NEWS
New directions for the
Edinburgh International Festival
For his fi rst festival as director, Fergus Linehan unveils pop, jazz and experimental acts alongside classical concerts, theatre and opera. He talks to David Kettle
COMING UP
• The 22nd edition of The List Eating & Drinking Guide is out on Wed 22 Apr. Turn to page 55 to i nd out more.
• Young Fathers’ second album, White Men Are Black Men Too, is released on Mon 6 Apr. See interview, page 26 and review, page 92. • Tectonics Glasgow 2015 takes place Fri 1–Sun 3 May, with performers including the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, Hungarian black-metal vocalist Attila Csihar and electronica pioneer Éliane Radigue.
• Graham Fagen’s Venice Biennale shows opens at the Palazzo Fontana on Sat 9 May, running until Sun 22 Nov. See interview, page 46.
• The full programme for this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival is launched on Wed 27 May. The festival runs from Wed 17–Sun 28 Jun.
• Get full details of the 2015 Edinburgh Festival Fringe when the programme is launched on Thu 4 Jun. • The Edinburgh International Book Festival programme is announced on Wed 10 Jun, with the festival running Sat 15–Mon 31 Aug.
• The Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival runs from Fri 17–Sun 26 Jul. Performers already announced include George Benson and Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra with guest Marc Almond.
• Magners’ Summer Nights brings King Creosote, Glasvegas, Joan Armatrading and others to Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Bandstand (Thu 6–Sat 15 Aug), and James, the Flaming Lips and the Waterboys to Edinburgh’s Ross Bandstand (Wed 26–Fri 28 Aug). • Brian Wilson plays Glasgow’s SSE Hydro on Sun 27 Sep, with support from Edwyn Collins.
P H O T O © S T U A R T A R M T T
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P op musicians Sparks, Franz Ferdinand and Sufjan Stevens, jazz artists Robert Glasper and Jason Moran, and experimental composer / producer Oneohtrix Point Never are among the performers taking part in the 2015 Edinburgh International Festival, director Fergus Linehan has announced.
Following a ‘business as usual’ unveiling of the EIF’s classical music programme in February, Linehan revealed details that put a more personal stamp on his i rst programme – including theatre premieres from Robert Lepage’s Ex Machina and UK company Complicite – as well as broadening the event’s musical reach to encompass jazz, rock and experimental music.
‘I guess the EIF is one of the last arts institutions to embrace this kind of serious programming,’ Linehan explains. ‘Almost every other international arts centre and festival has pretty much incorporated popular music into its thinking. But there’s popular music and there’s popular music. Of course some popular music is intended to be consumed in the moment, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But other popular music has got a certain degree of artistic ambition to it, and that’s obviously where we’ve tried to gravitate.’ To that end, Sparks and Franz Ferdinand will come together to form new supergroup FFS (Mon 24 Aug), while US folk-pop pioneer Sufjan Stevens kicks off a European tour marking the release of his new family-inspired album Carrie & Lowell (Sun 30 Aug), as well as showing his rodeo-themed
14 THE LIST 2 Apr–4 Jun 2015
i lm-and-music project Round-Up (Sat 29 Aug). And a new strand titled The Hub Sessions brings together musicians including Chilly Gonzales, King Creosote, Robert Glasper, Jason Moran and Oneohtrix Point Never for late-night gigs in the EIF’s home venue. The Hub Sessions also features Wave Movements, an ocean-inspired collaboration between Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry and the National’s Bryce Dessner, performed by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (Fri 28 Aug). ‘I think across the board we’ve tried to gravitate towards artists who we feel can really play,’ Linehan continues. ‘People like Bryce Dessner are classically trained, people like King Creosote are really terrii c folk musicians, and people like Robert Glasper and Jason Moran are absolutely stellar jazz artists.’
Linehan also expands the classical programme with the inclusion of Recomposed: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons, Max Richter’s radical reimagining of the classic piece for the digital age, performed by the composer, violinist Daniel Hope and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (Mon 24 Aug).
‘Hopefully the mix is curious, interesting and engaging enough that it draws people in. In each case, it’s trying to take that milieu but apply it in a way that feels appropriate for an international arts festival,’ Linehan says. ‘But musically, we are still primarily, and will always remain, a classical music festival.’
Edinburgh International Festival, Fri 7–Mon 31 Aug 2015, eif.co.uk.