Aberdeen Sound Festival announces 20th anniversary programme

Aberdeen’s soundfestival is set to return next month with a programme celebrating 20 years of championing new music. Running from 19 to 27 October , the festival will see returning artists including Graham Fitkin who has performed with the festival since its inception, and Dame Evelyn Glennie, who performed the festival’s first ever commission.

Since its founding, the festival has commissioned over 200 new works, supporting both established and emerging composers. The 2024 edition is set to present further commissions by composers including Joanna Nicholson, Annabel Kershaw, Nwando Ebizie and Laura Bowler, as well as a special project bringing together local new music and youth ensembles Any Enemy and Get Creative together with Con Anima chamber choir.

Festival director Fiona Robertson said: ‘When we put on our first festival in 2005 little did we think that 20 years later we would not only be continuing to champion new music in an annual festival, but we would also be running a year-round programme of activities introducing new generations of people to new music whilst supporting both established and emerging composers. It has been a roller-coaster ride with challenges coming from many angles, not least the impact of Covid on the performing arts, but throughout it all we have been blown away by the music and music making, by the enthusiasm of audiences and participants, and by seeing so many young people taking part in music projects at a time when music has become increasingly sidelined in schools.’

This year’s festival will see a continuation of the Northern Connection partnership launched in 2023, which links associate ensemble Red Note Ensemble (Scotland) with Ensemble Temporum (Norway) and defunensemnble (Finland). Immersive installation Dialects of the Deep, will run alongside the programme, exploring humanity’s connection with the sea through found objects and an ocean-inspired soundscape.