A Celebration of Classical Music Comes to Perth Festival of the Arts 2024

A classical concert series showcasing international talent, European premieres and exclusive Scottish performances takes centre stage in Perth city's 12-day Arts Festival, which opens later this month. 

Between 22 May and 1 June, Perth Festival of the Arts will host over 40 events in cultural venues and outdoor spaces around the city. While the 52-year-old Festival's diverse programme showcases headline acts such as comedian Rory Bremner and DJ Craig Charles, the Festival's classical music roots continue to strongly influence this year's line-up.

The Festival opens on 22 May with a ground-breaking production of The Magic Flute performed in the Scots language by Scots Opera Project. Boasting a cast of Scotland's operatic stars, the production reimagines Mozart's classic opera as it plays out in an asylum.

On 23 May one of Scotland's leading chamber music collectives, Hebrides Ensemble, makes their debut at the Festival with a new programme, ‘The Auld Alliance', celebrating the bonds between France and Scotland. On May 24th, Tenebrae choir under the direction of Nigel Short returns to a near sell-out audience with ‘A Prayer for Deliverance', exploring themes of rest and repose.

In one of only two Scottish dates, the Czech National Symphony Orchestra perform at Perth Concert Hall on 25 May, with a crowd-pleasing programme including Dvorak's Slavonic Dances, Beethoven's Seventh Symphony and Bruch's beloved Violin Concerto with prodigiously talented soloist Chloe Hanslip.

A mid-week treat on 29 May delights as visiting European ensemble, Il Giardino d'Amore perform The New Four Seasons. The concert takes audiences through the explosive energy and joyful diversity of Vivaldi, Piazzolla and Richter, promising a theatre experience with costumes, lighting and projections.

A brass band concert on Saturday 1 June is not to be missed, featuring the European premiere of a stunning animated film to complement a live performance of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition by one of the world's finest brass bands, The Fairey Band. The band's Principal Cornet, Dundee-born Iain Culross, will perform Alexander Arutunian's virtuosic and energetic Trumpet Concerto.

Festival Director Helen Band commented: “We're especially excited by our 2024 classical music line-up, which sees award-winning chamber groups, choirs and orchestras on the bill. We've introduced a new audio-visual dimension to our programme this year, where audiences can explore sound and animation together, as part of immersive classical music performances. From Pictures at an Exhibition to The New Four Seasons – you won't see these unique concerts anywhere else in Scotland this season.”

The classical line-up continues with Scottish Opera's pop-up opera and Children's Classic Concerts on Saturday 25 May and two genre-bending mid-week events on 27 and 28 May: New Focus Duo, The Classical Connection with pianist Euan Stevenson and saxophonist Konrad Wiszniewski who consider the relationship between jazz and classical music, and an entertaining talk by Mick Doran, Principal Percussionist of ENO Orchestra that invites you into the real world of an orchestral musician.

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