Orkney, Scotland Orkney, an archipelago of some 70 islands—20 of them inhabited—lies 10 miles north of the northern tip of Scotland. I first visited the islands when I was 11, on a school trip. The ...

And it was given a welcome re-run (on the summer solstice, no less) as part of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s second concert at the St Magnus International Festival in Orkney, what must surely be ...

"People just went running off into the woods, going for walks to the middle of nowhere, sleeping out in the fields." Cate Le Bon is describing the inspiration behind her current album Cyrk. The scene ...

Orkney’s St Magnus Festival celebrates the 80th birthday of Peter Maxwell Davies, who helped establish the event in 1977 Orkney’s St Magnus Festival celebrates the 80th birthday of Peter Maxwell ...

“We don’t have an orchestra this year.” Festival Director Alasdair Nicolson is talking about the absence of a big ensemble at Orkney’s St Magnus International Festival – which, he explains, is ...

YOU could call it musical excavating. Given that the Orcadian archipelago is so richly endowed with neolithic and other antiquities, perhaps it's only appropriate that Sarah Jane Gibbon, founder ...

They were on a mission to solve a mystery that had been vexing music fans for the last 16 months. In the spring of 2021, Scottish composer Erland Cooper recorded a new album, permanently deleted the ...

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies helped start the St Magnus Festival in Orkney 40 years ago. Helen Mark visits to hear about his legacy and the history of music in the Northern Isles. Show more Orkney has a ...

An album by the “Banksy of classical music” that lay buried in Orkney for more than a year before being unearthed by fans has topped the UK classical chart. Scottish composer and producer Erland ...

Still, you don’t travel to St Magnus for the weather – and with artistic director Alasdair Nicolson’s gratifyingly eclectic programme keeping festival-goers occupied morning, noon and and well into ...

There is no other event, certainly in Scotland, that blurs the boundaries between community arts and the professional world as relentlessly as Orkney's St Magnus Festival. It would be more true, in ...