin Scotland : Light of the World

Saturday 5 December 7.30pm

£12/£10/£7/£6

The
Exile Band and Choir and Exile Chamber Orchestra join forces in our annual
celebration of all things Christmas.

Bill Bailey's Remarkable Guide to
the Orchestra

Sunday 13 December 8pm

Tickets
£55, £45 and £30 + booking fee

Following on
from last year's sell out shows at the Royal Albert Hall and the critically
acclaimed version on BBC2, Bill Bailey's surreal comic and musical imagination
is let loose once more as he takes this show on the road, performing with some
of the finest orchestras throughout Britain, accompanied by Anne Dudley, one of
the UK's most celebrated composers and arrangers.

Scottish Fiddle Orchestra

Wednesday 30 December 7.30pm

£21/£16/£12/£9

This
is the 30th Anniversary Year for this now internationally renowned
orchestra.  Conducted by John Mason, MBE,
Director of Music and Blair Parham.

World and Folk Music

Joan
Baez

Monday
12 October Doors
7pm

£35/£32.50/£30 + £3 booking fee

Protest singer, social commentator and
poet, Joan Baez continues to mix it up with her legendary folk tunes. One of the most distinctive and accomplished
folk singers to emerge from 1960’s America she has made classics through her
interpretations of songs by Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs and The Band as well as her
own catalogue of work like 1975’s gold selling Diamonds and Rust.

Christy
Moore with Declan Sinnott

Wednesday
21 October
8pm

£26.50/£22.50 + £2.50 booking fee

The inspirational Christy Moore mixes
elements of rock and popular music to create his unique style of traditional
mixed with contemporary Irish folk.

Orquesta Buena
Vista
Social Club

Wednesday
28 October
7.30pm

£28.50 + £2.50 booking fee

An extraordinary line-up of Buena Vista
Social Club ® stalwarts, together in a 13 piece band direct from Havana to present some of the finest Cuban music ever made.

Ladysmith
Black Mambazo

Saturday
14 November
7.30pm

£24.50/£23.50/£21.50 + £2 booking fee

Grammy winning a cappella group
Ladysmith Black Mambazo merges traditional South African music and dancing with
global harmonies to create an energetic and up-lifting show. Exuberant, beautiful, uplifting are words
that go some way to doing justice to their live concerts. Suitable for all the family.

Staff Benda Bilili

Tuesday 17 November 8pm

£18.50/£15
(concessions available)

Staff Benda Bilili are like nothing you
have ever seen or heard before. Their name translates literally to “put forward
what is hidden.” Led by street musicians from the Congo,
and backed by a younger, all-acoustic rhythm section, they make music of
astonishing power and beauty.

Ojos
de Brujo supported by La Troba Kung-Fu

Monday
30 November
8pm

£18.50/£14.50

This eight-piece group from Barcelona has created original sounds derived from flamenco, Catalan rumba and hip hop
with an ever-expanding range of other ingredients.

Classical
Concerts

October
2009 – January 2010

Royal Scottish National
Orchestra : Arabian Nights

Friday 2 October 7.30pm

£32/£24/£17.50/£13/£10

Stéphane
Denève opens the new season with a riot of colours, in a programme that
includes one of Mozart’s great piano concertos and the whirlwind kaleidoscope
of Scheherazade. Expect a mesmerising, hedonistic
retelling of those 1001 tales to get the new season off to a spectacular
start. Pre-concert talk 6.45pm Michael
Tumelty.

Edinburgh Royal Choral Union : 150th Anniversary Gala Concert

Saturday 3 October 7.30pm

£24/£20/£17/£14/£10

This
gala concert includes the world premiere of Judith Bingham’s Shadow Aspect.

Scottish Chamber Orchestra : Unfinished
Masterpieces

Thursday 8 Oct 7.30pm

£26/£22/£18/£12.50/£8.50

The
SCO gets its 2009/10 Season off to a rousing start with some magnificent
music. There is something deeply
fascinating about unfinished works, especially those as great as Schubert’s Symphony No 8 Unfinished and Mozart’s incredibly powerful and beautiful Mass in C minor. Louis Langree, Director of New York’s
prestigious Mostly Mozart Festival,
directs the SCO and SCO Chorus in a sublime programme with top-notch soloists
including Scotland’s own Lisa Milne –
guaranteed to be a memorable evening.

