Alternative to popular Fife Voices festival goes online this weekend

Distant Voices is the brainchild of acting artistic director, Amanda MacLeod, and will mark both World Singing Day and Event Scotland’s Year of Coasts and Waters.

The festival, which runs from today until Sunday, will feature a packed schedule of events, pre-recorded and live-streamed from the spectacular new McPherson Recital Room at the university’s Laidlaw Music Centre.

In addition to exclusive performances by The Sixteen, Distant Voices will feature artists as diverse as Scottish folk singers Hannah Rarity and Iona Fyfe, Ankna Arockiam, Edward Cohen and Hardeep Deerhe’s Indian-inspired soundscape Saanjh and the university’s own vocal and choral scholars.

The festival will also feature the launch of the St Andrews Scots Song Book, a two-year project to produce a new collection of 24 settings of songs from throughout Scotland, reflecting the many traditions of traditional singing, for voice and piano.

As well as the performances, the festival will also feature virtual workshops for children by the National Youth Choir of Scotland and by beatboxer SK Shlomo, for Dementia sufferers by Voice and Verse and for all enthusiastic singers by Eamonn Dougan and members of The Sixteen.

Ms MacLeod is keen to assert the fundamental place of singing in St Andrews’ DNA, despite the present challenges.

She said: “Every October, we in St Andrews have welcomed singers from around the world to our historic town but, this year, we have been unable to sing together in our community choirs, in places of worship, at school or on stage. In acknowledging the global pandemic, and our responsibility to take care of the musical family around us, we intend to present an outstanding digital festival to mark World Singing Day and the role of singing in St Andrews. “

The full programme of the festival can be seen at www.standrewsvoices.com/festival whilst the various events can be heard and seen on the Facebook pages of St Andrews Voices and the University Music Centre, and on the festival’s YouTube channel – tinyurl.com/y3x49zx6.