As ever, the picturesque harbour town of Stromness, home of George Mackay Brown, will play host to a range of events.
17:00 - 18:10 Stromness Town Hall Church Road, Stromness KW16 3BA
2016 sees the 100th anniversary of the sinking of HMS Hampshire whilst sailing towards Russia with Lord Kitchener on board after the Battle of Jutland. A combination of words and music, this year’s Johnsmas Foy commemorates those who l...
14:00 - 15:00 Stromness Town Hall Church Road, Stromness KW16 3BA
Ken Walton, classical music columnist and critic for The Scotsman, leads this round table discussion reflecting on St Magnus Festival past, present and future. It’s an opportunity to remember some of the events, artists and interesting tales sp...
16:15 - 18:45 Ness Battery Stromness, KW16 3DL
During the latter stages of World War II, Dennis Marshall wrote a series of letters to his fiancée, tracing his journey as a Signaller in the 30 Corps of the British Army. These letters describe his experiences and offer a very personal insigh...
19:15 - 21:45 Ness Battery Stromness, KW16 3DL
During the latter stages of World War II, Dennis Marshall wrote a series of letters to his fiancée, tracing his journey as a Signaller in the 30 Corps of the British Army. These letters describe his experiences and offer a very personal insigh...
10:30 - 11:40 Stromness Town Hall Church Road, Stromness KW16 3BA
Come and join Bessy Bass and share in her adventures as she embarks on a trip to visit musical friends from her coastal home in Lower Largo, Scotland to a variety of European destinations. Along the way, Bessy makes new friends, learns somethi...
11:00 - 12:00 Stromness Parish Church Victoria Street, Stromness KW16 3AR
One of the UK’s most fascinating poets, John Gallas was born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1950, attended Otago University in New Zealand, and won a Commonwealth Scholarship to Merton College, Oxford to study medieval literature. He settle...
14:00 - 16:00 Stromness Town Hall Church Road, Stromness KW16 3BA
Taking its name from a cycle of songs by Schumann, and with the pianist Joseph Middleton at its heart, the ensemble Myrthen brings together the crème de la crème of young British-based singers and has won universal critical acclaim. The...
10:00 - 13:00 Stromness Library 2-12 Victoria Street, Stromness KW16 3AA
By popular demand, the celebrity Norwegian knitters, Arne and Carlos return to the Festival for a second time. Well known across the world and for their knitting YouTube channel, they will lead an inspiring, informative and practical workshop for...
11:00 - 12:15 Stromness Parish Church Victoria Street, Stromness KW16 3AR
Jackie Kay is well known as a poet, playwright, novelist and broadcaster. She is currently Scotland’s Makar: the role created by the Scottish Government in 2004 as a National Poet for Scotland. Jackie’s first collection of poetry, The...
14:30 - 16:30 Stromness Town Hall Church Road, Stromness KW16 3BA
One of the UK’s oldest quartets, and originally the resident quartet in Edinburgh University, the Edinburgh Quartet has an enviable reputation for the commissioning and performing of living composers alongside the standard repertoire. Ha...
10:30 - 12:00 Stromness Town Hall Church Road, Stromness KW16 3BA
Joseph Shiner Clarinet Ashley Fripp Piano Joseph Shiner and Ashley Fripp present a mix of music from Germany and France contrasting music for clarinet and piano with solo piano works written in the same period. Schuma...
15:00 - 17:00 Stromness Town Hall Church Road, Stromness KW16 3BA
Timothy Dean Piano Sasha Savaloni Guitar A selection of Folk and Traditional Songs of Scotland and in arrangements old and new. Singers from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland present a survey of traditional music and folk songs fro...
17:00 - 18:00 Pier Arts Centre 28-36 Victoria St, Stromness KW16 3AA
Students from the Orkney Writers’ Course Taking place alongside the Festival is a course for writers focusing on poetry. With the tutors Jen Hadfield and Pam Beasant and with visiting tutor, Jackie Kay, the students work towards a ...
