Northern Streams 2015 programme confirmed and bookings now open!

The Northern Streams 2015 programme has been finalised and bookings are now open. So visit the website: www.northernstreams.org (click through the logo on the right hand side of this page) to see the details of our festival of Scottish and Scandinavian music, song, dance and storytelling from Oleman (Sweden/Norway), Fjarin (Denmark/Sweden), Fiona Driver & Graham Simpson (Orkney- Scotland) and Simon Chadwick (Scotland) - 24 & 25 April once again at the lovely Grassmarket Centre. All details are on the website - hope to see you there!

Love singing? Then why not join us on Valentine's Day for The Muckle Sing 2015?

There are still tickets available for The Muckle Sing, Saturday 14 February, 10.00am - 5.30pm, Queen Margaret's Hall, Linlithgow with Siobhan and Brian Miller as our tutors. Information and booking is available for individuals through EventBrite: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-muckle-sing-2015-tickets-14902125659. Group bookings/discount for affiliate groups are available by contacting us direct through the email or by downloading the form which is available on the TMSA website at: www.tmsa.org.uk/documents/TheMuckleSing2015leafletandbookingform_000.pdf

The Muckle Sing & Northern Streams 2015 information

As we head into the festive season - you may want to take note of some of our dates for 2015 which have been confirmed. First is The Muckle Sing, Saturday 14 February, 10.00am - 5.30pm, Queen Margaret's Hall, Linlithgow with Siobhan and Brian Miller as our tutors. Information and booking is available for individuals through EventBrite: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-muckle-sing-2015-tickets-14902125659. Group bookings/discount for affiliate groups are available by contacting us direct through the email or by downloading the form which is available on the TMSA website at www.tmsa.org.uk/current-tmsa-projects.asp. Second is the Northern Streams Festival scheduled for 24 & 25 April - more details on the Northern Streams website (link to the right) when they get confirmed!

Join us to celebrate what’s happened this year and help plan for more great memories in the future…

Details now confirmed so here they are: TMSA Edinburgh & Lothians Branch Annual General Meeting Tuesday 11 November, 6.45pm - downstairs at the Royal Oak, Infirmary Street, Edinburgh EH1 1LT followed by The Carrying Stream Session at 8.00pm (same venue). Join us to celebrate another great year of Branch activity and give us feedback on how it is going for you. Got some ideas on how to improve what the Branch is doing? Come and discuss with others what you would like to see continue and what we could do differently. Then we'll have a celebration of music and song! Also find out how to get involved and grab benefits such as free tickets to concerts and workshops. We need extra people to help organise and staff our events because without more ‘hands on deck’ we may not be able to continue to run them! Contact us for more details using the information at the bottom right of this webpage. All welcome!

Carrying Stream Session (11 November) update

We can now confirm that the Carrying Stream Session will be taking place on Tuesday 11 November at the Royal Oak, 1 Infirmary Street, Edinburgh EH1 1LT. We're working on final timings as the Branch AGM will take place before the Session but things should be underway by 7.30pm at the latest!

Upcoming events

Hope you had a great summer of trad music and song - though it looks like there maybe a little bit more sunshine left leading up to the Kirriemuir Festival this coming weekend. While you are waiting for this festival, we thought you might like to know about the Naustedalen Spelemannslag group from Norway who will be performing at Edinburgh Castle, this Wednesday (3rd September) at 1pm - once the one o'clock gun has fired presumably! They come from Sunnfjord, West Norway, and their programme contains music and dances from all over southern Norway as well as displaying the different costumes from these different communities. Meanwhile we hope to have details here soon of our Carrying Stream Session & Branch AGM (November); Muckle Sing/Singers Gathering in February 2015 and Northern Streams in April 2015.

Northern Streams 2014 - on next week!

Northern Streams 2014 is coming soon. We are putting the final touches to preparations to greet our guests and audiences in our new home at the Grassmarket Centre - which we think you will find is a lovely new venue created by the Grassmarket Community Project - complete with cafe, auditorium and rooms ideal for workshops. Check out all the programme, guest and ticket details plus all those who have financially supported us this year, at the website www.northernstreams.org. See you next week!

