Journey through music from Europe, Africa and the Americas, from the Baroque period and beyond.Jordi Savall has dedicated decades to the rediscovery and appreciation of early music, and his many accolades now include the 2026 Ernst von Siemens Music Prize (often called the Nobel Prize of Music), recognising a lifetime of outstanding contributions.  He returns to the Festival after previous performances with his versatile Hespèrion XXI ensemble.Hespèrion XXI is known for pioneering interpretations of repertoire from the medieval to the Baroque periods. They join Jordi Savall’s Catalan singers, La Capella Reial de Catalunya, and Mexican trio, Tembembe Ensamble Continuo, to connect musical languages and influences across Europe, Africa and the Americas.  The ‘sea of music’ honours the millions of victims of the global slave trade and speaks to the cultural legacy of migration and diaspora that shapes our world today. The programme explores Mexican and Spanish repertoire from the Baroque period and expands outwards to embrace music from the 15th to 19th centuries.Supported by Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) and the Embassy of Spain

British sculptor Anne Hardy transforms Talbot Rice Gallery into a sentient, immersive space.British artist Anne Hardy’s sculptures are an accumulation of cast elements, found materials and earth drawings. She creates a synthesis between the fragility and resilience of human bodies, evolving technologies and the remnants of everyday objects.Hardy’s pioneering approach to the technology of exhibition-making brings each space of the gallery to life. She uses light, sound, data and scenography to extend the influence of sculpture into the very fabric of the rooms.Grafting seemingly incompatible contexts one into the other – a colossal monument into an interior gallery; an archaeological dig into an historic building – she studies how our bodies respond to space and sensory stimuli, creating an atmosphere that will cast spells over the room.Talbot Rice Gallery is the public art gallery of Edinburgh College of Art / The University of EdinburghPlease note that the venue does not currently have level access due to major refurbishment of the liftThis exhibition runs from Sat 27 June – Sun 27 Sep. Opening times are Tue – Sat 10am – 5pm. During the 7–30 August, the exhibition is open Mon – Sun.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s choral masterpiece is performed for the first time at the Festival, with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and conductor Rafael Payare.Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's monumental cantata trilogy, The Song of Hiawatha (1899), became a sensation in the early 20th century, regularly selling out the Royal Albert Hall. Inspired by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem about an Ojibwe warrior, the now rarely performed piece is one of Coleridge-Taylor's greatest achievements.  With colourful orchestration and imaginative choral writing, the work explores themes of celebration (Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast), mourning (The Death of Minnehaha) and transcendence (Hiawatha’s Departure). Among the memorable solo numbers are the tenor’s romantic ‘Onaway! Awake, beloved!’ and the baritone’s impassioned ‘Farewell, said he, Minnehaha’. Join the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, conductor Rafael Payare, a trio of star soloists including Scottish tenor Nicky Spence, and the Edinburgh Festival Chorus for the first Festival performance of this choral masterpiece. We have invited Uchenna Ngwe, a specialist in Black British classical music, to introduce its fascinating history.  She will be joined by Anton Treuer, an Ojibwe author, professor, and public speaker.The orchestra’s second concert, Voices of Canada, features Canadian Indigenous voices and contemporary compositions – their two concerts truly in conversation with each other. with additional support from The Québec Government Office in London Sung in English with surtitlesColeridge-Taylor The Song of Hiawatha

Rediscover Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben, alongside new vocal works paying tribute to Canada’s Indigenous peoples and work by Gabriela Ortiz.In the second concert of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM), Rafael Payare invites audiences to a conversation across time with a powerful programme of music culminating in Richard Strauss’s sumptuous tone poem Ein Heldenleben. With a stirring battle episode, ardent love music and playful quotations from the composer’s earlier works, it is a musical self-portrait both mischievous and deeply moving that takes full advantage of the possibilities of a large orchestra.This monumental staple of the late Romantic period is paired with carefully selected contemporary pieces. Indigenous Canadian sopranos Emma Pennell and Elisabeth St-Gelais join the orchestra for two powerful new vocal works confronting history, memory and the lived experience of Indigenous communities in Canada today.Alongside these, Gabriela Ortiz’s cello concerto Dzonot summons an evocation of the subterranean rivers, caves and stunning wildlife of Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula. Ortiz, also featured in the LA Phil’s programme, described it as a ‘form of protest’ responding to our neglect of these valuable ecosystems. It was written for cello soloist Alisa Weilerstein, who plays with ‘directness and insight… technical prowess and depth of feeling’ (The Guardian).Together, they encourage audiences to approach Strauss anew, inviting questions on voice, identity, and our relationship to the natural world.Supported by Léan Scully Endowed Fund with additional support from The Québec Government Office in London

