Merry Christmas from Edinburgh International Festival
The end of the year is finally upon us. Before we wind down for the break we''re spreading some festive cheer by sharing our new compliation CD to those who are creatively and socially isolated this Christmas. The featured recordings will also be available online for you to enjoy from Friday 18 December.
If you saw Lament for Sheku Bayoh, you''ll have encountered powerhouse performer and poet Courtney Stoddart. We commissioned Courtney to write the poem, Article 25, for Fly the Flag, a National Human Rights'' Day collaboration. You can hear and read the poem below.
We''re also back with another instalment of the national audiences survey, so you can help us plan for the future.
Our 2020 digital programme remains available to watch for free online at eif.co.uk and on the International Festival YouTube channel if you want to catch up or relive the performances during the end of year break.
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Our first music highlights CD
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When the 2020 Edinburgh International Festival had to be reimagined following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, we hosted classical music recordings at The Hub, which were then broadcast in Princes Street Gardens and could be enjoyed at home on YouTube. Many listeners, however, were unable to join us to experience these performances due to health concerns, shielding or barriers to travel and more did not have access to digital performances.
It was with those audiences in mind that the team embarked on a recent project to create a specially recorded CD of some of the highlights of the season. We have been working with partners including care homes and say services across Edinburgh to distribute the CD to isolated elderly citizens to make sure it is distributed to music lovers who might not have been able to access the performances otherwise.
The first disc features the world premiere recording of Klaus Simon's arrangement of Mahler's Seventh Symphony for smaller orchestra, as performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. The second disc also collects highlights from across the chamber music programme from August 2020.
The recordings will also be released as high resolution downloads available from key download and streaming platforms, and in Studio Master from linnrecords.com, from this Friday 18 December.
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Fly the Flag for Human Rights
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Fly the Flag is a unique annual celebration that brings collaborating arts organisations and human rights charities across the UK together to shine a light on our fundamental human rights.
This year, the campaign for Human Rights Day on Thursday 10 December moved online and shifted its focus to poetry. As a partner, the International Festival commissioned poet Courtney Stoddart to respond to Article 25, which outlines some of our most basic human rights including food, shelter and healthcare. Her powerful poem is available on our website.
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In 2020, our Learning and Engagement team have launched two Play On projects. In a year when stages must remain empty, the International Festival has built outdoor stages to bring theatricality into schools and to support pupils to play, perform and learn outdoors. Play On: Stages is a project building stage structures in consultation with schools, bringing playgrounds to life and providing teachers with an outdoor platform from which to develop learning and creative activities.
Play On: Music sees instruments allocated to young and aspiring musicians across the city, providing equal opportunities for all pupils to discover music and inspire a new generation of musicians and audiences.
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Catch up on culture over Christmas
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Some of the films from this August''s My Light Shines On programme are still available on the Edinburgh International Festival YouTube channel. Settle into the sounds of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, watch National Theatre of Scotland''s five star film Ghost Light or have a private gig in your living room from Scottish rock darling Honeyblood.
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Help us plan our return to live performance
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We are taking the opportunity to reflect and plan carefully for the future. To help guide us, we would like to ask you some questions about how you feel about attending live events again, when permitted.
We have worked with our partners, Indigo, to develop a short online survey. Whether or not you were able to answer in the first instalment, we would greatly appreciate your answers in this latest instalment of an ongoing national survey of audiences, which will continue over the following months to track changing attitudes. This will help us to design a 2021 Festival that meets everyone''s needs. We would be grateful if you would spare us a few minutes to complete it. All responses will be anonymous - they will be used to inform our planning as well as being added to responses from all over the UK to help produce a national picture for the benefit of the whole cultural sector.
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