Song cycle ‘Dreams of Peace and Freedom’ to be performed at Dornoch Cathedral
A musical event at Dornoch Cathedral on Friday, June 20, will celebrate the 75th anniversary this year of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
This unique musical event also commemorates the late David Maxwell Fyfe, a distinguished lawyer and politician with strong local ties, who played a pivotal role in the ECHR’s establishment.
‘Dreams of Peace and Freedom’ will be performed by members of Mr Fyfe’s family, who run a professional theatre company called English Cabaret.
Mr Fyfe, who was born in 1900 and died in 1967, spent many childhood summers in Dornoch, where his mother was from. He was made a Freeman of Dornoch in 1962.
Inspired by stories of his family’s eviction from Skibo Mill during the late Clearances, he became a human rights lawyer to make a difference in the world.
He was a deputy prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials in Germany and went on to play a key role in creating the European Convention on Human Rights.
English Cabaret was founded in 2013 by Mr Fyfe’s grandson, Tom Blackmore, and Sue Casson. Their children, Lily and Robert, have also become involved in the company.
They tour the country performing a ‘song cycle’ written by Sue Casson and called Dreams of Peace and Freedom.
The ‘song cycle’ combines Mr Fyfe's words with musical settings of poets who inspired him and archive film, telling the fascinating story of the birth of modern human rights through his eyes.
The podcast Musical Talk describes the song cycle as “a magnificent work about freedom, democracy, and liberty”.
Tickets priced £10/£5 are available through Historylinks Museum’s website, Dornoch Bookshop, Dornoch Cathedral, or on the door. The 75-minute performance begins at 7.30pm.