East Neuk Festival giant sand portrait urges support for young musicians

East Neuk Festival has put the spotlight on the plight of young musicians in an immense sand portrait drawn onto Elie beach.

Article Source: East Neuk Festival
Last Updated: 30 June 2021 10:33

Amid growing fears of the devastating impact the pandemic will have on the future of our next generation of musicians, a picture of a young trombonist accompanied with the call to action “It’s time to let them play” was etched into the sand of the Fife beach this week.

Created and designed by Sand in Your Eye, the eye-catching beach art heralds the beginning of the East Neuk Festival which takes place in indoor and outdoor venues along the beautiful eastern stretch of Scotland’s coastline from Thursday to Sunday (1-4 July).

East Neuk Festival Director, Svend McEwan-Brown, said: “Multiple lockdowns have caused irreparable damage to all musicians’ lives and careers, and we witness with dismay the especially harsh impact the crisis is having on those in their first years as professional performers. Millions of opportunities have been lost to these young people all over the globe, and while the scale of this crisis puts it well beyond our reach to resolve, we certainly can play our part in creating opportunities and supporting excellence and creative endeavour as much as we possibly can.”

The East Neuk Festival has been committed to nurturing young and emerging talent since it was founded in 2004. Its celebrated artist development programme, the ENF Retreat, offers young musicians the opportunity to develop their artistry through a residency of workshops and mentoring leading to public performances at the festival.

Today the festival announces that its latest ENF Retreat Residency will be undertaken by young jazz composer, vocalist and storyteller Nishla Smith. Partnering with scientists from St Andrews University’s School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, Smith will develop a song cycle called ‘Aether’ for voice and improvising ensemble exploring impacts of the climate crisis across different environmental settings. The project will culminate in a development residency with the ensemble, and a performance of the new work at the 2022 ENF alongside the creation of a short film which will document the partnership, research, creative and rehearsal processes.

Svend McEwan-Brown continues: “We have always keenly felt our responsibility to support musicians in the early years of their careers and remain committed to offering opportunities that we hope will help to take them forward and allow them to develop profile and build a career. This year we have continued to offer opportunities through our ENF Retreat programme and we open our festival concert series with two young pianists making their debuts. We are delighted to be announcing Nishla’s residency. A wonderful performer with an enquiring mind, I'm really looking forward to seeing how her project develops.”

Nishla Smith comments: “For a while now I’ve been thinking about how I can use my artistic practice to create something meaningful in response to the environmental problems we face as a society. In ‘Aether’, I wish to broach my anxieties and hopes in a way that I also find artistically meaningful. I want to create something that balances the seriousness of the subject matter with some moments of hope and optimism.”

Since the ENF Retreat was founded, a family of players has been built and the festival’s investment in these young musicians continues beyond their time spent in their residency. Many return to perform at the festival including violinist Benjamin Baker who this year will perform alongside guitarist Sean Shibe at the converted barn The Bowhouse at St Monans.

Drawn at low tide and washed away as the tide comes in, the drawings are temporary installations. Another portrait was revealed yesterday to local residents in Elie. A picture of Mozart alongside a caption by the renowned pianist Paul Lewis, the drawing celebrates Lewis’ East Neuk Festival debut which will take place at the converted barn, Bowhouse, at St Monans this weekend featuring music by the composer.

McEwan-Brown: “Having been moved by comments Paul made last year regarding how he had been drawn to Mozart’s music during lockdown, I wanted to feature this wonderful quote from him in our second sand drawing portrait. We look ahead in excitement to his ENF debut this weekend and to hearing Mozart’s beautiful piano music here in the East Neuk.”

The 2021 East Neuk Festival will take place Thursday to Sunday (1-4 July) with al fresco performances, pop-up events, digital performance, art installations, community-led projects, & radio broadcasts promising a rich festival experience for audiences in Fife and beyond. ENF’s new and customised Band in a Van will travel around the East Neuk giving pop-up performances for local audiences and a large-scale labyrinth inspired by the contours of the Fife Coastal Path route will be created in the grounds of the National Trust for Scotland’s Kellie Castle. Following an open call to the local community, a film capturing the sights and sounds of life during a day in the East Neuk will be shown at the Dreels Hall in Anstruther.

Making it possible for audiences across the UK and internationally to make a daily visit to ENF without leaving their home, the festival will also release specially recorded performances by oud player Rihab Azar, violinist Benjamin Baker, Castalian Quartet, guitarist Sean Shibe, The Tallis Scholars, and pianist Llŷr Williams each day of the festival at 10am (1-4 July) at eastneukfestival.com.

These daily digital ‘festival visits’ will be available free of charge for four weeks after the festival with audiences invited to make a donation to support the festival as it prepares for a full return in 2022.

Ticket income typically makes up 20% of ENF budget, and in the current situation the festival cannot hope to realise anything like this in 2021. This gives the festival even greater reason to be profoundly thankful for its loyal patrons, donors, funders, partners and supporters who have shown immense generosity in the difficult times since March 2020. The East Neuk Festival also gratefully acknowledges the support of Creative Scotland and EventScotland, part of VisitScotland’s Events Directorate.

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East Neuk Festival giant sand portrait urges support for young musicians

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