Hollywood legend and Inverness-born film composer Lorne Balfe welcomed a number of Scottish A-listers to celebrate Burns Night in support the Highland Hospice in London last month.
Almost £100,000 has been raised – with a final total yet to be revealed as items, such as premiere tickets, remain on auction.
Mr Balfe, 48, and his wife Nina were joined by Dundee native Brian Cox, James McAvoy, Wet Wet Wet star Marti Pellow, Iain Glen, and award-winning actor Dougray Scott to celebrate the Scots tradition in London last month.
Claudia Schiffer, Matthew Vaughn and Jerry Bruckheimer, all based in Hollywood, were also pivotal as members of the event’s committee.
“I’ve been to about 20 Burns Nights, but I’ve never been to any with this amount of calibre of talent and it’s going to be an ongoing thing for the hospice. We’re going to do it every year. It’s important to me,” said Mr Balfe, whose discography includes Mission Impossible: Fallout and Top Gun: Maverick.
The Highland Hospice will benefit from the generous donation following their support of Mr Balfe and his family during his father’s cancer diagnosis.
Mr Balfe explained that this was his introduction to hospices whilst marking the beginning of his fundraising journey with the Ness House centre.
He added: “That was the introduction to us, the fact that dad got very, very quickly diagnosed with lung cancer and spending that time at the hospice and getting to see the army that works there and the amazing job where they give relief to the patient, but also to the family at this sad end of a journey.
“It’s not really, unless a loved one has to go through it, you’re not normally introduced to it, unfortunately, and I think that the hospice was always known because it’s always at the heart of Inverness and that really was the beginning.”
Despite auctioning various memorabilia and set props over the years, Mr Balfe had yet to host his own event.
But when he witnessed family friend and Kingsmill Hotel owner, Tony Story organise a charity ball, supporting local businesses in the process, Mr Balfe had his heart set on replicating the generous act.
With ambition to recruit industry contacts, the 48-year-old believed having familiar faces would help raise more awareness to Highland Hospice – who provide support people and their families through life shortening illness, death and bereavement.
“I just thought that there’s, if there’s a way to be able to get great talent and well-known names to be part of this, it will bring more awareness to them,” he said.
“Connecting it to Burns Night, it just to me, felt like a celebration instead of what sometimes happens when it is a place of a conversation of sadness – hospices. I think that celebrating Burns and making it a celebration of Scotland just seemed like a great connection.”
Mr Balfe then approached “the best of the best of Scotland” to achieve his vision.
Once he had Tom Kitchin and Marti Pellow on-board, Mr Balfe began to ponder on the Toast to Haggis, which he placed in the capable hands of Dougray Scott, who spent two months rehearsing the poem.
“He’s one of Scotland’s finest actors.
“It was a surreal event. Looking around a room and you’ve got the best of Scottish talent, but, that really was it. It was to make sure that this was the same as any event that you would experience in Hollywood,” said Mr Balfe.
He explained how he was touched by a comment that came from Brian Cox midway through the evening, claiming “tonight broke [his] heart.”
“And what he meant was the fact that it was the heart in the room because of the cause, but there was so much love between all of these people in the arts. Bill Patterson performing Tam O’Shanter with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
“The younger generation of actors look up to these people. They were the people when youngsters were sitting there going: ‘No, I want to become an actor and but how can I when I am only from the small village in Scotland?’
“And they saw people like Bill Patterson, and they saw people like Brian Cox, and James McAvoy achieving worldwide success. So, you had that, and then, I think the guests didn’t fully know what they were expecting.
“They knew they were expecting a Burns Night with some talent but the whole, you know, the Toast the Lassies and the Toast the Lads, all that, nobody was expecting it to be a, I can only describe it as a kind of a theatrical experience.”
However, it wasn’t just the star quality that Mr Balfe commended, it was in fact the level of dedication and commitment guests had placed into the event – which had a guest list of just 80.
He said: “I think the main thing was that it was amazing so many people gave up their time to be part of it. It’s not just pitching up.
“KT Tunstall and Marti Pellow, they have many other things they could be performing for.
“And Marti’s got a connection because he used to write up in Loch Ness. KT’s got a connection up in the Highlands. And so people were there for a bigger meaning for it. And I think that due to the fact it was a very small night, it was intimate,” he said.
Although the celebration was barely two weeks ago, the composer has already set conversations in motion about next year’s event, though he questioned: “How do you beat it?”
A spokesperson for Highland Hospice welcomed the staggering contribution, however, and looks forward to continuing their partnership with Mr Balfe and his family.
They said: “We are hugely grateful to Lorne and Nina for their wonderful support of Highland Hospice. The Balfe’s Burns Night Event and Auction were a huge success and it was wonderful to see everyone coming together to support our Hospice.
“The event was something very different for us to be involved in and we feel honoured to have been part of something so special. We would like to say a huge thank you to Lorne, Nina and his team for all they do for Highland Hospice and we look forward to continuing to work together throughout 2025 and beyond.”
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