In 2017 St Cecilia’s Hall teamed up with The Fruitmarket Gallery to programme a concert featuring rarely played musical instruments from The University of Edinburgh’s musical instrument collection in response to The Fruitmarket Gallery’s exhibition of art work by Mark Wallinger. The exhibition, Mark Wallinger Mark, explores the ego in art, through witty takes on the idea of representing the self.
The instruments selected for this project are all named after their egotistical inventors or composers; taking in the likes of Kuhlo horn, Adolph Sax’s saxhorn, a Wagner tuba, and John Philip Sousa’s sousaphone. The resulting piece of music was lighthearted, playing with the idea of pomposity and grandiose self-regarding projects.