Reel high: Scottish fiddle orchestra play at 35,000 feet on way to US tour

The Ayrshire Fiddle Orchestra (AFO), with musicians ranging from primary to secondary school age, has returned from a two week concert crawl around the southern states of America.

Some of the highlights of the trip included the 55-strong ensemble playing to passengers and air crew on their outbound KLM flight to Atlanta which saw the captain emerge from the cockpit to watch the show. One keen passenger enjoyed the music so much they followed the AFO on tour.

Another was being asked to play at the home of rock ‘n’ roll icon Elvis Presley at Graceland in Memphis Tennessee.

Chairman of the orchestra Euan Terras said he initially booked a standard student tour of the world famous tourist spot as part of some sight-seeing in between concerts, but once the staff at the visitors centre knew they were an orchestra, the musicians were asked to perform on site.

The US trip was the 22nd international tour for the AFO, which was set up some 40 years ago.

They first arrived in Atlanta were they received an official welcome at the State Capitol by the Governor of Georgia and the UK Consul General.

The next stop was Newnan, Georgia, which is twinned with Ayr after Provost Bobby Campbell signed on behalf of Ayr and South Ayrshire back in 1998 with the City of Newnan and Coweta County.

Mr Terras said the idea for the trip stemmed from meeting a Newnan resident at a wedding in Scotland some years ago.

"She mentioned that 2023 was the 25th anniversary of the pairing of the two places so the dates were drawn in the sand at that point,” he said.

The next stop was Graceland in Memphis before the ensemble headed to New Orleans where they took part in an alligator river boat tour on the Mississippi.

Armed with their instruments, it wasn’t long before a ceilidh broke out on the top deck, Mr Terras said.

The final stop was Houston, where the group were welcomed by Scotsman Professor David Alexander, director of the Rice Space Institute.

The city has a link with Prestwick in Scotland, where the orchestra meets for practice several times a month, in that both are home to spaceports.

“We thought it would be quite nice if we went to fly the flag of Scotland there,” he said.

“And Texas has a great fiddle community.”

Set up in 1982, the AFO was originally founded as an offshoot to the Scottish Fiddle Orchestra – for adults – to encourage young people into playing and maintaining interest in music.

The ensemble is a mixture of violins, cellos, double bass, guitars, percussion, accordion and a bagpiper with David Moore is its current musical director.

The musicians recently became ambassadors for World Peace Tartan which was inspired by the Dalai Lama’s visit to Edinburgh and designed by Victor Spence.

Mr Terras said the orchestra take a garment made out of the tartan to present to those who host them all around the world.