Steve Tees

Yeats’s poem beautifully sums up the mood of this Newcastle-born classical composer - former player in the Scottish National Orchestra, leader of the viola section in the Noord Hollands Orkest, and lifelong composer.

Michael Smith was a flamboyant, intense and skilful violist: He wrote extensively for the instrument arranging many pieces for viola ensemble, from Scarlatti to Dowland

The concert includes the first UK performance of his viola solo Suite Caledonia, to be played by Steve Tees. By turns processional, melancholy and humorous, it will be interspersed with haiku written about the Isle of Arran, by Tess Cosslett.