Opening Concert | September Me

HEAD OVER HEELS
Brìghde Chaimbeul, Ragazze Quartet, Maxwell Quartet & Linda Buckley

The opening concert of September Me -music festival for explorers and wanderers- 2024 is all about young Scottish composer and bagpiper Brìghde Chaimbeul, this year's "Artist in Focus" at the festival.

Iggy Pop, Colin Stetson and Caroline Polachek; they all walk away with Brìghde. Like no other, Chaimbeul knows how to give the characteristic and recognizable sound of the bagpipe a contemporary twist. She shares the stage with the also Scottish Maxwell Quartet, Ragazze Quartet (artistic leader September Me) and Irish composer and producer Linda Buckley.

The theme of September Me 2024 is "Out of Love," and we are Head Over Heels in love with this lineup. Spread the love!

CREDITS
Bagpipes - Brìghde Chaimbeul / Artist in Focus

Ragazze Quartet
violin - Rosa Arnold, Jeanita Vriens-van Tongeren
viola - Annemijn Bergkotte
cello - Anastasia Feruleva

Maxwell Quartet
violin - Colin Scobie, George Smith
viola - Elliott Perks
cello - Duncan Strachan

electronics - Linda Buckley

direction by Ria Marks
visuals by Jurjen Alkema

REPERTOIRE
Toon Hermans - Springtime Me
Phillip Glass - Two Pages
Henry Purcell - 'Twas Within a Furlong of Edinborough Town
Henry Purcell - Scotch Tune arrangement for string quartet
Henry Purcell - Dido's Lament arrangement for string quartet
Florence Price - String Quartet No. 2, 2nd and 3rd movements
George Enescu - String Octet, slow movement
Linda Buckley - The Farraige
Brighde Chaimbeul - Pililiù (The Call of The Redshank)

BRÌGHDE CHAIMBEUL
Brìghde Chaimbeul -Artist in Focus during September Me 2024- is a leading composer of experimental Celtic music and plays the Scottish smallpipes; a balgan-driven bagpipe. She has mastered an entirely unique way of arranging for bagpipes, emphasizing the rich texture of the instrument's drone; the contingent sound that creates a trance-like atmosphere. Chaimbeul plays the instrument with seductive virtuoso fluidity.

MAXWELL QUARTET
Scottish Maxwell Quartet is 1st prize winner and winner of the audience award at the 9th Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition in 2017, described as "brilliantly fresh, unexpected and exhilarating" by The Scottish Herald, and praised for "superb storytelling by four great communicators" by The Strad Magazine. Maxwell Quartet is now considered one of Britain's finest young string quartets. The quartet has a strong connection to their folk music heritage and a deep commitment to expanding the string quartet repertoire.

RAGAZZE QUARTET
Ragazze Quartet -artistic director September Me- plays classical and modern string quartets: inspired and at the highest level. With high-profile programs, the quartet has emerged as one of the freshest and leading voices in classical music.

LINDA BUCKLEY
Linda Buckley is an award-winning Irish composer (born in Cork, 1979) who creates electronic and acoustic music. She feels at home, for example, in the world of Film and in the realm of drone and dark ambient music. Her NMC record From Ocean's Floor was characterized as "beautiful music - here is somebody really special" by Iggy Pop on BBC Radio 6. Her work has been described as "sublime and brilliant" (BBC Radio 3), "engaging with an area of experience that new music is generally shy of, which, simplified and reduced to a single word, I'd call ecstasy" (Bob Gilmore, Journal of Music). She has written widely for orchestra (BBC Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ NSO), was elected to Aosdána in 2021 and is a member of the Screen Composers Guild of Ireland.