Royal Scottish National Orchestra :
The best of all possible worlds

Friday 9 October 7.30pm

£32/£24/£17.50/£13/£10

The
first half features two composers whose musical styles seemed half in earnest,
half in jest. Pastiche fuses brilliantly
with heartfelt melody in both Bernstein’s Candide and Strauss’ Concerto. Pre-concert talk 6.45pm Sophie Lang (RSNO
Violin)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra :
Runnicles Conducts Mahler

Sunday 11 Oct 7.30pm

£26/£21/£16/£10

Chief
Conductor Donald Runnicles begins his first season at the helm of the BBC
Scottish Symphony Orchestra with two great works from the Austro-German
symphonic tradition. Runnicles and the
BBC SSO have already given some memorable performances of Mahler together, at
the Edinburgh International Festival and in London at the BBC Proms, and
their interpretation of the magnificent First Symphony will be eagerly
awaited. Programme: Beethoven’s Symphony No 1, Berg’s Seven Early Songs, and Mahler’s Symphony No 1 ‘Titan’.


Royal Scottish National Orchestra :
Angelic Memories

Friday 16 October 7.30pm

£32/£24/£17.50/£13/£10

With
a beginning as fragile as flowers, Berg’s Violin
Concerto
is a tender elegy on the untimely death of a young girl. Violin sensation Leonidas Kavakos will
breathe life into this work, written “in memory of an angel”. Ravel’s well-known Pavane, For a Dead Princess, evokes the dignity of the Spanish
professional dance of the title whilst Dvorak’s Seventh Symphony, the composer’s most romantic, brings this
emotionally-charged concert to a close. Pre-concert talk 6.45pm Gordon Bruce (RSNO Double Bass)

Royal Scottish National Orchestra :
The Firebird

Friday 23 October 7.30pm

£32/£24/£17.50/£13/£10

Dutilleux’s
exquisite orchestration and glowing colours is sure to bring out the best in
Stéphane Denève and the RSNO, experts in French repertoire.

Ludovico Einaudi : The Nightbook
Tour

Sunday 25 October 7.30pm

£25/£20/£10

The
world class pianist presents his new project, Nightbook, a musical meditation on the transition between light and
darkness, the known and the unknown. Expressive and with a more open compositional structure, sonic colours
are created through the close blending of the piano with the strings and
percussion, and from the use of electronics which amplifies the sounds of the
piano, projecting it like a shadow in all directions.

Royal Scottish National Orchestra : Naked
Classics – The Planets

Friday 30 Oct 7.30pm

£10

This
is your chance to experience some of the world’s most powerful music in a
unique and exciting way. Join presenter
Paul Rissmann and conductor David Danzmayr as they gaze through their telescope
at The Planets, as composed by Gustav Holst (a former RSNO trombonist would you
believe!)

Children’s Classic Concerts : Magic
and Monsters

Sunday 1 November 3pm

£10
adult, £6 child, £29 family (2 adults and 2 children)

No
tricks, just treats at Owen and Olly’s wicked Halloween concert! Come in costume to join in the fun and enjoy
a spooktacular celebration. Featuring a
special guest appearance by James Mackenzie – CBBC’s Raven.

Royal Scottish National Orchestra : Benedetti
plays Bruch

Friday 6 November 7.30pm

£32/£24/£17.50/£13/£10

An
evening of love and romance with Scotland’s star violinist, the
one-and-only Nicola Benedetti! Pre-concert talk 6.45pm Michael Tumelty. Post concert talk: Nicola
Benedetti in conversation with RSNO Associate Leader William Chandler in the
auditorium.


Scottish Philharmonic Orchestra

Karl Jenkins in Concert in aid of
Teenage Concert Western General Hospital Appeal

Sunday 8 November 7pm

£27.50/£22.50/£17.50
(£10 limited no. u18s)

British
composer Karl Jenkins will conduct the Scottish Philharmonic Orchestra and
choirs including the Edinburgh Youth Choir and the Glasgow Youth Choir.