Northern Streams 25 & 26 April 2014 - Tickets now on sale!

After having to investigate alternative ways to let you buy tickets for the Northern Streams Festival from what we have been able to do before, we have set up an Eventbrite page to let you purchase your tickets with credit or debit cards online! The direct link is https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/northern-streams-2014-festival-of-nordic-british-music-song-dance-tickets-10802126451 (copy and paste this into your browser if the link isn't 'live', or you can go through the Northern Streams website at: www.northernstreams.org where you can read more about the great artists invited for this year's festival - the Storm Weather Shanty Choir from Norway (Aaarrr!); Maggie Adamson & Brian Nicholson from Shetland; Kristin Borgehead & Nathan Bissette from Sweden/Scotland; and Kevin Lees, Dave Wood and Noa Shamir from Denmark/north Britain. You can also check out our new venue for this year - the great Grassmarket Centre - home of social enterprise - the Grassmarket Community Project which helps many local people gain skills and confidence to go forward in many areas of their lives. We think you'll like it as much as we did when we first looked at it for Northern Streams 2014 (especially the cafe onsite!) If you have any difficulties accessing the online ticket system - please let us know by email: eltmsa@yahoo.co.uk or tel: 0795 191 8366 / 0786 661 1954.

Not long until The Muckle Sing 2014 - book now!

Not long now until our next event on Saturday 15 February 2014, Queen Margaret Hall, Linlithgow: 10am-5.30pm, with acclaimed singer and tutor, Christine Kydd (http://www.christinekydd.com/). There are still some tickets available and discounts for TMSA affiliated groups. Contact Branch Convener Clare Button Tel: 07866 611954, or email: catarina_9@hotmail.co.uk as soon as possible. We'd also like to thank West Lothian Council for their funding support of this event which means we've been able to keep our prices the same as the 2012 event! If you would like to see/print a copy of the booking form please click through on this link below to a website that allows us to upload documents! www.voluntaryarts.org/2014/02/04/the-muckle-sing-2014/

The Muckle Sing, Saturday 15 February 2014, Queen Margaret Hall, Linlithgow: 10am-5.30pm

The Muckle Sing is a one-day event open to singing groups and interested individuals. The tutor is Christine Kydd (http://www.christinekydd.com/) We do a couple of sessions singing together in a large group - learning songs, harmonies and other interesting things. After that we have a Performance Platform for groups who want to let others hear what they have been working on, followed by a chance to hear some of Chris’s repertoire in a short informal concert by her. Tickets are £12/£10 (usual concessions including TMSA members), inclusive of tea or coffee or cold drinks. BYO lunch or buy nearby (supermarket/bakers very close by!) Tickets on sale from mid-November: contact Convener Clare Button Tel: 07866 611954, or email: catarina_9@hotmail.co.uk - though book soon as there are limited places available.

Edinburgh & Lothians Branch awarded funding in the Second Round of Trad Arts Small Projects Fund 2013/14

We were pleased to hear that we have been awarded funding to assist us with our Northern Streams Festival in 2014. The Northern Streams Festival, now in its eleventh year, is a celebration of Scotland’s influences and relationships with Scandinavia. The festival is a platform for emerging artists alongside recognised tradition bearers, bringing people together to experience how traditions are evolving today. Run by the Branch on a voluntary basis, the festival fulfils the TMSA's aim of increasing and encouraging participation in cultural activities, particularly through cultural exchange and passing on the tradition from one generation to the next. We are planning that Northern Streams 2014 will run in Edinburgh from 25 to 27 April. Once the festival programme is finalised, details go up on the event’s website - www.northernstreams.org as well as on this website, Facebook: TMSAEdinburghandLothians and Twitter: @northernstream1. The Trad Arts Small Project Fund is devolved from Creative Scotland and managed centrally by Enterprise Music Scotland and its appointed specialist advisors. Funding is awarded to successful applications from traditional artists and organisations to create, platform, tour and showcase their work as well as support professional development projects. More details are at: http://www.enterprisemusicscotland.com/discover/traditional-arts-fund/

