Dresdeners found the turmoil of the Russian soul

The penultimate concert in the Sunday Classics series at the Usher Hall (May 27) was an all Russian affair, delivered with controlled passion by the polished Dresden Philharmonic under Berliner Michael Sanderling. Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony might not have received the 45-minute ovation that greeted its first performance in 1937, but the deft Dresdeners gave a…

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Gin festival returns to Edinburgh in June

Juniper Festival

Celebrating all things gin, the Juniper Festival returns to Edinburgh for its fifth edition on 1-3 June. This year’s ‘Makers & Mixers’ gin extravaganza will take place at Summerhall with distillers, masterclasses, music, street food, craft stalls and gin cocktails galore. Martin Duffy, director of Edinburgh-based drinks and events consultancy Solid Liquids and mastermind behind…

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Prestigious award nomination for Scottish Opera

Scottish Opera’s production of Debussy’s Pelléas and Mélisande is in the running for a prestigious cultural award. They haves been nominated for The South Bank Sky Arts Award for Opera, to the delight of the company. Sir David McVicar made a welcome return to Scottish Opera to direct Claude Debussy’s iconic opera for the first…

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The Festival Fringe line-up that’s Made in Scotland

The line has been revealed for this year’s Made in Scotland – a curated showcase of music, theatre and dance performed during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Since its inception in 2009 and including this year, Made in Scotland has funded 146 companies, ensembles and artists to showcase over 200 shows. The onward touring fund, which…

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Scots playwright Rona Munro has a unique honour

Since the early 1980s, Rona Munro has been a name to watch on the Scottish arts scene. An accomplished playwright, who has also had her worked performed on radio and television, the Aberdeenshire writer is noted for her acclaimed trilogy The James Plays, for the National Theatre of Scotland, and has collected numerous awards along…

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Find out what goes on before theatre’s curtain falls

The Citizens Theatre will open its doors to the people of Glasgow to discover what goes on behind the scenes. It’s a chance to look around the Gorbals venue before it closes for a £19.4m redevelopment project. The On the Move event will take place on Saturday, 23 June, from 10am–5pm, ahead of the building’s…

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Scottish Opera premier will be all Greek in New York

Opera fans will have the chance to see Scottish Opera and Opera Ventures’ co-production of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Greek in the Big Apple this December when it makes its US debut. Following the success of the production at the 2017 Edinburgh International Festival, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Howard Gilman Opera House will host four…

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10 fantastic Scottish facts about Harry Potter

From polyjuice potion to gillyweed, transfiguration to parseltongue, most of us are familiar with the weird and wonderful creations of JK Rowling’s imagination. Aside from being written by one of Scotland’s most successful authors to date, here are ten Scottish facts about the famous Harry Potter series. 1. It has been translated into Scots Harry…

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The word is out for this year’s Coastword Festival

A celebration of words comes to the east coast this weekend, in the form of CoastWord Festival. Offering a collection of spoken word performances, music and workshops, the festival runs from today, May 18, to Sunday, 20 May, on the sunny shoreline of Dunbar. A festival with humble beginnings, CoastWord was founded by local writer…

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