11:00 - 12:10 Stromness Parish Church Victoria Street, Stromness KW16 3AR
Winner of the TS Eliot and Forward prizes, Sinéad Morrissey grew up in Northern Ireland, is Belfast’s first Poet Laureate and Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University. Rooted in everyday experiences yet often strangely eerie...
14:30 - 16:30 Stromness Town Hall Church Road, Stromness KW16 3BA
Elena Urioste Violin Tom Poster Piano A concert rich with melody at the heart of which are the sonatas of Grieg and Strauss written in the same decade at the end of the 19th Century and both unmistakably representative o...
15:30 - 17:00 Stromness Town Hall Church Road, Stromness KW16 3BA
O Duo always astonish and entertain with their virtuosity and good humoured presentation and here Owen and Olly take us on a tour whose geography reaches out across the world from South America to Hungary, Spain to America and Germany to Orkney. ...
21:30 - 23:00 Stromness Town Hall Church Road, Stromness KW16 3BA
Barroksolistene Bjarte Eike Violin/Director An enormous hit across the world, the Alehouse Sessions – curated and devised by Bjarte Eike – is an ever changing and evolving insight into the music of the 17th Century tavern. It gives a...
11:00 - 12:40 Stromness Town Hall Church Road, Stromness KW16 3BA
This dynamic duo presents a wide-ranging recital with two mighty sonatas at its heart. Both in the minor key, Shostakovich’s work written in a period of emotional turmoil and Chopin’s late work the cause of composerly uncertainty, the...
17:30 - 18:30 Stromness Academy Garson, Stromness KW16 3JS
Performed and devised by pupils and staff from Stromness Academy The young people of Orkney’s West Mainland grow up surrounded by physical reminders of their islands’ history in the stones, settlements and monuments. Many are a...
11:00 - 12:30 Stromness Town Hall Church Road, Stromness KW16 3BA
Michael Foyle Violin Maksim Stsura Piano The three sonatas in this programme draw music from three corners of Europe in time of war with Janáček’s work coming from the start of the 1914-18 period – “I could just about...
Buy tickets for all the concerts in a series and you will be allocated top price tickets with a 10% discount on the total price.* EXPLORER 1 ORCHESTRA EXPLORER SERIES Friday 21 June St. Magnus Cathedral 2030 Strings Bri...
10:00 - 11:00 Pier Arts Centre 28-36 Victoria St, Stromness KW16 3AA
Poet Robin Robertson was brought up on the northeast coast of Scotland where early influences include the stories of Celtic and Classical myth, the vernacular ballads, and folklore. His debut collection, A Painted Field (1997), won the Forw...
12:00 - 13:00 Pier Arts Centre 28-36 Victoria St, Stromness KW16 3AA
Poet Robin Robertson was brought up on the northeast coast of Scotland where early influences include the stories of Celtic and Classical myth, the vernacular ballads, and folklore. His debut collection, A Painted Field (1997), won the Forw...
14:30 - 16:30 Stromness Town Hall Church Road, Stromness KW16 3BA
A virtuosic snapshot of late 19th and early 20th Century violin repertoire culminating in Cesar Franck’s mighty, romantic masterpiece. The programme is filled with music which is ‘under the influence’; be it Stravinsky&r...
14:30 - 16:30 Stromness Town Hall Church Road, Stromness KW16 3BA
The Maxwell String Quartet begin their residency with three of the master composers for string quartet. Mozart’s “Hunt” quartet is a work dedicated to Haydn and is a jewelled masterpiece with its hunting-horn themes. Shostakov...
11:00 - 12:30 Stromness Town Hall Church Road, Stromness KW16 3BA
Joseph Middleton makes a welcome return to the Festival creating a programme that surveys music and text on the subject of war and peace by composers and poets from across Europe and the USA in a powerful and emotional recital. From the...