Internationaal Theater Amsterdam reimagines Tony Kushner’s masterpiece in an epic performanceTony Kushner’s Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes is an epoch-defining work of American theatre. Set at the height of the AIDS crisis, yet enduringly relevant, we follow the story of two very different people grappling with their diagnoses – former drag queen Prior and vindictive lawyer Roy Cohn.Kushner has credited this radical reworking from director Ivo van Hove and Internationaal Theater Amsterdam (ITA) as his favourite version of the play. Taking place on a minimal set accompanied by a David Bowie soundtrack, both parts of the play are combined into one epic performance.    Returning to the Festival after their innovative works, A Little Life (2022) and Penthesilea (2024), ITA presents another pioneering production showcasing their signature wit, stagecraft and incisive storytelling. Angels in America is a gripping and hilarious work reminding us that while change and death are inevitable, the choice to love can be transformative.   Interval NotesThe performance unfolds in two parts: Millennium Approaches and Perestroika, with a 45-minute interval between them. Grazing boxes are available to pre-order.Supported by Sir Ewan and Lady Brown with additional support from Robin and Vivienne† Menzies, Performing Arts Fund NL and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Performed in Dutch with English surtitles 

Celebrate the power of collaboration through joyful, community-led performances in Princes Street Gardens.We invite you to stroll through Princes Street Gardens in the heart of the city, and delight in pop-up performances throughout the afternoon.Experience vibrant music and dance from across Scotland and the US, in this collaborative event inspired by our 2026 Festival theme, All Rise.We gather together for the culmination – a heart-expanding, jaw dropping moment of collective expression inspired by the final, soulful movement of Wynton Marsalis’s All Rise.Full details to be announced, sign up to our mailing list to be the first to know.In collaboration with Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival

WORLD PREMIEREA world exclusive collaboration between classical superstar pianist Yuja Wang and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.An Edinburgh International Festival commission, this is a unique opportunity to experience star pianist Yuja Wang performing with these titans of jazz. Discover a programme of pieces selected by Wang and Wynton Marsalis, Artistic Director and founder of JLCO. These pieces have been specially arranged for Wang’s charismatic artistry to combine with the jazz orchestra’s infectious spontaneity and flair.  Please note: the 6pm performance is now on limited availability. There is still good availability for tickets for 9pm performance.Selection of works to be announced

Start your day with a stunning programme of spirituals, folk songs and hymns.  Conductor and composer Jason Max Ferdinand formed his choir to champion Black excellence through an eclectic range of choral literature. Founded during the pandemic, the Jason Max Ferdinand Singers have fast gained international renown for their ‘bold, impassioned sound’ (The Guardian). Following their Festival debut in All Rise, they present a wide-ranging and emotionally potent programme in this more intimate performance.At its heart are inventive arrangements of traditional spirituals, songs and hymns. These include John Stoddart’s dramatic choral rhapsody on Soon I Will Be Done and Donald Dillard’s energetic take on the spiritual Didn’t It Rain, Norman Luboff’s tender arrangement of the Welsh hymn All Through the Night.Other items include stirring choruses by Ludwig van Beethoven, soulful contemporary compositions by Jacob Collier, James Mulholland and Jason Max and Meka Ferdinand’s celebration of the birth of their youngest child.  Supported by Geoff and Mary BallSung in English with English surtitles

Join the acclaimed Jason Max Ferdinand Singers in a lively gospel workshop.The American ‘uber-talented choir’ (Rolling Stone), led by Jason Max Ferdinand, invites you to join a gospel singing workshop. The workshops are ideal for enthusiastic singers who want to find out more about gospel singing – perhaps you’re already in a choir or can read music.Jason Max Ferdinand leads the workshop with John Stoddart on piano. Together, you’ll learn songs from the origins of gospel music to the present day.The choir’s versatility has brought them to perform at a wide scope of events, from showcasing their ‘bold, impassioned sound’ (The Guardian) at their BBC Proms gospel concert, to performing on Saturday Night Live alongside Coldplay and Jacob Collier.You can also experience their talents in our Opening Concert: All Rise, as well as at The Queen’s Hall.  Please note: We have reached capacity for soprano and alto singers for both workshop times. If you would still like to register, you will be added to the wait list and contacted if a place becomes available.

