About our Residency programme

We welcome three outstanding and vividly contrasting ensembles to the 2024 International Festival. Taking up residency during the Festival run in August, these ensembles offer us in-depth and unique perspectives on the inner workings of their collective sound and ambitions. Residencies make time and space for the ensembles to deepen their connection with Edinburgh’s communities – from primary school pupils to our homegrown rising stars. The union between artists and audiences flourishes.

Philharmonia Orchestra (21-25 Aug)

One of the world’s most innovative orchestras comes to us with three monumental contrasting works. Founded in 1945, Philharmonia is a uniquely self-governing orchestra where their stellar musicians are at the centre of its creativity and take full responsibility for its direction.

In August 2024, Philharmonia brings us evocative tales of community and tragedy and existential matters of life and death – all of which illuminate the power of our Festival’s core art forms.

They begin with the UK premiere of Julia Wolfe’s Fire in my mouth(21 Aug): an impassioned elegy for the victims of New York’s 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Then, in collaboration with Edinburgh Festival Chorus, Philharmonia takes on Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem (24 Aug) to tell the story of Judgement Day through dramatic choruses and exquisite solos. In a family-friendly rendition Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending, our Festival Director Nicola Benedetti performs the instantly recognisable soaring violin solo. In the lead-up to the Family Concert (25 Aug), head to our new Community Hub to put on a VR headset and become fully immersed in the orchestra. To end on a high, Philharmonia triumphantly closes our Usher Hall series with Richard Strauss's final opera, Capriccio(25 Aug).