50 years of islands arts festival which started off 'on a sofa with a telephone'

Now the St Magnus Festival in Orkney is celebrating its 50th anniversary with the creation of its own Festival Orchestra and a specially-written piece to pay tribute to a much-loved island cat.

The premiere of Jasper the Kirkwall Cat, a new large-scale work by Alasdair Nicolson written for the Festival Orchestra and local children, will tell the story of Jasper, who prowled Kirkwall’s high street, and even had his own Facebook profile - who died in 2023.

The outdoor parade through the centre of Kirkwall will also return this year, while a special exhibition will celebrate 50 years of the festival’s history.

Festival director Alasdair Nicolson said the festival had been founded by composer Peter Maxwell Davis, who moved to Orkney in the 1960s, as well as local poet and author George Mackay Brown.

He said: “They were at the head of the the initiative, but lots of other local people made it happen. It really all happened on a sofa with a telephone.

“We have an office and a very small team these days. But to start with, it was very much everyone mucking in and putting people up in their own houses. The technical crew was gathered from people who were willing to heave scenery about and move lights.

“It very quickly caught as an idea and the magic of the place, Orkney, captured the imagination.”

He said the Jasper the cat work was “a piece I've been threatening personally to write for some time” in the style of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf.

He said: “Jasper was a resident of the street where the festival office is, and he used to visit us quite regularly, and come and sit at my desk.

“He also used to visit many of the other shops as well, he patrolled the place like it was his own. Sadly, he he passed away a couple of years ago, but struck me as a nice piece for kids, to make a musical story.”

He said the 34-person strong Festival Orchestra would be part of the 50th anniversary celebrations.

He said: “Often we've had orchestras coming in that have a profile already. This year, we're gathering a lot of musicians together to form an orchestra on site. It means that those musicians are around for a longer period of time.”

The popular Festival Club returns after several years hiatus, settling in The Neuk at The Albert Hotel. Regular slots from Orcadian fiddler Eric Linklater’s house band.

Meanwhile, a performance will be dedicated to trumpeter and former principal of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, John Wallace, who died earlier this year. The Invisible Symphony in St Magnus Cathedral is early Venetian composer Gabrieli’s work transcribed by Mr Wallace who had a long-held ambition for the work to be performed in Kirkwall’s Cathedral. The performance will be a collaboration between Mr Wallace’s The Wallace Collection and Glasgow-based The Cooperation Band, which has won the Scottish Championships 36 times.

The festival’s storytelling strand will include a performance by poet Len Pennie, as well as Linden Bicket discussing her literary biography of Ann Scott-Moncrieff, born Agnes Shearer on Orkney in 1914.

The festival will run from 19 to 28 June.