The Human Spirit
The Edinburgh International Festival is one of the most important cultural celebrations in the world. Established in 1947 in the aftermath of a devastating world war, the founders believed that the Festival should enliven and enrich the cultural life of Europe, Britain and Scotland and ‘provide a platform for the flowering of the human spirit’.
From the beginning the Festival has presented programmes of classical music, opera, theatre and dance of the highest possible standard, involving the best artists in the world. Founders of the Festival included Rudolf Bing, then the General Manager of Glyndebourne Opera, Henry Harvey Wood, the Head of the British Council in Scotland, and a group of civic leaders from the City of Edinburgh.
In October 2006, Jonathan Mills, the newly appointed Festival Director, gave the Sir William Gillies Lecture at the Royal Scottish Academy. He remembers:
‘The Edinburgh International Festival owes its origins to the urgent imperative to rebuild a sense of community in a continent that had been torn apart by the tragedy of World War II; to restore faith, to heal the heartache of shattered lives through music, opera, drama, dance, literature, painting; to pick up the fragments of a civilisation shaken to its core by the atrocities of Leningrad or Auschwitz. In the words of John Falconer, Lord Provost at the time, it was to be a festival whose ambition was to "embrace the world".’
The role of the Edinburgh International Festival is as relevant today as it was in 1947. The Programme Development Department of the Festival works with people of all ages throughout the year continuing to ‘provide a platform for the flowering of the human spirit’. Its unique programme stems from the work of Festival artists and aims to make connections between art and people, ensuring that the Festival is brought to many who may not otherwise experience it.
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