Lesley Harrison

Katherine Wren

Alex South

The Voyage of The Fox

Nordic Viola will take you on an extraordinary journey in words and music to the Faroe Islands, Orkney and Shetland, Iceland and Greenland. The islands are bound together by a common seafaring heritage and share musical and cultural connections. In a programme shaped by six months travelling in the region, viola player Katherine Wren shares contemporary reflections, traditional melodies and personal testimonies that are shaped by vast northern landscapes.Founded in 2016, Nordic Viola is a flexible ensemble of woodwind and string players forming musical and cultural connections in the North Atlantic Region with an emphasis on contemporary music and its relationship with traditional forms.

Nordic Viola

Captain McClintock’s voyage to the Arctic in search of the lost Franklin expedition is told through poetry and music for viola and clarinet.

Weigh Ahead

Arctic voyages searching for whales, and for lost ships – these form the starting-point for a collaboration between two musicians and a poet, in a blend of sound reaching from traditional Shetland fiddle music to creative improvisation with instruments, electronics and voice. The music is developed from the complex songs of the great whales, and the stories of the men who hunted them in the hostile Greenland seas – and the story of Captain Francis McClintock’s voyage in the yacht Fox to try to find news of the Franklin expedition.Dunblane's <a href="https://arbroathfestival.com/contributors/katherine-wren-alex-south/" title="https://arbroathfestival.com/contributors/katherine-wren-alex-south/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Katherine Wren</a> is a viola player with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and is the founder of Nordic Viola, a flexible ensemble promoting contemporary and traditional music from the North Atlantic. Clarinettist and improviser <a href="https://arbroathfestival.com/contributors/katherine-wren-alex-south/" title="https://arbroathfestival.com/contributors/katherine-wren-alex-south/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Alex South</a> has also carried out research into the relationship between whale vocalizations and human musics. Poet <a href="https://arbroathfestival.com/contributors/lesley-harrison/" title="https://arbroathfestival.com/contributors/lesley-harrison/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Lesley Harrison</a> grew up in Dundee and has always been fascinated by the 19th-century whaling industry and its aftermath, and has visited Iceland, Greenland and Svalbard, exploring its reach.The film CETACEA will also be shown, with live music and words. It brings together the trio’s music and words with marine biologist Michael Scheer’s audio recordings and Alexander and Nicole Gratovsky’s beautiful underwater footage of the gracefully coordinated movements of pilot whales.With funding support from the <a href="https://www.hinrichsenfoundation.org.uk/" title="https://www.hinrichsenfoundation.org.uk/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Hinrichsen Foundation</a> and from the <a href="https://www.foundationscotland.org.uk/apply-for-funding/funding-available/cockaigne-fund" title="https://www.foundationscotland.org.uk/apply-for-funding/funding-available/cockaigne-fund" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Cockaigne Fund</a>, administered by <a href="https://www.foundationscotland.org.uk/" title="https://www.foundationscotland.org.uk/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Foundation Scotland</a>.

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