Wed 22 Mar 2006

The Edinburgh International Festival 2006 presents a world class programme of performances bringing creative and innovative minds from across the globe to Edinburgh. A programme of workshops and events runs behind the scenes year round to open up the Festival experience to a wider range of children and adults.

Bank of Scotland Connecting to Music, the Festival’s flagship education project, goes from strength to strength, widening its reach in 2006. Each year 36 schools in Edinburgh bring pupils to The Hub, home of the Edinburgh International Festival, to take part in workshops that encourage the children to develop listening and appreciation skills in response to music.

This year in addition to the annual programme of Edinburgh schools, the Bank of Scotland Connecting to Music workshops will tour to East Lothian and Glasgow.

There will be the opportunity for Bank of Scotland staff to get involved. Staff and their children are invited to attend a special Bank of Scotland Connecting to Music workshop on the final weekend of the Festival focussing on Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, the music for this year’s Bank of Scotland Fireworks Concert. Staff in Bank of Scotland contact centres in Motherwell, Dundee and Dunfermline will also have the opportunity to attend workshops in their workplace in June and August this year.

EIF and The Herald newspaper continue to work together to introduce young people from four more Edinburgh schools to the process of arts criticism. The Young Critics project culminates in the opportunity to review performances at the Festival, with selected reviews printed in The Herald.

This year sees the first on stage collaboration between the Edinburgh International Festival and the new National Theatre of Scotland, Anthony Neilson’s Realism. Alongside the production there will be a series of workshops around Scotland using drama and imagination to explore how minds work. Details will be announced shortly.

Following on from last year’s pilot scheme, the National Theatre of Scotland and EIF will again mount an informal New Director’s Scheme which gives developing directors extended access to EIF’s theatre programme and the directors and companies performing at Festival 2006.

Throughout the Festival there are chances to learn more about the shows and the artists performing. Lunchtime Talks subjects include The work of Michel Houellebecq, Balanchine’s Don Quixote, Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida, and The National Theatre of Scotland. Artists appearing in the Conversations with Artists series include Calixto Bieito, Suzanne Farrell, Peter Stein, Donald Runnicles, Simon Keenlyside and Richard Goode.

ENDS

For further information please contact Susie Burnet in the EIF press office on 0131 473 2020, press@eif.co.uk