Glasgow’s tectonic music festival to blur boundaries

THE BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra has revealed it is to launch a major new experimental music festival in Glasgow.

Conductor Ivan Volkov is masterminding the event, which will see classical composers, electronica musicians and rock performers join forces to stage two days of performances.

The City Halls and the Old Fruitmarket complex in the Merchant City will play host to the event, which is billed as an attempt to “blur the boundaries” between musical genres.

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The Tectonics Glasgow festival, to be held on 11 and 12 May, is based on a hugely successful model launched last year in Reykjavik by Volkov, who is also principal conductor with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra.

Mr Volkov said: “Glasgow is the perfect city for a project of this kind. The audience are open and ready for new experiences and surprises. I’ve also been performing contemporary repertoire with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra for more than a decade, so they are the perfect partners for this radical project.”

The line-up includes American experimental musicians Stephen O’Malley and Alvin Lucier, Scottish rock stars Aidan Moffat and Stuart Braithwaite, Finnish singer Hanna Tuulikki, Icelandic cellist Hildur Gudnadottir and Glasgow-based classical composers David Fennessy, Martin Suckling and John de Simone.

The festival will feature everything from Gaelic song, a late-night club-style event, the music of the Beatles and a sound installation featuring dancing ping pong balls, to a promenade performance around the venues.

The opening concert will feature the BBC SSO and children from St Mary’s Episcopal Choir in Edinburgh.

Mr Volkov added: “It’s important for me that Glasgow-based artists and musicians are part of the line-up.

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“Having worked in Glasgow for over ten years, I’m aware of the incredible range of musicians and artists in the city. “

Performances from Tectonics Glasgow will be recorded for future broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

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A spokesman for the BBC said: “Tectonics Glasgow aims to break down musical barriers as international and local artists collaborate and blur the boundaries between different genres of music.

“Launched last year in Reykjavik by Ivan Volkov, the Glasgow incarnation of Tectonics reinforces the BBC SSO’s reputation as one of the world’s foremost contemporary music ensembles.”