Last year I established a new festival of music in the Ayrshire town of Cumnock where I grew up. The Cumnock Tryst is now into its second year and will take place next month from October 1-4. I lived there from my birth in 1959 to the end of my schooldays in 1977. My grandfather George Loy was a coalminer all his life but his true love was music. He played euphonium in local colliery bands and sang in his church choir. He inspired me to become a musician. He took me to band rehearsals in Dalmellington as a boy and bought me my first organ tutors and hymn books.

My earliest musical experiences were of making music with friends, relatives, schoolmates and teachers in the town. I remember seeing amateur operatic productions of Gilbert and Sullivan, oratorio performances of Handel by the Kyle Choral Union, (one of Judas Maccabeus in New Cumnock in which I played trumpet), and hearing Cumnock Music Club performances by the Berlin Octet and many other fabulous international musicians. In 1966, for the centenary of the Burgh, the BBC SSO performed Mozart’s Requiem in the Old Church which was broadcast live on television.

Because of these seminal experiences I have followed a life of music, composing and working with some of the most wonderful musicians of our time, all over the world. Now I want to bring something of that back. 

After the success of last year’s inaugural event, which began with a concert by The Sixteen and included a mini-recital by our Patron, Nicola Benedetti, I am delighted by the scope of our second year’s festival. The great King’s Singers will be here! They will perform in our new festival venue, Trinity Church on Friday, October 2.

You may remember that Nicola Benedetti launched her amazing career by winning the BBC Young Musician of the Year a decade ago. We are thrilled that the two most recent winners of this competition, cellist Laura van der Heijden and pianist Martin James Bartlett will give separate solo recitals this year in St John’s Church on Saturday, October 3. 

Our Artists in Residence this time are the musicians of the Hebrides Ensemble. They will present a concert of new compositions and songs written by students in East Ayrshire schools. They worked on these in a special summer course held at Cumnock Academy tutored by myself in August. In the same concert there will also be performances resulting from collaboration with Drake Music Scotland to create new music with children with special needs, alongside the Hebrides Ensemble.

On the Saturday night in the Old Church, the Hebrides again will perform Fauré’s Requiem with the brand new Cumnock Tryst Festival Chorus, Scotland's newest choir! It has been specially formed to sing each year in the Tryst. This grew out of a special day last year when 150 singers came together to work with Eamonn Dougan of The Sixteen, one of the greatest choral trainers in the country. Local singers will love the opportunity to work at the highest level with Eamonn, who is bringing a group of young singers with him from Genesis Sixteen, the training academy for The Sixteen.

We also welcome two of Scotland’s great bands: Whitburn, who will give the inaugural concert in the Town Hall on October 1, and Dalmellington, who will play one of the late night Festival Club concerts in the Dumfries Arms Hotel on October 2. The Brass Band culture has always been strong in the area and I'm keen to feature it as a continuing theme of the Tryst.

Strathclyde University Chamber Choir under their conductor Alan Tavener (the founder of Cappella Nova) will lead the worship at the Festival Service at Trinity Church on the Sunday morning. The local churches have always been central to the community's identity and will feature in much of our activities, year on year.

The final recitals will take place in the incredible Dumfries House bought for the nation by a consortium headed by Prince Charles in 2007. It provides the venue for the Festival Finale where the audiences will promenade from one wonderful space to another hearing chamber music old and new (including works by Donatoni, Maxwell Davies and Kurtag) given by the Hebrides Ensemble. Come and join at Scotland’s newest music festival!

For more information, visit: thecumnocktryst.com