Dan Daw returns to the Festival with his bold and triumphant dance-theatre workHow do you continue to value yourself when society doesn’t value you? EXXY (Australian slang for, ‘that’s expensive, mate’) takes us back to where queer, disabled artist Dan Daw began – working class, with very little.Dan returns to the Festival after last year’s The Dan Daw Show, this time joined by three extraordinary performers who move like him. Together, they conjure up the tantalising possibility of blending in after a lifetime of standing out. With raw honesty and scorching stagecraft, they ask what it costs to stay at the top of your game when you’ve always been made to feel on the outside.  Visually provocative and threaded with humour, EXXY refuses to offer easy answers. Instead, it invites us into the contradictions Dan Daw embodies: bold yet insecure, triumphant yet uncertain, longing for community, yet determined to be one of a kind. Before each performance there will be an Access Drop-In session. Find out more.There's More Included in your ticket is an afterparty across all floors of the newly refurbished King's Theatre – dance and mingle with the company in a joyful and inclusive party atmosphere. 

Join us for an unconventional, inquisitive and convivial conversation, inspired by our Festival theme.The Global Ideas Stage features intimate dialogues followed by a panel discussion between Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, filmmaker Ken Burns, lawyer and social justice activist Bryan Stevenson and journalist Amy Goodman.Edinburgh has long been a crucible for ideas. Two and a half centuries ago, pioneering thinkers like Adam Smith and David Hume mingled in coffeehouses, openly debated theories, and envisioned leaps forward in how we understand markets, morality, and the threads that bind human society.Today, the world faces challenges that demand the same combination of insight and imagination, and Edinburgh has become a festival city, spawning ideas and creativity that will shape our future.In collaboration with Professor Adam Dixon and Panmure House, the last home of Adam Smith, we are proud to present a bold new form of public discourse. Curated and hosted by Harvard University professor and award-winning author Sarah Lewis, alongside Festival Director Nicola Benedetti, the inaugural Global Ideas Stage will unite extraordinary thinkers and cultural leaders on stage at the newly redeveloped King’s Theatre. Expect surprise performances from stars of the 2026 programme.Supported by James and Morag AndersonAdditional support for the Festival's return to the King's Theatre is provided by Sir Ewan and Lady BrownCreated in collaboration with Panmure House and Heriot Watt University.

PART OF THE ANDERSON OPERA SERIESZurich Opera presents Giuseppe Verdi’s stunning opera, A Masked Ball, filled with desire, treachery and political peril.Love and deception swirl at the center of Giuseppe Verdi’s stunning opera A Masked Ball (Un ballo in maschera) from Zurich Opera House. Riccardo, the Governor of Boston, is in love with his best friend’s wife. Caught between love and loyalty, Riccardo risks everything – his political standing and even his life. Verdi’s exquisite music comes to life with Gianandrea Noseda conducting Orchestra of the Zurich Opera House. Noseda’s passionate conducting style is perfectly suited for the high-stakes drama central to A Masked Ball. Two stellar casts alternate between performances, with ill-fated lovers Riccardo and Amelia played by Stephen Costello and Elena Stikhina (26 and 30 August), and Piero Pretti and Erika Grimaldi (27 and 29 August).Originally inspired by the assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden, Verdi’s subject matter proved too controversial, forcing him to relocate the opera's setting from Sweden to Boston. Now, ‘razor-sharp’ (The Guardian) Welsh director Adele Thomas adds a fresh twist, transporting it to the opulent American Gilded Age, where sinister rumours threaten to spin this ordered world into chaos.Supported byThe Anderson Opera Series, made possible by James and Morag Anderson, allows the Festival to bring internationally acclaimed opera to Edinburgh and ensures these unmissable performances remain accessible to the widest possible audience.With additional support from the Embassy of Switzerland in the UK, the Swiss Cultural Fund UK and the Consulate General of Italy in Edinburgh.Performed in Italian with English surtitlesWhere two performers are listed for one role, the second person named will perform that role on 27 and 29 August.