Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all of our wrigglers and we hope that you had a magical Christmas. It’s a while since we wrote a blog, so here are several months worth in one hit!

We had a fabulous time at the Edinburgh fringe back in August. All of our shows sold really well, particularly at the weekends, and we made the decision to have a day off midweek, which meant that we were free to pack in other people’s shows on our days off! Both Clea and Louise were also performing in the evenings with the fabulous jazz pianist Ron Davis in his show SymphRONica, which made for a busy and fun couple of weeks.

One of the highlights for us was meeting Mr Bell, whose relatives built and named Bell Place at the Colonies in Stockbridge, Edinburgh. Bell Place is where Recitals for Wrigglers began and is home to one of our offices. Mr Bell attended one of our fringe concerts and allowed us to photograph both him and his grand-wriggler on the way out. It was really special for us to be able connect with a part of history in this way.

Mr Bell and his grand-wriggler with Clea at Stockbridge Church.

We also had the pleasure of inviting former wriggler, Oliver Thomson (age 7), to come and play with us. When we began Recitals for Wrigglers in 2014, Oliver was one of our first ever wrigglers, and it was a delight to welcome him back to show off his skills on the flute. He played The Sky Boat Song with us, as a surprise for his grandparents, who celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on that day, and who had travelled from the USA especially to celebrate with their family in Edinburgh. We were honoured to have been asked to play a part in their special day and Oliver played like a dream!

Oliver Thomson, our guest performer on the flute, with Louise and Clea

In the Autumn, Clea and Aisling performed a fabulous array of concerts to Edinburgh audiences. Programmes included The Princess and the Pea and our Halloween programme, and they enjoyed wriggling at venues in Linlithgow, Stockbridge, South Queensferry, Marchmont and Portobello.

We also had two performances at the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Louise travelled up to Edinburgh from London in September for The Princess and the Pea and Aisling, who is our fabulous local violinist, performed the Christmas programme with Clea in December. We will be returning to the Palace in March with our Spring programme. Ticket details here.

Louise had a very busy Autumn performing with Glyndebourne Touring Opera, which toured throughout the UK. As Louise’s time was very limited, there was only one concert in the south, at the wonderful Little Street in West Byfleet. Louise B and Louise D, our southern team, are looking forward to returning there, and to other venues in London and Surrey, in the Spring.

We are now organising 2020 and concerts in the north and the south, which we hope will start in February. We are also organising ourselves for the Palace recitals and we’re starting to plan for this year’s fringe. New programme or old programme? We have yet to decide. But one thing’s for certain – we couldn’t do it without your support.

Happy New Year and here’s to a wriggle-tastic 2020!

Louise and Clea

Edinburgh Fringe 2019 highlights. Clockwise from left – Clea and her wriggler queue for a show, Wriggle Around the World, colouring magic, baby’s first steps, SymphRONica, flyering.