The Tweeddale Society Festival Lecture by Nigel Osborne MBE BA BMus(Oxon) DLitt FRCM FEIS FRSE

Many years after the Glasgow boys had painted in Cockburnspath, the internationally acclaimed musician, composer and aid worker Nigel Osborne took inspiration from their story to create two pieces of music: The Painters in my Garden and The Painters in my Garden 2. Their paintings, he says, remind us of many other stories about the village, ranging from Hutton’s geological discoveries on the sea cliffs nearby to the bell which a local family who made Beethoven’s favourite piano placed in the tower of Cockburnspath church. This fascinating talk is a meander among the paintings and their stories, with a little music.

Nigel Osborne has received wide international recognition as a composer and for his humanitarian work, receiving a Queen’s Prize and the Freedom Prize of the Peace Institute Sarajevo. He has pioneered methods of using music to support children who are victims of conflict and has worked extensively in the field of creative arts and medicine as both practitioner and researcher. Nigel Osborne is Emeritus Professor University of Edinburgh; Consultant, Peking University; and Field Officer, SAWA for Development and Aid, Bekaa Valley, Lebanon.