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​Sacred Arts Festival 2020

  Celebrating the Sacred Arts
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​SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

​In light of the uncertainty resulting from the corona virus crisis, the 2020 Edinburgh Festival Fringe has been cancelled, and with it, the 2020 Sacred Arts Festival. While this is a great disappointment, we are pleased to announce that, with the willing agreement of our performers and participants, the programme planned for 2020 will now be offered at the Sacred Arts Festival 15th-21st August 2021.

Some details may change. Please check back over the next few months.

Sunday 16th August, 2020
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10.30am Sacred Arts Festival @ Old St Paul's Church, Jeffrey Street
 
Sacred Arts Festival Opening Service
  HIGH MASS
for the Feast of the Assumption


INTROIT: Blessed is she who has believed  FRANCES MATTHEWS
​
MASS SETTING: Westminster Mass JAMES MACMILLAN
ANTHEM:       Salve Regina     GABRIEL JACKSON
 Director of Music: John P Kitchen MBE​

GUEST PREACHER: Rt Revd ANNE DYER 
   Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney
​


                                                                   
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7.30pm Sacred Arts Festival @ St Vincent's Chapel, Stockbridge

J S Bach Liebster Gott 
Vivaldi Gloria 
J S Bach Orchestral Suite no. 2 in B minor
​

Coro Vincenzo
Director Les Shankland
Leader Ruth Slater

                  

​Les Shankland has worked extensively with many choral and instrumental groups throughout Scotland. He co-founded Pocket Opera, an amateur company that specializes in taking small-scale opera performances to rural venues, and for two years was musical director of Edinburgh Grand Opera. He is Director of Music at St Vincent's Chapel, Stockbridge, and musical director of the Chapter House Singers.

​
Tickets £15 from the Fringe Box Office and at the door

Monday 17th August
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11am -4pm Sacred Arts Festival @ St Vincent's Chapel, Stockbridge

"The Art of Illumination"  a week-long exhibition by Helen White


​Illumination (the use of gold or other metals to embellish a painting), is an art which has its roots in the beautiful manuscripts produced in medieval times. 
Contemporary illuminator, Helen White, uses the same gilding techniques as her medieval predecessors, and her work is frequently inspired by medieval designs: sources include wood- and stone-carvings, tiles, fabrics, paintings, architecture and glass. Like the medieval craftsmen, she also looks to Creation for inspiration. Geometry underpins Creation - from the tiniest flower (and smaller) to the movement of the planets - and is a reflection of the beauty of Divine order. Using geometric proportions helps give harmony to designs. Helen delights in fine detail, and often introduces tiny jewels such as sapphires, amethysts and pearls into her work. This exhibition will include some of her 'illuminated rose windows', as well as her most recent work: a set of ' illuminated meditations'. 

Opening Talk @ 11am
"The Illuminator's Art"
Tickets £8 from the Fringe Box Office and at the door.

There will be a second opportunity to hear this talk at 11am on Saturday 22nd August
Helen White is a professional artist who uses traditional methods of working. She teaches at The Prince's Foundation School of Traditional Arts. Visitors to her exhibitions have commented on her work as being "Beautiful and peaceful'",   "Absolutely stunning'' "Exquisite craftsmanship".
PictureOlivier Messiaen (1908-1992)
           
 1.15-2.15 Sacred Arts Festival @ St Vincent's Chape
l, Stockbridge
 
​Olivier Messiaen's
Quartet for the End of Time

Calum Robertson, Director and Clarinet

Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, for clarinet, violin, cello and piano was written when Messiaen was a prisoner of war in German captivity and first performed in 1941 by fellow prisoners.  Inspired by verses from the Book of Revelation, it is widely regarded as one of Messiaen’s most important works.
​
Tickets £10 from the Fringe Box Office and at the door

Tuesday 18th August
10am - 4pm  Sacred Arts Festival @  St Vincent's Chapel, Stockbridge
"The Art of Illumination" . Exhibition by Helen White

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1.15-2.15 pm Sacred Arts Festival @ St Vincent's Chapel, Stockbridge


                  "The Art of Hymns" 
              John P. Kitchen MBE 
                Edinburgh City Organist

Many hymns are artistic gems, but familiarity leads to their musical and poetic brilliance being overlooked, and unfamiliarity leads to its being ignored. John Kitchen MBE, is uniquely well placed to uncover the great art that is to be found in hymns.  Well known as a virtuoso organist, choral director and early music scholar, his extensive recording portfolio of organ and harpsichord music is highly regarded. He is Edinburgh City Organist, University Organist and Honorary Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, and Director of Music at Old Saint Paul's Episcopal Church. He was appointed MBE in the 2016 Queen's Birthday Honours list.

