From the Lord goodness,
from myself nothing. Till death
I will chart his praise.

All creation dwells
in a leaf, bird, bloom or word
in my Maker's book.
                             Gerda Stevenson

Esther Inglis was a creator of beautiful, often miniature manuscripts; she was also a writer and a skilled embroiderer and the mother of at least seven children. Devoutly religious, she lived most of her life in Edinburgh, where she arrived as a bairn in 1574,  dying in Leith on 30 August 1624.  Her parents were French protestant refugees. This unique concert celebrates and commemorates Esther and her astonishing handiwork in music and images.

The centrepiece will be the world-première of Nine Haiku for Esther Inglis, a specially-commissioned, brand-new composition by English composer Sheena Phillips, now based in the USA. It sets nine haiku written in tribute to Inglis by the Scottish poet Gerda Stevenson, published in  her collection Quines: Poems in tribute to women of Scotland.  

As part of the concert, stunning images of Esther’s manuscripts will be screened,  and French and Scottish music of the period will also be sung: metrical psalms in Scots and French (for audience participation),  and polyphonic settings of French poetic texts of which Esther Inglis repeatedly made exquisite manuscript copies: some of Antoine de Chandieu’s Octonaires sur la vanité et inconstance du monde, set both by Paschal de l’Estocart and Claude Le Jeune, and some of the Quatrains du sieur de Pybrac, again set by L’Estocart.

The eight voices of the Sacred Arts Festival Chorus will be directed by Calum Robertson. Nine Haiku for Esther Inglis will be performed by Sally Carr (soprano), Juliette Philogene (piano) and Calum Robertson (clarinet and bass clarinet).

Entry is free, but donations can be made to help cover costs.

South Leith Parish Church, Kirkgate, Leith, Edinburgh, EH6 6AZ. Link to map: https://nslpc.co.uk/about/