Wednesday 29 September
Concert day
Our last day here - it feels like we have been here no time at all, but simultaneously like we have been here an age. (Perhaps we are, after all, in a faerie land!)
We rehearse in the morning with the full ensemble - which we have dubbed the Fair Isle School Orchestra. We decide how we will arrange the musicians and all the various instruments and the concert order. Ruth, the Head Teacher takes team photos for the Fair Isle Times.
The afternoon is for Stu, Caroline and Chris to rehearse, while Katherine and I arrange the mini-exhibition of woven moth works and put out what we think is enough chairs for this evening’s audience, with room for distancing. (In the end we needed more - it was a great turnout.)
We head back to our hosts for tea. Host for Stu and I - Ian - is skipper of the supplies boat, the Good Shepherd, which has gone to the mainland today after being held at the North Haven by bad weather for a week or so. The boat is bringing in double helpings of supplies. It will be a scramble for Robert and Fiona at the shop (also hosting our cellist Chris - although they have sent him up to Neil and Pat’s - who are hosting Caroline and Katherine - for his tea, as stacking shelves a priority) so we are delighted later to see they make it to concert nonetheless.
Ian comes back from the boat in dire need of pringles and white wine. The seas were choppy - 7am start, 2.5 hours out, unload and load, 2.5 hours back, unload. Pitching and rolling all the way. The waters between Fair Isle and Shetland mainland are notoriously rough in the best of conditions - it’s where the North Atlantic meets the North Sea - and makes everyone sick. I am full of admiration and respect for the crew of the Good Shepherd. They sign up for the sake of their community, knowing they have to navigate these waters 3 times a week April-October and once a week through the Winter, ears deafened by the noise of the 35-year old boat.
So Stu, Ian and I sit on a bench looking South, watching an impossibly glorious scene as the sun lowers in the sky, throwing things for the sheepdog Napps to chase and catch, and chewing over the day.
Meanwhile Katherine and Caroline make a visit to Marie in her knitting bothy - and catch her crofting.
After tea it is concert time. The Hall fills up - more chairs pulled out from the cupboard - we have two visitors who have come to do Artist Residency at Fair Isle Studio. One has a small baby, she starts to apologise in advance should the baby be noisy. I tell her they are both very welcome, not to worry, we run a very relaxed concert! Her friend says it is her first live concert in about 35 years - I tell her she is also very welcome. The baby is so quiet all the way through, and the island’s youngest inhabitant, aged 3, is fascinated. All the children want to play with the baby.
We show the origin film Towards Light, then the children’s short. After these it is music time and the Fair Isle School Orchestra performs very well, with good listening, playing and timing. The programme includes a beautiful version of Dufay Ave Maris Stella with Caroline, Chris and Stu playing from the edges of the room (a couple of the audience commented afterwards how amazing it was to be surrounded by that sound) and another outing for CHROMA’s commission from Deborah Pritchard Rosa Celeste - an exquisite piece from Deborah written after she was unable to join our 2017 project on the isle for personal reasons. It is fitting to play it for this audience as Fair Isle was very much in her mind when she wrote it.
One of my favourite moments though was Fair Isle’s youngest citizen dancing - almost landing in Stu’s lap but his Mum pulled him back by the jumper to avoid a clarinet disaster! She said afterwards it was so wonderful that we allowed him to dance like that. I told her we love it - more people should dance at classical music gigs!