19:30 - 20:50 Stromness Town Hall Church Road, Stromness KW16 3BA
Popular Scottish tenor and BBC broadcaster Jamie MacDougall fulfils a lifetime ambition to recreate Jimmy Logan’s acclaimed ‘play with tunes’ celebrating the life of Sir Harry Lauder. Paying his own tribute to the Scottish music...
18:00 - 19:00 Stromness Town Hall Church Road, Stromness KW16 3BA
A Johnsmas Foy See Event 1 for details. Tickets £17 Concessions £13 Duration 1 hour
11:00 - 12:30 Stromness Town Hall Church Road, Stromness KW16 3BA
Fresh from her new CD recording, Polish pianist Anna Szałucka surveys music from her homeland as it reaches 100 years since independence. Starting with the music of Chopin she investigates the works of the famous pianist, and Prime Minister of Po...
19:30 - 21:30 Stromness Town Hall Church Road, Stromness KW16 3BA
The Kapten Trio cross the centuries in their first concert at the Festival beginning with Beethoven’s well-known trio written just after he completed his Pastoral symphony. Its eerie slow movement gives rise to the added title “ghost&...
14:00 - 15:00 Stromness Town Hall Church Road, Stromness KW16 3BA
Behind the scenes at any recording studio, concert hall and Festival, one important, unseen member of the team is the piano technician. The modern grand piano is a feat of engineering and construction and needs to be in top condition to survive t...
10:30 - 11:30 Old Academy Stromness, KW16 3AW
FESTIVAL POET: JIM CARRUTH This year’s Festival Poet is Glasgow’s Poet Laureate, Jim Carruth, and he’ll read from his various collections in this hour-long event. Jim was born in Johnstone in 1963 and grew up on his parents&r...
12:30 - 13:30 Old Academy Stromness, KW16 3AW
FESTIVAL POET: JIM CARRUTH This year’s Festival Poet is Glasgow’s Poet Laureate, Jim Carruth, and he’ll read from his various collections in this hour-long event. Jim was born in Johnstone in 1963 and grew up on his parents&r...
14:30 - 16:00 Stromness Town Hall Church Road, Stromness KW16 3BA
ARGENTA TRIO Straddling three centuries of music, the concert begins with Schubert’s Op. 100 trio, one of his last works. Its epic scale and profound intensity show a composer of great maturity. Ravel’s Trio was completed just as W...
14:00 - 15:40 Stromness Town Hall Church Road, Stromness KW16 3BA
DAVID CHADWICK AND MARIT FÄLT Taking the Year of Coasts and Waters as their point of departure, David Chadwick and Marit Fält collaborate to explore the traditional music of Scandinavia, as well as its musical connections across the ...
10:30 - 12:00 Stromness Town Hall Church Road, Stromness KW16 3BA
TABEA DEBUS AND ALON SARIEL A specially created concert mixes poetry and prose against an eclectic musical backdrop. Taking the theme of the land, sea and the coastline of Scotland and mixing the poetry of Orkney poets George Mackay Brown, Edw...
10:30 - 11:50 Stromness Town Hall Church Road, Stromness KW16 3BA
LOTTE BETTS DEAN AND JESSE FLOWERS The wind blows us across the sea from the UK to Spain in this recital which features music old and new. Dowland’s lute songs are perennially popular with their rather melancholy moods and Britten takes ...
Meet the Artist: Alasdair Nicolson
by SMIF Young Reporter Kristopher Leask One of our series from Young Reporters for the Year of Young People 2018 #yoyp18 As the Festival direc Full Story...
Meet the Artist: Festival Chorus
by SMIF Young Reporter Rachael Batty One of our series from Young Reporters for the Year of Young People 2018 #yoyp18 Rossini Petite Messe Solen Full Story...
St Magnus International Festival, 13 Albert Street, Kirkwall, KW15 1HP
T: +44 (0)1856 871445
St Magnus Festival is a charity registered in Scotland. Scottish Charity No SC011666. Company Number SC073825.