Scottish Chamber Orchestra :
Beethoven and Brahams

Thursday 12 November 7.30pm

£26/£22/£18/£12.50/£8.50

This
concert sees the SCO as big as it gets and firing on all cylinders, but without
sacrificing the close-up energy and subtlety for which it is renowned.

Royal Scottish National Orchestra :
Shostakovich 11

Friday 13 November 7.30pm

£32/£24/£17.50/£13/£10

An
unmissable event and a dynamic pairing of works, conducted by the distinguished
and internationally-feted Yakov Kreizberg. Pre-concert talk 6.45pm Lisa Davidson (RSNO Viola).

Royal Scottish National Orchestra :
Romantic Rachmaninov

Friday 20 November 7.30pm

£32/£24/£17.50/£13/£10

An
evening of sumptuous, romantic works by the great Russian pianist and composer,
full of the distinctive melodies that have made his music hugely popular with
audiences all over the world. Pre-concert talk 6.45pm Jeremy Fletcher (RSNO Associate Principal
Cello).

Raymond Gubbay : Four Seasons by
Candlelight

Sunday 22 November 3pm

£29.50/£26.50/£23.50/£21.50/£16.50
+50p credit card charge per ticket

A
sumptuous evening performed in full 18th century costume in an
evocative candle-lit style setting with Mozart Festive Orchestra.

Royal Scottish National Orchestra :
Sir Roger Norrington Conducts

Friday 4 December 7.30pm

£32/£24/£17.50/£13/£10

Sir
Roger Norrington is one of the music world’s true personalities. Champion of the historically informed performance
movement, he literally changed the way we hear Beethoven’s Symphonies and the
music of the 19th century. Pre-concert talk 6.45pm Sir Roger Norrington in conversation with RSNO
Chief Executive Simon Woods.

Royal Scottish National Orchestra :
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto

Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto

Friday 11 December 7.30pm

£32/£24/£17.50/£13/£10

Tchaikovsky’s
great concerto is one of the best-known and considered one of the most
technically difficult pieces for violin. Expect fireworks then from one of the masters of the instrument, Renaud
Capuçon. And, what better to follow than
what is probably the RSNO audience’s favourite symphony, Sibelius’ Second? Pre-concert talk 6.45pm Rowena Smith.


Scottish Chamber Orchestra :
Ticciati and Kozena

Saturday 12 December 7.30pm

£26/£22/£18/£12.5/£8.00

Robin
Ticciati makes his hotly-awaited debut as SCO Principal Conductor in the company
of Magdalena Kozena, one of the world’s finest and most captivating singers,
who is sure to give spine-tingling interpretations of Mahler’s dramatic Songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn.

Edinburgh Royal Choral Union : The Messiah

Saturday 2 January 12noon

£25/£21/£18/£15/£11

ERCU’s
New Year Messiah performance at the
Usher Hall has become a highlight in the Edinburgh Hogmanay calendar!

National Youth Orchestra of Scotland

Sunday 3 January 7.30pm

£20/£8/£14/£10

The
cream of Scotland’s young musical talent
perform a variety of classical works to entertain and inspire, led by
internationally celebrated conductor Christopher Adley.

Royal Scottish National Orchestra :
Viennese Gala

Monday 4 January 7.30pm

£32/£25/£20/£15/£12

Incredible
soprano Heidi Elisabeth Meier joins conductor David Danzmayr to celebrate the
New Year with a selection of charming Strauss favourites.

Royal Scottish National Orchestra :
Naked Classics Beethoven 7

Friday 8 January 7.30pm

£10

Another
great work is given the ground-breaking and hugely engaging RSNO Naked Classics
treatment. Join presenter Paul Rissmann
and conductor Andrew Grams as they explore Beethoven’s lively Apotheosis of the Dance, Symphony No 7.

Listings
end//

HOW TO BOOK

Three
easy ways to book;

Book online: www.usherhall.co.uk

Book by phone: 0131 228 1155

Monday
– Saturday 10am – 5.30pm

Where
there is an event on a Sunday, the phone lines are open from 1pm until one hour before
the event starts.

Book in person

Usher
Hall, Lothian Road, Edinburgh EH1 2EA

Monday
– Friday 10am – 5.30pm (and on concert
evenings)

Where
there is an event on a Sunday, the counter is open from 1pm until one hour before
the event starts