World premier of historic Easter performance

An Easter Passion sung in the Scots language will receive its world premier in Galloway next month.

A Tale o’ Guid Friday an Ayont follows the classic format of an Easter Passion with soloists, speakers and choir, but uniquely all the participants will speak and sing in Scots, using words from William Lorimer’s translation of the New Testament published in 1983.

The work is the creation of New Galloway-based composer Geoff Davidson. He has had a distinguished international musical career as a baritone and conductor, including performing with the BBC Singers and the Monteverdi Choir. He composed a choral work,  Angel of the Tide, about the Covenanter martyrs which was performed in Wigtown in 2014.

This historic Easter performance will feature the Glenkens Parish Choir with local baritone Robert Lind as Jesus and soprano Nicola Junor as Mary Magdalene. Roy Stairmand of the Dumfries Musical Theatre Company speaks the part of the Evangelist and other roles are spoken by local people. 

Dalry Kirk entrance

Geoff describes the music as “dramatic, vivid and emotionally charged with ‘big tunes’”. He deploys two Yamaha keyboards to deliver his orchestration.The Scots text, he says, “is gutsy, raw and at times unbearably sad”.

This unique performance will be held in the Kirk at St John’s Town of Dalry at 7.30pm on Saturday 8 April. Admission is free and no tickets are needed, and there will be a collection of donations towards Abba’s Rest Orphanage in Malawi.