We chatted with composer Gillian Walker, who has led our latest project East Ayrshire Young Composers, working with Higher and Advanced Higher Music pupils at St Joseph's Academy over the course of 10 weeks, teaching them how to compose their own music.

The Cumnock Tryst is proud to be marking its 10th Birthday Festival this year, and to be once again providing a feast of music making from 2nd to 6th October 2024. This festival has always been indebted to the kindness and spirit of its audiences, and this year the team at The Cumnock Tryst need your help to ensure that this vital meeting place for music lives on for another ten years.

Applications are open worldwide to aspiring talented composers between the ages of 18 and 30 and successful composers will get the rare opportunity to work one-to-one with Tryst Founder and Artistic Director Sir James MacMillan and composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir.

The Cumnock Tryst returns for four days of extraordinary music making from 5 - 8 October 2023, with world premieres, international acclaimed artists, exciting emerging talents, and our biggest community project yet!

Edinburgh University Chamber Choir, a longstanding point of pride for the institution, are bringing their divine sound to Cumnock, performing as part of The Cumnock Tryst on Saturday 11th March 2023

Ryan Corbett will soon be bringing an array of his musical stylings to The Cumnock Tryst on Saturday 18th February 2023.

Our Compose the Environment project saw us work with pupils from Lochnorris Primary School for the first time, culminating in a wonderful performance featuring music written by the pupils themselves.

Compose The Environment is an exciting and ground-breaking musical project that aims to explore the process of regeneration of the landscape left scarred by the collapse of the open cast coaling industry in East Ayrshire.

From Thursday 29 September to Sunday 2 October 2022, we welcomed audiences to the heart of East Ayrshire for a celebration of music and community.

A truly exceptional celebration of the life of Scott Riddex and his beloved friends and community.

A special project as part of the Coalfields Community Landscape Partnership, A Musical Celebration of the Coalfields sees community groups from Cumnock and Doon Valley create music reflecting reflecting their own response to their landscape, social history, community, people, and place.

There has been a change to the start time of Blue Sky Counterpoint at this year’s Cumnock Tryst.

The Cumnock Tryst is delighted to announce a concert with British Sign Language interpretation.

Kim Beveridge is a freelance digital artist, part-time college lecturer, documentary film maker and Audio Visual Designer and she is the latest professional lending her expertise to the A Musical Celebration of the Coalfields community opera project.

Due to the restrictions imposed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the first stage of this major project - a series of free workshops on the creative process and self-expression through writing, photography, video and sound recording - launched online in October. Featuring some of the most famous and best exponents in their fields and hosted by Sir James MacMillan, each workshop examines a different way in which members of the local community can get involved and share their stories.

Matilda Brown is a composer and animateur who has worked with The Cumnock Tryst for many years on all of our projects for young people with disabilities. Matilda was in the midst of delivering the creative sessions for Create! at Daldorch House School, the National Autistic Society’s centre in Catrine when the pandemic hit. But the music composed by our group of young people at Daldorch is now available to enjoy, through her skilful arranging, performing and recording. Have a listen, below…

The Cumnock Tryst is delighted to welcome its new Senior Producer Rufus Sullivan who starts this week. We caught up with him to find out a little more about him and explore his musical passions.