A RARE solo performance by celebrated Palestinian Oud player Nizar Rohana is one of the highlights of a Scottish festival’s 20th-anniversary celebrations.
For over two decades, Rohana has performed on prestigious stages and at festivals worldwide. In addition to performing, he is a frequent guest lecturer at the University of Amsterdam and is based in the Netherlands.
The East Neuk Festival also sees the return of harpist and composer Esther Swift with an epic reinterpretation of her 2024 Big Project commission Zulu.
This promenade performance in Anstruther will tell the stories of the Zulu fishing boats that once thronged the East Neuk coastline through music devised with musicians from St Andrews Music Participation, Fife Youth Jazz Orchestra and East Fife Community Ensemble against a backdrop of newly commissioned artwork by Esme MacIntyre.
Also returning to the festival is Sean Shibe who will perform three solo concerts in a single day, spanning five centuries in the evolution of the guitar. He will start with a morning concert of lute music from Scottish and French manuscripts from more than five centuries ago, followed by a lunchtime concert of music by Bach and Thomas Adès on acoustic guitar, then a closing session on electric guitar.
The festival’s classical programme includes all five of Beethoven’s late quartets from four of the world’s finest quartets – the Elias Quartet, the Pavel Haas Quartet, the Castalian Quartet and the Belcea Quartet.
To close, there will be a world premiere of Field Of Stars by Sally Beamish, performed by all four quartets and inspired by pilgrimage and the stars used as navigational tools through the ages.
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra, with principal guest conductor Andrew Manze, will open the festival, while Schubert’s three song cycles will be performed by tenor Mark Padmore, baritone James Newby, and pianist Joseph Middleton.
Other highlights are Northumberland folk artist Kathryn Tickell with her band, The Darkening, playing tunes from her latest album, Return To Kielderside, as well as rising stars on the London jazz scene, Tom Smith and his septet, who will play a bluesy set of tunes from their debut album A Year In The Life.
Festival favourites returning include Scottish composer, musician and songwriter Euan Stevenson, with fellow jazzers Andrew Sharkey and Tom Gordon playing tunes from icons Duke Ellington and Bill Evans.
Festival director Svend McEwan Brown said: “I am thrilled to be able to bring so much world-class talent to Anstruther for our 20th festival. If there’s a theme running through it, it has to be ‘amazing musicians at the top of their game’.
“You would normally hear these people in major world venues, but they’re drawn to the East Neuk by the amazing atmosphere and enthusiastic audiences. With top class jazz, folk, community arts, guitar and world music there is something special for everyone and we look forward to welcoming everyone to the festival in June.”
The East Neuk Festival runs this year from June 25-29. In the past 20 years, the festival has presented more than 420 events and welcomed well over 3000 performers and 200,000 people to some of the most unique and intimate venues in the East Neuk of Fife.
