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A day of events in which we celebrate the work of Martyn Bennett

This is the first of two concerts which take place today which aims to explore, celebrate and build upon Martyn’s rich musical legacy.

Focusing on Martyn’s work as a composer in the classical sphere, the Orchestra of Scottish Opera will perform his hauntingly powerful suite ‘Mackay’s Memoirs’, along with an orchestral arrangement of ‘Liberation’ by Greg Lawson. Mr McFall’s Chamber and Fraser Fifield will perform ‘Piece for Small Pipes’ and ‘String Quartet’, and a series of new arrangements of material from the forthcoming Martyn Bennett Tunebook.

Martyn Bennett day encompasses two concerts programmed from his body of work, to truly represent the full spectrum of his talents with new, specially commissioned arrangements of recorded material, along with other pieces which have never previously been performed, all taking place in a spirit of boundary-busting collaboration which was very much Martyn’s own.

Martyn inhabited various musical worlds without any apparent effort – classical music, dance music, traditional music. He made and played all of these types of music at once; some people joined in, others shuddered, but everyone got the point. Through his work, these different worlds began to talk to each other, and today’s programme is all about the encounters which he set in motion.

“No one person could represent Martyn’s music,” says his close friend Martin Swan and co-ordinator of the day’s events, “It would take a crowd of thousands. This is a collective attempt to recognise Martyn as the extraordinary composer, musician, producer and character that he was, by putting on the kind of gigs that he would have loved to have been at.”

The Martyn Bennett Day Club Night takes place at 9.30pm in the Old Fruitmarket. Please see this concert entry for more information

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