FESTIVAL 2022

FESTIVAL 2023 SUN 13TH - SAT 19TH AUGUST
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2022 saw the Edinburgh Sacred Arts Festival in the Fringe expand from its base at St Vincent's Chapel to six other venues in central Edinburgh.  Here's a summary of the events held at each venue.

St Vincent's Chapel, Stockbridge
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Thursday 18th/Friday 19th/Saturday 20th August    The Art of Illumination - an exhibition by contemporary illuminator Helen White.  Helen also gave a talk on the process, craftmanship and inspiration behind her creations.  Read the review here.
Henry Purcell - Music Sacred and Secular directed by Les Shankland with the Howe Street Band led by Ruth Slater.  A concert performance of Purcell’s celebrated opera Dido and Anaeas alongside the sumptuous verse anthems Purcell composed for the Restoration Chapel Royal.  With bass Sean Webster and soprano Libby Crabtree.  Read the review here.
Friday 19th August    Love of Creation: poetry's power for the present.  Poets Christine De Luca, Elspeth Murray and flautist Katherine Wake revealed how poetry and music can bring to mind a sense of nature as creation and gift. 
Saturday 20th August    The closing service of the Edinburgh Sacred Arts Festival with Les Shankland directing The Chapter House Singers in choral evensong.

Old Saint Paul's, Jeffrey Street 
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Sunday 14th August    The opening service for the Edinburgh Sacred Arts Festival which co-incided with the Feast of the Assumption.
Tuesday 16th/Wednesday 17th August   Cutting Edge Theatre performed Hope Rises - a contemporary drama on the life of Jesus incorporating the huge space of Old Saint Paul's.
Friday 19th August    In Every Corner Sing  - directed by John Kitchen, the choir of OSP sang a programme of music featuring Vaughan Williams and Macmillan.

St Michael and All Saints, Brougham Street
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Sunday 14th August     Divine Dance presented John the Baptist and the Bees, told in movement, music, words, dance and pictures with dancer Tamar, wordsmith Lizzie Smith and harpist Dara Watson.  Read the review here.

Canongate Kirk, The Royal Mile
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Wednesday 17th August      Calum Robertson's Quartet played Oliver Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time written when Messiaen was a prisoner of war in 1941 and considered one of his most important works.  With Allison Stringer (violin), Simon Smith (piano), Christoff Fourie (cello) and Calum Robertson (clarinet).

St Mary's Catholic Cathedral, York Place
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Monday 15th August      Schola Cantorum Sings MacMillan.  Sir James MacMillan,  Scotland’s most distinguished composer and Patron of Music at St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral, discussed his faith and his music with Michael Ferguson, Director of the Schola Cantorum.  Read the review here.

Church of the Sacred Heart, Lauriston Street
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Sunday 14th/ Monday 15th August     Painting the Way of the Cross    Fr Adrian Porter sj, rector at Sacred Heart Jesuit Church, gave a talk and tour of Bavarian artist Peter Rauth's monumental 19th century Stations of the Cross murals,  the largest of their kind in Europe. 

Mansfield Traquair, Mansfield Place
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Tuesday 16th/Thursday 18th          ‘Painting Heaven on Earth’   A talk by Prof Gordon Graham about the spectacular murals painted between 1893 and 1901 for the former Catholic Apostolic Church in Edinburgh by Phoebe Anna Traquair. The talk was followed by a tour of the restored building with guides from the Friends of Mansfield Traquair.  Read the review here.
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