A massive brass ensemble filling a large farm building just outside St Monans with sound and film accompaniments. A Citreon van with a band playing spontaneous concerts wherever the driver stops. These are just two of the attractions at East Neuk Festival this year.
In between these two contrasting events there’s a veritable encyclopaedia of reasons to be in one of the most wonderful festival locations between June 29 and July 3.
World class classical music
World renowned classical music performers include pianists Elisabeth Leonskaja, who will be playing Beethoven’s final three sonatas and Schubert piano trios, and Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy, whose programme includes the piano-duet version of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.
String quartets, wind quintets and the festival’s orchestra in residence, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra offer everything from Hadyn to hoolies as the Elias String Quartet’s violinist – and fiddler – Donald Grant presents his arrangements of Scottish traditional tunes.
Music from East Africa and the Middle East
There’s folk music also from Eastern Africa, the Middle East and the North-East of England as Kenyan singer and multi-instrumentalist Rapasa Otieno joins forces with Newcastle-based fiddler and composer Frankie Archer.
Syrian-born, London-based oud virtuoso Rihab Azar returns in duo with singer-songwriter Luke Daniels to blend traditional and contemporary music with experimental electronics.
Anstruther Town Hall hosts flamenco, from guitarist Daniel Martinez’ ensemble, and jazz, in a fusion with North African and Turkish traditions, from cellist Shirley Smart’s trio and a celebration of Hollywood’s swinging heyday with clarinettist Julian Bliss’s septet.
Light the Lights, in the Bowhouse near St Monans on July 1, is an event in itself, led by Gandini Juggling, a company at the vanguard of contemporary circus.
Music, lights and juggling
Known for collaborating with musicians, composers, choreographers, dancers, orchestras and opera companies, their latest production will feature acclaimed, boundary-pushing guitarist Sean Shibe and violinist Benjamin Baker in a one-off performance of music, lights and juggling.
As well as giving a talk on the stars of vintage comedy films, such as Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Laurel & Hardy, leading early Hollywood expert and silent film accompanist, pianist Neil Brand plays for a double bill of classic Buster Keaton adventures in Crail Church Hall on 30th June.
The big event, Thunderplump
Neil Brand is also involved in the festival’s centrepiece, the big project, Thunderplump at the Bowhouse on June 29.
Inspired by Scotland’s weather, in all its tumultuous magnitude and powerful diversity, Thunderplump is the creation of Brand in partnership with film-maker David Behrens, whose work added an extra dimension to the festival last year.
Film a big brass sound
Comprising a sequence of new and archival film and original music, it features up to 100 young brass players led by stars of brass John Wallace and Tony George (founders of the renowned Wallace Collection) and includes Fife Youth Jazz, directed by Richard Michael, and Tullis Russell Works Band.
Other attractions include a huge labyrinth in the shape of a map of the East Neuk, designed by festival director Svend McEwan-Brown, in the grounds of Kellie Castle.
There’s also a music, lighting and juggling spectacular in Cambo Garden on July 2.
With all that and more, there’s enough going on to grab audiences’ attention from morning until late evening on these five summer days and nights.
