May 2025: Off to a flying start

St Margaret’s 2025 Spring Programme is off to a flying start, with more concerts under our belt by this date in the calendar than in any previous year.

We kicked things off in March with the wonderful FARA – three Orcadian fiddlers and one West Highland pianist – who stunned a near full-house St Margarets audience with their musicianship, charmed us all with their on-stage patter and brought the house down with some driving, energetic sets of tunes. A special and poignant moment came as bandmember Jeana Leslie set down her fiddle to lead the room in a beautifully arranged rendition of the Robert Burns’ favourite “My Heart’s in the Highlands”.

 Laura Wilkie and Ian Carr were next on the bill in April, with their delicately and thoughtfully woven-together violin and guitar music leaving listeners hanging on every note.

 St Margaret’s turned speakeasy on 2nd May, with the first in this year’s series of St Margaret’s Jazz Club gigs. 2023 Scottish jazz singer of the year Marianne McGregor and pianist Paul Harrison gave a wonderful concert of jazz classics and new songs. If you weren’t there, be sure to check out Marianne’s rendition of “There Will Never Be Another You” on our Facebook page – an incredible voice, simply made for jazz.

 The Nordic Fiddlers Bloc – a trio comprising Kevin Henderson, Olav Luksengård Mjelva and Anders Hall – are the crème de la crème (or should that be fløde?) of fiddle talent from Norway, Sweden and the Shetland Islands. They’re rarely all in the same country at once, so we were thrilled that St Margaret’s was on their schedule among just seven dates on their mini-Scottish tour. Their pan-Nordic influences are welded together into unique and captivating music, which lent itself beautifully to the acoustics of St Margaret’s.

 Aside from a packed programme of concerts, we’re back open to visitors during the day – with our usual exhibitions on the history of Braemar and the story of St Margaret’s through the years. We were also delighted to welcome the Aberdeen and District Organists’ Association a few weekends back, who had the chance to play the beautiful 180-year-old chamber organ on loan to St Margaret’s.

 Please do check out what’s coming up in the weeks and months ahead at stmargaretsbraemar.org.uk – with tickets available to purchase now. Next up is the wonderful and ever-popular singer Siobhan Miller on 25th May and Blue Rose Code on 6th June.

 St Margaret’s Trust couldn’t function without the dedicated support of a small but mighty squad of volunteers. We’re always on the lookout for more people to help stewarding concerts, running the box office, staffing the bar, setting up the stage, shifting chairs, helping with odd jobs and helping us to promote and market our events throughout the year. Best of all it means you get to enjoy our concerts for free! If you’re interested in volunteering, please email Lyndsey to find out more admin@stmargaretsbraemar.org.uk

Fergus Mutch

Chair