​
Tickets £5 from the Fringe Box Office and at the door


5 -8 pm in Sacred Arts Festival @ New College on the Mound, Martin Hall 
FAITH in FILM
"Departures"
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Departures is a Japanese drama directed by Yōjirō Takita. A young man returns to his hometown having failed to make a career as a cellist, and takes a job as a traditional Japanese ritual mortician. He experiences the effect of social taboos against people who deal with death. Eventually beauty and dignity enable him to overcome this negativity.
​

 In 2008 Departures won a grand prize at the Montreal World Film Festival, and subsequently Picture of the Year in Japan. In 2009, it became the first Japanese production to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
 This screening will include a brief introduction, and will be followed by a discussion between an expert panel and the audience.

This screening is organized in conjunction with the Centre for Theology and Public Issues at the University of Edinburgh.

Free admission by ticket at the Fringe Box Office and the door. Donations invited
​

Wednesday 19th August
​

10am - 4pm Sacred Arts Festival @ St Vincent's Chapel, Stockbridge
"The Art of Illumination" . Exhibition by Helen White
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10am-4pm Sacred Arts Festival @ St Vincent's Chapel, Stockbridge
​

                  "Faith in Fabrics"
                     an exhibition of
                   Church Vestments
                                and
            Ecclesiastical Embroidery


 
​
TALKS                    
11am-12 noon     Rt Revd Ian Paton, Bishop of St Andrews     
                                                                                                "The Art of Vestments" 
                                                                          2.30-3.30            Zoe van Zwanenberg                                       
                                                                                                "The Art of Embroidery" 

                   
                                Free admission to the Exhibition (donations invited).
                               Tickets for each talk £8 from the Fringe Box Office and at the door.


Sponsored by the Diocese of Edinburgh. 

Thursday 20th August
10am - 4pm Sacred Arts Festival @ St Vincent's Chapel, Stockbridge
"The Art of Illumination" . Exhibition by Helen White

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1.15-2.15. Sacred Arts Festival @ St Vincent's Chapel, Stockbridge
                   
                  Sir James MacMIllan, composer, in conversation 
        "Composing Sacred Music for a Secular World",
                                   with the REID CONSORT


Sir James MacMillan is Scotland's most celebrated living composer. He has long combined his compositional gifts with his commitment to Catholic Christianity. In this lunchtime event, he will talk about his compositions as and expression of the relationship between faith and art, and the possibilities for sacred music in a world where the Church is no longer a major presence. The conversation will be interspersed by some of his compositions, performed by singers from the Reid Consort.

​Tickets £8 from the Fringe Box Office and at the door

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7.30pm Sacred Art Festival @ St Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral
     
 Pizzetti Messa di Requiem and 
​               
MacMillan Miserere
           Cole Bendall and the Reid Consort

Cole Bendall's work as a conductor and vocal coach has been lauded across the United Kingdom, and in 2017 he was awarded the Association of British Choral Directors Andrew Potter Bursary for emerging conductors. In addition to the Reid Consort, a pre-professional vocal ensemble based in Scotland, he directs the Surrey County Youth Choir. The many other groups with whom he has worked include the North London Chorus, Covent Garden Sinfonia, Hallé Youth Orchestra and university ensembles in St Andrews, Aberdeen and Edinburgh.
​
Tickets £15 from the Fringe Box Office and at the door

Friday 21st August
10am - 4pm Sacred Arts Festival @ St Vincent's Chapel, Stockbridge
"The Art of Illumination" . Exhibition by Helen White
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11am - 12noon Sacred Arts Festival @ St Vincent's Chapel, Stockbridge
​                    
                      The present moment of the past:
               Christian poetry as perpetual renewal

                                               Malcolm Guite


Malcolm Guite is a poet-priest and Chaplain of Girton College, Cambridge. He travels extensively in Great Britain, and North America, giving lectures, concerts and poetry readings, and is the author of eight books.

"Malcolm Guite has established himself as one of the leading Christian poets of our time" -- Jeremy Begbie, Duke University
​

"Malcolm Guite knows exactly how to use the sonnet form to powerful effect" ---. Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury
​

Tickets £8 from the Fringe Box Office and at the door


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1.15-2.15 Sacred Arts Festival @ St Vincent's Chapel, Stockbridge

Scottish Religious Art in Paint and Glass:
        The story of Robert Scott Lauder’s
             “Christ Teacheth Humility”


Dr Patricia Allerston, Deputy Director of European and Scottish Art,
Lesley Stevenson, Senior Paintings Conservator, 
Dr Freya Spoor, Assistant Curator, 'Celebrating Scotland's Art':
National Galleries of Scotland 


​Tickets £8 from the Fringe Box Office and at the door
                   



Saturday 22nd August
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10am- 3.15pm Sacred Arts Festival @ St Vincent's Chapel, Stockbridge 
                   "The Art of Illumination" . Exhibition by Helen White
Talk @ 11am 
"The Illuminator's Art" 
Tickets £8 from the Fringe Box Office and at the door


3.30  Sacred Arts Festival @ St Vincent's Chapel, Stockbridge
Choral Evensong

​
The Edinburgh Festival of the Sacred Arts gratefully acknowledged financial support from 
The Binks Trust
The Episcopal Diocese of Edinburgh
The Edinburgh Sacred Arts Foundation
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