The Wagner Society of Scotland

Welcome

The Wagner Society of Scotland has been promoting and exploring the works of Richard Wagner since 1984. We hold monthly meetings with guest Speakers from October to May and an annual Residential Study Course at Gartmore House Hotel in September and participate in the RWVI Annual Bayreuth Scholarship.

NEXT EVENT

Please note, from October, events are expected to return to Edinburgh Society of Musicians, as well as being delivered online via Zoom.

NEXT TALK

10th October
25th Anniversary Celebration
Linda Esther Gray ‘Wagner and Me! Before, During and After’

I have tried to put Wagner himself at the very centre of this occasion and I am sorry not to be able to ask him to sit beside me during the talk, but I can try to bring him to life for you through my own music making, my interest in his words, and our imaginations.

During the talk I will try to take you with me inside the sounds and thoughts of the singers, myself and others, who have had the joy of performing Wagner’s dramatic works and who have tried to bring their thoughts and voices as close to what they imagine Wagner would have wanted. Without the singer, Wagner’s music making would have been very different and so tonight you watch and listen to the music which you know intimately, through the open heart of a singer.

Linda Esther Gray

Linda was born in Scotland and in the second half of her short career specialised in singing Wagner. After a near fatal illness, she retired from the stage with a heavy heart because her voice and her body no longer spoke to each other with ease. Her personal life was in crisis and survival itself was all she could hope for. However, with loving care from her family and a few years of psychotherapy, she began to recover vocally and was glad to share her knowledge of singing with others, both through teaching and through writing. Her five books all have singing as their theme one way or another.

Her understanding both of the human voice and of the emotions involved with singing at the highest level have given her many happy moments when other singers she has worked with have reach their own goals. More recently she has become a founder member of a group called Re-Sound, whose aim is to help singers who, for whatever reason, have stumbled on the singing road, and this gateway to helping singers has given her a new lease of life. Linda is now 73 years old and she has not missed a single day either thinking about or practising her own technique.

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