The Cumnock Hour: Quartet for the End of Time
Friday 3rd October 2025 3pm
Dumfries Arms Hotel
In this thought-provoking conversation, James Knox is joined by award-winning poet Michael Symmons Roberts and Hebrides Ensemble’s Artistic Director Will Conway. Together, they’ll explore how French composer Olivier Messiaen’s extraordinary piece, composed in a WWII prison camp, resonates through Michael’s profound new extended essay, Quartet for the End of Time: On Music, Grief & Birdsong. Discover the fascinating interplay between music and words in this meditation on bereavement, doubt, faith and time.
Event information
In partnership with Boswell Book Festival
Having experienced the conversation, come and hear Messiaen’s music itself, when Hebrides Ensemble performs Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time in our year-round series at Dumfries House on Sunday 1 February 2026, 5pm.
3pm on Friday 3rd October 2025
Approx running time 1 hour, no interval
Tickets
Full price: £10
Local Residents and Students: £7
Registered Unemployed and Under 18s: £5
Dumfries Arms Hotel
54 Glaisnock Street KA18 1BY
