News

UPDATE: EVENT CANCELLED WITH APOLOGIES

A GROUP of musicians who have played for royalty and world leaders will bring a Moray landmark to life when they play in a charity concert.

World renowned Harpa, an ensemble of harpists from across the USA will return to the Forres Tolbooth to raise funds for the Forres Heritage Trust who are custodians of the building.

Sell-out performance

The group last played at the historic site in 2015 to a sell-out audience in an ensemble of 14, but on May 11, six of the performers will return to stage another concert.

Spectators will be able to watch and listen in awe as the six women perform in the old courtroom of the venue.

Bob James, a trustee with the Forres Heritage Trust who is organising the event said he was delighted when the group said they play once again: “To have these world renowned performers, specialists in their field play for us once, was enough of a coup the first time, but to secure them again for a second performance has blown me away.

Sensational music

“Their music is sensational and this time they actually chose to return to our beautiful building. I spoke with their tour manager David Leitch and Harpa are here on a retreat and they said they wanted to play some extra venues and the Tolbooth was one that they asked about. This is a truly philanthropic gesture on their part to give us another concert.”

This time the performers will include Sue Richards, Therese Honey, Beth Kolle and Jennifer Narkevicius, Martha Hill and Donna Bennett.

International renown

Sue is an internationally known performer and has played twice for President Bill Clinton, President Bush and the Queen.

Therese Honey draws on her vast knowledge of early music history and brings alive for the audience the beautiful music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque eras.

Whilst Beth Kolle is a leading proponent of Nordic and Celtic music and Jennifer Narkevicius is the President of the American Clarsach Society.

Martha is of Scots-Irish descendent and is a member of the Scottish Harp Society of America whilst Donna owns her own private therapy practice, Coaching for the Voyage, in Maryland. Donna has competed for many years in the Scottish Harp Society of America harp competitions and was the 2016 recipient of the SHSA Travel Scholarship, which she completed by studying at the Cromarty Harp Village as well as pursuing private lessons throughout Scotland. 

David Leitch, the group’s tour manager said: “I’ve now been associated with the Harpa group since their first visit to the UK in 2015. They are such beautiful people and performers that I consider working with them to be a true privilege.”

He added: “They loved the warmth of the reception, intimate atmosphere, and great acoustics of the Tollbooth venue, and are delighted to support the local Forres community. Given that during their 2017 tour they played such wonderful venues as Culzean Castle, The Robert Burns Museum, and Prince Charles’ Dumfries House, I too think it amazing that they themselves expressed a desire to play in The Tollbooth again where, I’m sure, they and the audience will all have a great and fun night.”

A GROUP of Forres volunteers have been given training to help them excel in customer service.

Representatives from the Forres Heritage Trust and Forres Area Community Trust took part in a day-long WorldHost workshop.

WorldHost is an internationally recognised programme setting the industry benchmark for businesses and their staff, ensuring that high quality customer service standards are integral to their operation. It has already been used to train over 10 per cent of Scotland’s tourism workforce and represents an investment of over £2million since it was launched in Scotland.

The WorldHost training programmes, which originated from Canada, were first brought to the UK by performance and talent management expert People 1st to prepare local businesses in and around London for the influx of international visitors for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Last year, Moray Speyside was awarded WorldHost®Regional Destination status in recognition of excellent customer service across the region. It was awarded the status after businesses in the service and tourism sectors put at least 50% of their staff through the WorldHost Principles of Customer Service course.

The Forres Heritage Trust which relies heavily on volunteers to support its work decided to offer the training to ensure that visitors to Nelson’s Tower and the Tolbooth which it is responsible for, have the best experience possible.

Grace Reid, a trustee with the Trust said: “We were given the opportunity to carry out the training in collaboration with FACT and we eager to take part. We have a wonderful core of volunteers who do a fabulous job in welcoming visitors to Nelsons Tower and at our events in the Tolbooth, and we felt the WorldHost training was a great opportunity to provide extra support to those people who give up their free time to support us.”

She added: “The training was invaluable and covered customer service, welcoming visitors, how to give clear information, how to make first impressions last and listening skills.”

She added: “It also focussed on the benefits of knowing how to promote other amenities in the area.”

The Forres Heritage Trust stages numerous evets at the historically Tolbooth throughout the year including Winter Talks with guest speakers, photographic exhibitions and musical nights.

It also protects the heritage of Nelson’s Tower and between April and September the monument is a tourist attraction with people being able to ascend the building which sits on Cluny Hill.

Debbie Herron, manager of Forres Area Community Trust said “The World Host Customer Service Training programme is one of the best in the world. We know that volunteers benefit from the training and it makes all the difference to the engagement we have with the public.”

She continued: “It was great that FACT could work with Forres Heritage Trust to offer this training to our volunteers for the benefit of the area.”