Carrying Stream Singer's Session and TMSA Edinburgh & Lothians Branch AGM

Tuesday 12 November 2013 Meeting 6.45pm; Session 8pm Downstairs at the Canon’s Gait pub, Royal Mile, Edinburgh EH8 8DQ Please come and join us to celebrate another great year of Branch activity. Why not consider joining the committee to ensure that next year is just as exciting? All welcome to attend, including non-members, but only TMSA members may vote. Please bring any ideas that you have for future events! Contact Branch Convener – Clare Button for more details of committee duties and how you can help. Tel: 07866 611954, or email: catarina_9@hotmail.co.uk Then stay on for the Singers’ Session at 8.00pm, as part of the Carrying Stream festival – All welcome! http://www.carryingstreamfestival.co.uk/ Other upcoming events Muckle Sing - Saturday 15 February 2014 The next Muckle Sing Day will be at the Queen Margaret Hall in Linlithgow 10am-5.30pm, a one-day event open to singing groups and interested individuals. Limited numbers. The tutor will be Christine Kydd see http://www.christinekydd.com/ Tickets are £12/£10 (usual concessions including TMSA members), inclusive of tea or coffee or cold drinks. BYO lunch or buy nearby (supermarket/bakers very close by!) Tickets on sale from mid-November: contact Convener Clare Button as in AGM section above. For groups, you may wish to take part in the Performance Platform in late afternoon, and you can also hear some of Chris’s repertoire in a short informal concert by her. Further details TBC. Northern Streams Festival 2014 Details of next year’s Northern Streams events are currently being organised. We are looking at the dates 25-27 April. More details when they get confirmed, so watch this space!

Update on monthly Singing Session & November Carrying Stream Festival Session

It is with regret that we announce we will not be running the TMSA Branch Singers' Session at the Canon's Gait until further notice, as due to variable attendance numbers over the past year, it is not currently viable to run a monthly session at this particular venue. PLEASE NOTE: We will be hosting our annual singing session in partnership with Edinburgh Folk Club as part of the Carrying Streams festival, on Tuesday 12 November from 8pm (preceded by the Branch AGM) at the Canon's Gait. Hope to see you there! We are looking for alternative options for our monthly session and if anyone has any ideas for other possible suitable venues for the future, we'd be more than happy to hear them. We'd like to thank everyone who has supported us over the past few years, and we hope to see you again soon. Otherwise, if you're looking for regular opportunities to sing or listen to singers in Edinburgh, why not try the World's Room (monthly, www.theworldsroom.com/en/) or the Wally Dug session (1st Sunday of month, 3-6pm, www.facebook.com/groups/289402087759974/?ref=br_tf)

September Singing Session cancelled

Due to another booking in the downstairs of the Canon's Gait pub where we usually meet for the Tuesday session (next one was to be 10 September) and not being able to find out if we would be able to meet upstairs instead, we have had to cancel it. Apologies for the short notice and to anyone who had been planning to come along. We hope to have things sorted for next month (8 October) so keep an eye on this website for updates.

The summer fun continues!

Our Tuesday singing session takes a break in August - but there's plenty trad music, song and dance happening around the city during the Festival such as Folk at the Oak, the Canon's Gait, Queens Hall and of course the Acoustic Music Centre (AMC) to name but a few locations.

If you like Irish dance and music I will shamelessly make a plug for the 'Absolutely Legless' concerts on Sat 10 August at the AMC (which I will be appearing in). And if not, there's certainly many other trad flavours in the programmes. Not to mention some occurring out of town, away from the Edinburgh madness, at spots such as Innerleithen, Mull of Kintyre and early September in Kirriemuir, then Linlithgow!

We resume our second Tuesday evening of the month singing sessions at the Canon's Gait, Royal Mile, 8pm onwards, 10 September. Hope to see you there!