9th January 2016 , 7:30 p.m.
St. Michael's RC Church, Blackness Road
String quintet and soprano
Tickets: Full £12, Concession £10, Student £5
Sponsored by Peebles Financial Ltd 
Susan Hamilton (Soprano voice), Rosenna East and Robert McFall (violins), Brian Schiele (viola), Su-a Lee (cello), Rick Standley (double bass)
"ISLAND LIFE" - A collection of music about sea-faring voyages and island living, portraying life in both Scotland and the Caribbean countries.
Scotland and the Caribbean have close historical connections. There were many successful Scottish plantation owners in the West Indies during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The national bard, Robert Burns, contemplated, as a young man, travelling to Jamaica for work. His song. The Slave's Lament, which is included in this programme, was written after seeing a slave ship in Dundee harbour.
The programme also includes music by the eighteenth century Guadeloupean composer, Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de St George, the nineteenth century Cuban, Jose White, and two twentieth century Cubans, Calixto Alvarez and Fabio Landa. It also includes songs about islands and the sea by two popular mainstream composers, Henry Purcell and KurtWeill as well as a short piece by the Scottish folk musician and composer Martyn Bennett.
We're delighted to welcome ErrollynWallen to each concert, where she will discuss her work. ErrollynWallen is a composer who was born in Belize, educated in New York and Cambridge and who now lives in London. In this programme we premiere her setting for soprano and string quintet of poems about island life by both Scottish and Caribbean poets (Derek Walcott, Dennis Scott, _Lorna Goodison, Ian Hamilton Findlay).
MR MCFALL’S CHAMBER is a Scottish-based ensemble founded in 1996 with a vision to programme and commission new, experimental and rare music. By and large the group has tried to make its programmes accessible and, at the same time, full of surprises. Concerts are intimate and fun, delivered with a lightness of touch and quiet sense of humour. The 2015-16 season is a special one, as the band celebrate 20 years of musical adventures .
‘Why can’t all concerts be like this - engaging, witty, relaxed, sophisticated, exquisitely played and just plain fun?’ (The Times)