Having recently returned from sailing in the Caribbean, Talitha MacKenzie will be performing at the Chicago Maritime Festival on Saturday 23rd February, singing songs from Scotland and the West Indies.

Photo by Andrew Frow

Please join us for the launch of the 2012 version of Spiorad:
COLUMCILLE CENTRE, 2 Newbattle Terrace, Edinburgh EH10 4RT (next to the Dominion Cinema)
Friday 2nd November at 8.00-10.00 PM
Ceylon Teas and Homebaking by The Monsoon Mountains Tea Company
Free but RSVP to SONAS Multimedia to reserve a place: 0131 446 0723

The album Spiorad, previously on the Shanachie label, is available now, with a new title track "Spiorad Iain". Order it on SONAS Multimedia. An advance copy can also be purchased from the Birnam CD online shop.

Talitha MacKenzie has been invited to perform as soloist with the Jubilant Commonwealth Choir on the 3rd of June as part of the Oueen's Diamond Jubilee Thames River Pageant in London (2-6 PM GMT). The choir is made up of 120 people from all over the Commonwealth who will be singing a selection of traditional songs from the British Isles. Talitha will be contributing a medley of Scottish Gaelic puirt-a-beul (mouth music) for the occasion.

A concert of Clàrsach, Vocal, Triplepipe & Bagpipe Music from Scotland, Ireland & Wales, featuring Ann Heymann, Barnaby Brown & Talitha MacKenzie, will take place on Saturday 11 February at the Columcille Centre (2 Newbattle Terrace, Morningside, Edinburgh EH10 4RT, next to the Dominion Cinema). Doors Open 7.30 PM, Concert begins 8 PM.

There will also be a Clàrsach Workshop with Ann Heymann on Sunday 12 February 1-5 PM, at the same venue. Concert Tickets: £10/£8 ~ Workshop Tickets: £10/£8 (£5 for non-participants); Combined Weekend Ticket: £15/£12.

I have recently commissioned Davy Patton to build me a Mediæval clàrsach (wire-strung harp) based on the famous Trinity College Harp, in Dublin. The decoration will honour and reflect my relationship with my husband, Ian MacKenzie. We are still in the process of developing the design but the building of the instrument should begin mid-April and be finished by Michaelmas. I hope to be touring with it in 2012.

The Ian MacKenzie Memorial Calendar is available now at SONAS Multimedia. Click here to order your copy for £4.99.

Thank you to all who helped organise the Ian MacKenzie Memorial Exhibition & Concert on 12 December and to all the musicians who performed. It was a magical day.

Talitha has recently bought back the rights to her CD Spiorad from former label Shanachie. There are plans to rerelease the album on her own label, SONAS Multimedia, sometime in 2012.

Some of the artwork from the album will be displayed in a Memorial Exhibition of photographs by Ian MacKenzie, in Edinburgh on 12 December. For more information see the ZenBends website.

Talitha MacKenzie will be travelling to America this summer to teach Gaelic Song and Highland Folk Dance at the Swannanoa Gathering, NC, during Celtic Week from 11-17 July 2010.

SCOTS GAELIC SONG FOR WORK & DANCE
Highland tradition marries song and movement in a vibrant and exhilarating way. This class will explore songs for spinning, weaving, waulking, milking, churning butter, rowing and more.

Omnipresent

Soft shadows in the morning
gentle fragrance of each new page
Your presence invites itself in, gracefully,
on all the paths I walk

Like the sky's red evening blood
bright as the burning sun
your flame flickers, unquenched
at the end of my every day

Whiter than the virgin snow
all round the frozen pool
you are at every edge
of my world

Ian MacKenzie, 1981
http://www.zenbends.com

Photo by Ian MacKenzie, December 2008