Figurenotes projects have led to nominations in FOUR categories of the Scottish Awards for New Music 2020.

Diversions, written by Ben Lunn, was performed by Drake Music Scotland’s Digital Orchestra and Hebrides Ensemble. The Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh was the setting for this accessible concert of new works.

Figurenotes was used by some members of the Digital Orchestra alongside their colleagues using standard notation. These fantastic musicians created some phenomenal new music that has been duly recognised in four categories:

• The RCS Award for Contribution to New Music in Scotland

• The ISM prize for Collaboration

• The RCS Award for Making it Happen

• The SMIA Award for Creative Programming

We wish Ben Lunn, Hebrides Ensemble, Drake Music Scotland, and the Digital Orchestra all the luck in the world for the award ceremony. We have everything crossed for you!

It’s not every day you get to workshop with a Grammy award winning musician. Michael League from Snarky Puppy kindly gave up his morning in Glasgow to work with members of Drake Music Scotland’s Digital Orchestra. This group uses all kinds of technologies to compose, play, and perform music: Notion and switches, iPads, synths, and more. Some of the members use Figurenotes, which helps them to compose patterns and ideas, creating a score to aid performance. The members of Digital Orchestra had a brilliant time. The importance of interesting bass lines and how they can change the feel of the music was a big learning point. They also learned a lot about improvisation and cues, as well as how to lead and follow. Leading a band that uses improvisation on a daily basis, this is something Michael is very experienced in. He had some really interesting nuggets of information to pass on. Thanks for a brilliant time, Michael. It was lovely to see such a mix of instruments working so well together. Everyone was really starting to see where their sound could be used within the piece, learning to lead and follow one another. If you haven’t seen Snarky Puppy live yet, pop it on the bucket list. They are phenomenal.