What a start to 2025 for CCC! Our first performance of the year was our brand-new concert, ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Orchestra’. Audiences in Dundee and Aberdeen were taken on a musical adventure: Owen and a group of musicians from the Essential Orchestra had been running late (as usual!) for the concert and were caught in a rainstorm when they found themselves magically shrunk. The musicians were then greeted by a whole host of insects: grasshoppers, ladybirds, bees…Perhaps this was an opportunity to put our marvellous musicians “under the microscope” and investigate whether an orchestra can work together like a hive of bees?  

 

The audiences were treated to a programme of music featuring some well-known classics such as Ravel’s Bolero and Danzon No. 2 by Arturo Marquez, alongside a rather special piece by Aileen Sweeney. The Scottish composer wrote a piece especially for ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Orchestra’ – how amazing is that?!  

 

“I had soooo much fun writing ‘The Waggle Dance!’ I went online to learn as much as I could about bees, and when I found out they could dance, I just had to write some music for the bees (and our CCC audience to dance along to!) This piece imagines the orchestra as different types of bees – worker, drone and queen bees – and tells the tale of a day working hard in the hive! Watch out for the strings, they’re the worker bees and they are working especially hard in this piece!” 

 

You loved the concert as much as we did – and if you weren’t lucky enough to see it live, you can watch a recap over on YouTube. Here’s some feedback from some lovely audience members:  

PS. Don’t worry, the orchestra did manage to return to their original size!