A SPECTACULAR week of musical events by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra gets under way in Perth and Kinross next week with the support of The Courier.

The biggest community-based project Scotland’s national orchestra has ever undertaken, venues throughout the area will host performances and musical workshops and there will be community events in schools, sheltered housing and hospitals.

The Out and About in Perth and Kinross initiative, which runs from January 12 to 17, follows on from last night’s Perth Concert Hall performance of the Viennese gala Concert which will be repeated in Dunfermline’s Carnegie Hall on Saturday.

As well as the musical attractions, the orchestra’s Perth and Kinross sojourn will mark the completion of a four-month project with the Rachel House hospice in Kinross.

RSNO director of education and audience engagement Ellen Thomson said the orchestra was delighted to be taking up residence in Perth and Kinross for the week.

“The programme of events is the biggest we’ve ever presented and during this packed week there should be something for everyone, from first-time concert-goers to aficionados of orchestral music,” she said.

Among the performances will be Brilliant Brass, a collaboration between the orchestra’s brass musicians, RSNO percussionists and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama’s head of brass Bryan Allen at Morrison’s Academy Hall, Crieff, on Tuesday.

The following night, at Blairgowrie Parish Church, the Fejes Quartet, an ensemble assembled from the ranks of the RSNO, will perform works by Haydn, Glazunov and Mozart.

RSNO musicians will also be hosts at a free tea dance at the Salutation Hotel, Perth from 2pm to 4.30pm that day.

On Thursday the Perth Youth Orchestra join RSNO musicians at the Perth Concert Hall for a free performance of Scottish-inspired music, conducted by RSNO assistant conductor David Danzmayr.

David and the musicians will be attending Perth Youth Orchestra rehearsals in the weeks leading up to the performance and offering coaching to individual members.

Scottish fiddle player Pete Clark will join RSNO members and a host of local folk musicians for an evening of traditional music at Birnam Arts and Conference Centre on Friday January 16 and the week comes to a climax the day after at Pitlochry Festival Theatre when the orchestra make their first appearance at the venue.

During the week there will be a performance with the children at Rachel House, which they have been visiting since October, to lead song-writing, drumming and musical arts and crafts workshops.

The project is being run in association with Perth and Kinross Council, whose Provost John Hulbert said, “This will be a very exciting event for Perth and Kinross.

“These events will reach out to people throughout Perth and Kinross of all ages.”