St Magnus Festival
17 - 22 June 2005
About the programme
Concerts
Festival on tour
Orkney Conducting Course
The St Magnus Festival is Orkney's annual celebration of the arts. Founded in 1977 by Orkney's distinguished resident composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, the festival has grown from small beginnings into one of Britain's most highly regarded and adventurous arts events.
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The unique combination of world-class performance, community participation of the highest quality and the magic of Orkney at midsummer attracts audiences from throughout Britain and further afield with many returning year after year. |
Though musical events are at the heart of the artistic programme, the Festival also encompasses drama, dance, literature and the visual arts.
The programme has drawn its inspiration from the place and people of Orkney. It has also been inspired by war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina, or from other people (both at home and abroad) whose creativity and artistry can enhance and change lives. One connection idea and theme has been that of conflict; the capacity of the arts to hold up a mirror before us; and sea journeys, which have been a constant fact of life throughout Orkney’s ancient and modern history.
The performances taking place during the festival covered a wide variety of styles from community music-theatre to traditional and from classical music to new commissions. Some of the highlights included:
- Notes in the Time of War – a community music-theatre première created by around 100 children and based upon the wartime diaries of children in Bosnia, Iraq, Northern Ireland and Rwanda
- Italian Chapel – Violinist Alexander Janiczek will be performing with cellist William Conway and accordion player Merima Kljuco
- Subjects and Sequences: The Films of Margaret Tait
- Festival Club – every evening the club features a variety of musicians
- Two brilliant young artists from different corners of the world, brought together for the first time: accordionist Merima Kljuco from Bosnia and the German/South American cellist Claudio Bohórquez, will give a joint recital of Bach, Gubaidulina … and tango, and appear together also as soloists with the SCO.
Since 2000, the Festival on Tour project has seen visiting artists and ensembles tour to Orkney's remote outer islands, giving workshops and performances for the island schools and communities. This year the tour involved:
- Thistle Brass – the brass quintet of the Royal Scottish Academy
- Royal Scottish Academy Brass Sextet
- Gael Force Winds with the Sanday Fiddle Club – three wind players of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in a programme which includes the world première of a new work by Peter Maxwell Davies
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Funded by the National Lottery, and launched in 2003, the Orkney Conducting Course is conducted by Martyn Brabbins. This 10-day course enabled approximately eight emerging professional conductors to gain hands-on experience through working with the orchestras, ensembles and soloists present in Orkney for the Festival. |
| For more information and the full programme of events have a look at the St Magnus Festival website, email the festival, or phone their office on 01856 871445. | |