The Wigtown Book Festival opening night features a world premiere of a new song cycle, Ninian’s Gift, composed by Tom Cunningham with words by Alexander McCall Smith. Ninian’s Gift reflects on the lives of early Scottish saints, including St Ninian who came by sea to Whithorn in the 4th century. Some of these saints are accepted historical figures – others are not. Some of the accounts of their doings are realistic; others are completely improbable. The saints’ lives were often hard: Scotland at the time was a wild and dangerous country. The places settled by the early saints were beacons of learning and light in dark times. The performance will be followed by a short discussion with Alexander McCall Smith and Tom Cunningham.

Eleanor Cozens – Soprano (Narrator)

Morven McIntyre – Alto

Stuart Murray Mitchell – Tenor

Ian Sutherland – Baritone (Narrator)

Michael Harris – Music Director

Composer Tom Cunnigham and novelist Alexander McCall Smith have collaborated on more than a dozen compositions, one of which, A Tapestry of Many Threads, won a Herald Angel Award at the 2012 Edinburgh Festival. Their opera The Okavango Macbeth was premiered in Botswana in October 2009 and subsequently performed in Edinburgh, Cambridge and Cape Town.

Supported by NatureScot as part of Year of Coasts and Waters