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Ayrshire Opera Experience (AOE) & the Scots Opera Project (SOP) are a new and exciting Scottish arts organisation based in the west coast of Scotland. 

 

Formed in 2014 by Creative Director & Tenor David Douglas, their first summer school project culminated with a performance of a Scots language production of Charpentier's Acteon, the company has continued to develop and grow, becoming the first company to present an operatic performance at the globally respected Robert Burns Humanitarian Awards in 2015. 

 

A mixture of professional singers, instrumentalists and a community ensemble makes AOE & SOP a unique company that aims to bring opera to the wider public.

 

Performance highlights include: Ae Spark O’ Nature’s  Fire, The Genius of Robert Burns, Alloway Session 2015, North Ayrshire’s  Fusion Festival, The Two Brigs,  Acteon tour, live performance's on BBC Scotland's Classics Unwrapped and STV Glasgow's The Riverside Show, street theatre as part of TamFest, Burns Aflame, Burns Alicht, performance's of a newly created opera at the Largs’ Viking festival and the premier of a new Scots language version of Charpentier’s The Descent of Orpheus to the Underworld. Recently the group created and performed a new Scots version of Mozart's The Magic Flute.  This summer sees the creating of a Scots and Gaelic version of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and producing a revival of their 2014 production of The Descent O' Orpheus Tae The Underwarl.

 

Creative Director - David Douglas

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Ayrshire Tenor David Douglas trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and the Royal Northern College of Music. He has gained considerable experience performing for some of the World's most prestigious companies including: Les Arts Florissants, Glyndbourne Festival Opera, English National Opera, Dartington Advanced Opera, The Britten Pears Young Artist Program, The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, The Dunedin Consort and Opera North. David enjoys taking a lead role in community music and outreach projects. He piloted the Singing Doctors project for Welsh National Opera and formed the arts organisations, Ayrshire Opera Experience and The Scots Opera Project.


Solo Oratorio experience includes; Magnificat, Vivaldi (Bollington Festival), Oratorio de Noel, Saint-Saens (Bolton Choral Union), Vespers, Monteverdi, For St Cecilia, Finzi (Levens Choir), Christmas Oratorio, Bach (Dumfries Choral, Cantorion Menai), Mass in G, Schubert, Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, Mozart (Todmorden Orchestra), Carmina Buranu, Orff (Royal Liverpool Philharmonic), Messiah, Handel (Belfast Philharmonic, Hull Choral Union), Easter Oratorio, Paul Spicer (Northern Chamber Orchestra) and Hymn of Praise, Mendelssohn, Requiem, Bob Chilcott (Keighley Vocal Union & Skiptan Camerata).


David's roots are in Scottish traditional music which he performs regularly, recently releasing the album 'The Sweetest Hours, songs by Robert Burns'. Traditional performance highlights include: A Scottish Journey at the Royal Northern College of Music, The Red Lion Folk Club, St Margaret's Episcopal Church recital series, Folk for Folk Festival, Burns Meets the American Song Book and Burns to Bernstein (Robert Burns Birthplace Museum), Burns Aflame and headlining the 2014, 2015 and 2016 Alloway Sessions.

 David’s Scots Opera Project roles including; Actéon in Charpentier's Actéon at the The National Trust of Scotland’s Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, The Gaiety Theatre Ayr, The Birnam Arts Centre and a special performance at The Robert Burns Humanitarian Awards and Orpheus in Charpentier's The Descent O' Orpheus Tae The Underwarl at NTS’s The Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, The Barrfield Theatre as part of the Largs Viking festival and a performance run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Tamino in Mozart’s The Magic Flute at the Harbour’s Arts Centre, Irvine and the Birnam Arts Centre.

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