The Cumnock Tryst springs into second decade of inspiring music-making in 2025 festival edition
This year's festival again brings together classical music stars and musicians from the local East Ayrshire community where founder Sir James MacMillan was born.
Tickets are set to go on sale for the popular Cumnock Tryst Music Festival, the annual event which brings together classical music stars and musicians from the local East Ayrshire community.
The Tryst springs into its second decade of inspiring music-making with its 2025 edition, running from Thursday, October 2 until Sunday, October 6.
Across the four days, the festival welcomes performances from some of the finest musicians in the UK, including Hebrides Ensemble, Roderick Williams and the Carducci Quartet, SANSARA and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
Festival favourites The Cumnock Tryst Ensemble and the Festival Chorus also return, and emerging talent in the form of National Youth Orchestra of Scotland's Camerata project, and rising Scottish jazz stars Matt Carmichael and his ensemble are welcomed to the festival.
Fitting to The Cumnock Tryst ethos, community music charities and projects such as Drake Music Scotland, Musicians in Exile, and the Academy of Sacred Music also take centre stage.
After their successful debut in 2024, The Cumnock Tryst Ensemble launches the 2025 festival on October 2, with an intimate chamber programme featuring works by Samuel Barber , Judith Weir , Electra Perivolaris , Jay Capperauld , and festival founder Sir James MacMillan.
The chamber group consists of some of Scotland's finest musicians – Gordon Bragg (violin), Felix Tanner (viola) Nikita Naumov (double bass), and Ruth Morley (flute).
The Cumnock Tryst Ensemble Artistic Coordinator, Christian Elliott, very sadly passed away last month. An incredibly talented cellist, composer, and arranger, Christian's passion for new music and his dedication to bringing fresh musical experience to Cumnock will leave an indelible mark on the community. Following a hugely successful choral day earlier this year, young singers from across North, South, and East Ayrshire come together in Three Ayrshires Choral Day for a day of musical exploration through diverse repertoire, guided by expert vocal leaders Eamonn Dougan and Andy McTaggart. Hebrides Ensemble and the Tryst collaborate with Drake Music Scotland – Scotland's leading organisation creating music making opportunities for children and adults with disabilities – to present a new performance, 'The Unbroken Thread'.
The performance was created through an ongoing project working with children with severe additional support needs at Hillside School – celebrating creativity without limits as participants navigate their transition from school to adult life through music.
Bringing together innovative technology with boundless imagination, these young artists will demonstrate that music truly belongs to everyone.
The Cumnock Hour, in partnership with Boswell Book Festival, returns with a thought-provoking conversation with award-winning poet Michael Symmons Roberts and Hebrides Ensemble's Artistic Director Will Conway, hosted by James Knox. Together they'll explore how French composer Olivier Messiaen's extraordinary piece, composed in a WWII prison camp, resonates through Michael's profound new poetry collection, Quartet for the End of Time: On Music, Grief & Birdsong.
Internationally acclaimed baritone Roderick Williams returns to the festival in a new guise, performing his own string quartet arrangement of Schubert's heartbreaking song cycle Die schöne Müllerin, performed with the Carducci Quartet . This transformation of Schubert's lucid piano part brings a fresh perspective to the tale of the wandering miller, with its intense drama and sweeping Romanticism. The Saturday morning sees the Tryst hosts the extraordinary sounds of Musicians in Exile , a vibrant ensemble born from The Glasgow Barons' inspiring project supporting asylum seekers now living in the city.
This group brings together talented musicians who have each travelled extraordinary journeys to Scotland, creating something truly unique – a musical tapestry woven from experiences around the world.
The National Youth Orchestra of Scotland's flagship ensemble Camerata comprises current senior and past members of Scotland's national youth orchestra and provides professional development experience for emerging musicians aged 18-25. They perform Nigel Shore's Harmoniemusik version of Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss , conducted by Catherine Larsen-Maguire.
The Cumnock Tryst Festival Chorus, directed by Eamonn Dougan, performs the Scottish premiere of American composer Taylor Scott Davis's Magnificat with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
This year, the festival is committed to making the Festival Chorus free-to-access for the first time. Rehearsals begin on June 7, and this initiative will remove financial barriers to participation, giving local people access to high-quality singing opportunities and rarely performed repertoire. Late night concerts at the Dumfries Arms Hotel make a welcome return in 2025. The Bill Jones Ensemble will bring Scotland's finest traditional jazz musicians to Cumnock, while Alastair Savage and his band return due to popular demand, performing a set of traditional Scottish tunes on the Friday evening.
Saturday's late night concert sees rising contemporary jazz-folk saxophonist Matt Carmichael performing his new album Dancing with Embers, joined by Scotland's most exciting young jazz talents – Charlie Stewart (fiddle), Ali Watson (bass), Stephen Henderson (drums) and Mercury Prize shortlisted pianist Fergus McCreadie.
Sunday, October 5 sees Scottish pianist Alasdair Beatson present new works by Beethoven, Debussy and George Benjamin in two performances at Dumfries House, and St John's Church hosts a special Mass featuring music from the Academy of Sacred Music.
The festival closes with the vocal ensemble SANSARA , who will perform a programme entitled 'Northern Rites', which features music by James MacMillan, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, and Oliver Tarney.
Festival founder Sir James MacMillan said: "When we launched in 2014, we saw music as a way of regenerating a part of Ayrshire which has suffered decline in recent decades. Music can transform communities as well as the interior lives of individuals, and so it seems to be proving for us.
"In the last year we have won major awards, including a Sky Arts Award and a second RPS Award. And what a rich menu of music we have this year.
"On the Friday of our festival we present the next edition of our work with young people with additional support needs in Cumnock, along with Drake Music Scotland and Hebrides Ensemble.
"Our wide-ranging commitment to our young musicians can be seen in the visit by NYOS Camerata, and our range of wonderful musicians can be experienced throughout the festival in concerts by The Cumnock Tryst Ensemble, Roderick Williams and the Carducci Quartet, the BBC SSO in concert with our Festival Chorus, the great Scottish pianist Alasdair Beatson and incredible choral performers SANSARA and the Academy of Sacred Music.
"We also have inspiring jazz and Scottish traditional music for our late night events in Dumfries Arms Hotel. "Come and join us for our eleventh Tryst!'
Tickets for the 2025 festival are on sale from Monday, June 2 here.
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