St Magnus Festival Reviews

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"Have just returned from Orkney and another wonderful St Magnus Festival. Thank you for all you do to make this superb event run smoothly. The organisation is magnificent - and always friendly too"

J.M., Buckinghamshire

"Had a fantastic time at my first St Magnus Festival this year. I had high expectations, but they were surpassed!"

Jennifer May, Nether Stowey

Orkney Conducting Course:

"Though Orkney is of course remote I am always astonished that there are not hundreds of people like myself at OCC - there are so many small-time conductors who never improve because they never get any help, and this is the ideal way to watch and learn. I go away every year teeming with ideas to work at and try out, and so many others could benefit in this way ... and for the 8 emerging conductors it is invaluable; also fascinating to watch them changing as the days go on. Congratulations and thanks to all concerned on a real triumph."

Gillian Craig (OCC audience member)

"I just wanted to drop you a quick line on behalf of the school and the wider Sanday community for giving us the opportunity to host the Limbe choir as part of the Festival on Tour this year. The choir was a delightful group of people who worked really well with the pupils and incorporated them with their concert in the evening...The Sanday community members were superb hosts and the post concert dance had Limbe choristers and Sanday folk dancing together and singing Auld Lang Syne at the end. The choir's departure next day was very moving. They led us all in a song in the school play park and they sang farewell from the deck of the Varagen as it glided away from the Loth pier with the master sounding its fog horn as a mark of the occasion."

D Connor, Headmaster, Sanday Community School

A quick note to thank you for a wonderful and inspiring St Magnus Festival this year. You should be very proud of the quality of the music, the goodwill you inspire among the audiences, volunteers and musicians, and the impeccable organisation which has clearly gone into it. I'm delighted that the PRS Foundation was able to support the Festival again this year and help to be a part of the fertile ground you nurture for new music.

Charlotte Ray, PRS Foundation

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"Thank you so much for all that you and all the volunteers put into this friendly, inspiring, thought-provoking and thoroughly enjoyable event. A visit to Orkney is always a good experience but combine that with beautiful, often challenging, music and poetry, performed to the highest standard and it makes quite a holiday!"

Joy Mead, Great Missenden

"...a very heartfelt thankyou to every at the St Magnus Festival for a wonderful two days in Orkney last week. I enjoyed it more than I can say, and am hoping very much to return next year, when ... tells me there may be an Alan Plater play to review!

"I found the whole experience very moving, and absolutely magical. Here's to next year!"

Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman

"A feature of the Festival is the opportunity to chat with visitors, often complete strangers, who are in happy and expansive mood at the prospect of having so much artistic richness in a unique setting."

E.G., Orkney