Three Rivers Festival- ground breaking concert

Photo: ( from left to right) Anna Michel,pianist, Orla Stevens, mixed media artist and Christine Duncan, pianist and founder of the festival.


New on the arts scene in Scotland is the Three Rivers Festival, a collaborative group working with music, poetry, painting and performance.
The result is a groundbreaking innovative approach bringing classical music, improvisation, art and performance all rolled into a one-hour immersive experience.

I was among more than a  hundred who turned up this afternoon in the Pathfoot Building of Stirling university for this event. The ability of this new festival launched this month by Christine Duncan, to draw such a big audience on a hot Sunday afternoon is a sign that this novel venture has huge appeal  , a sign that it has touched something in the zeitgeist of our times.

So, who are they? Anna Michel is a Scottish Dutch pianist, who performs internationally as a soloist and collaborative musician, Orla Stevens, is a mixed media artist who frequently works with musicians to visualise in paint their emotions and stories.
 
While the founder and driving force behind the Three Rivers Festival is  Dunblane born pianist Catherine Duncan, a dynamo of energy and ideas, and still a student at the Guildhall School of Music.

It is the culmination of a long-held dream to establish such a festival in Scotland.
Today we witnessed something very special, and I think we are going to be seeing a lot of them in the years ahead.