Friday's RSNO concert was intended to be a celebration of Neeme Järvi's 80th birthday but he was ill so from the other end of the age spectrum we had the diminuitive Chinese conductor 

Elim Chan.

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This picture makes her look about fourteen (maybe she was when it was taken!) but she has actually reached the grand old age of thirty one and seemed to lack neither confidence nor control as she put the orchestra through their paces including Rachmaninov's hour long second symphony.  Great stuff.

There was a Beethoven piano concerto on the programme as well and again because of illness they had to call on a substitute soloist.  He too was a young Chinese though of the Swiss variety, Louis Schwizgebel.  He was as tall as Chan was small (indeed she completely disappeared behind the piano lid) and as nimble with his fingers as she was with her arms.

At a place some distance away from the RSNO on the musical spectrum lies the Dunedin Wind Band and we too were in action this weekend.

Here we are at a break in the action surveying our audience, geeks and others attending the Edinburgh Sci Fi Convention at Meadowbank.  We were perched a little uncomfortably in rows of tip up seats well above one of the large sports halls housing dozens of stalls amidst which milled the punters.  We serenaded them for an hour and a half with more or less suitably sci fi music. It was hard to know what the milling abouters thought of it.  There were sporadic bursts of applause but mostly they ignored us and went about their business.  I expect that's how it was for musicians in the minstrel gallery playing for banqueting barons.

As a reward for our labours we were given free run of the event.  I was amazed, astounded and impressed by the exhilarating variety of it all.  Lots and lots of people had dressed up as characters from the whole genre.  I can recognise Batman and Superman from days of yore and Thunderbirds and Doctor Who from the not so long ago but beyond that I dare not venture a guess.

Amongst the exhibiting organisations and individuals there were prop makers, model makers, games sellers, special effectors.  There was a Tardis, a couple of Daleks, a K9 and all sorts of other stuff that I'd need a lesson in modern popular culture to appreciate.

It was great.  I hope we are invited again next year.