At St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall, Orkney, on Wednesday 9th Sept 2026. A composition of newly commissioned music and poetry around the proposed northern telegraph route joining Europe and North America via Orkney, Shetland, the Faroes, Iceland and Greenland.
John Rae himself was a meticulously factual and pragmatic diarist; however sometimes there are glimpses of the man beneath, including of his own religious belief as forged by the bare Orkney land and seascapes, and his occasional weariness for home. My poems aim to capture moments of encounter in the journey – encounters not just with rock and scree, but with memory, with other voices. The poems are almost entirely extracted from contemporary documents written by John Rae and by others involved in surveying and assessing the feasibility of the route.
With music by Scottish composers Stuart MacRae and Ailie Robertson, Eli Tausen á Lava from the Faroe Islands, and Arnanguaq Gerstrøm from Greenland.
‘John Rae and the Northern Telegraph’ was commissioned by Katherine Wren, leader of Nordic Viola, and performed by members of Nordic Viola and the Faroe Islands ensemble Aldubáran .
Read a full report in my North Sea Poets substack piece here.
This event was part of the 2026 Orkney International Science Festival.
