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Edinburgh International Festival: Opening Concert: All Rise

Edinburgh International Festival: Opening Concert: All Rise

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About This Event

The Edinburgh International Festival's Opening Concert, All Rise, is set to take place at the Usher Hall on August 8 at 6:30pm. This magnificent jazz symphony, inspired by Wynton Marsalis's work of the same name, showcases the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra under Marsalis's direction. The grand composition, comprising 12 movements, draws on a wide range of musical influences to create a rich, emotive soundscape that promises to captivate the audience. By bringing together a diverse array of musical styles, the orchestra's performance will deliver a complex and thought-provoking portrayal of the human experience. The concert offers a unique opportunity to immerse oneself in a major work of contemporary jazz in the intimate and atmospheric setting of the Usher Hall. As the festival's opening event, it sets the tone for the excitement and musical diversity that Edinburgh International Festival has to offer.

JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESTRA RESIDENCY Start your Festival with this resplendent jazz symphony embodying the human condition from Jazz at Lincoln Center and its Musical Director, Wynton Marsalis. Wynton Marsalis’s magnificent work, All Rise, is the inspiration behind this year’s Festival theme. This massive jazz symphony in 12 movements, a tribute to the 12-bar blues, blends musical influences from around the world in a full-blooded expression of the human condition. It traces a journey from birth, play and self-discovery, through pain and sacrifice, to maturity and joy. Teeming with the multiplicity, contradiction and surprise which life brings us, the music swings from juba to blues, via a New Orleans funeral and the rhythms of a train, to classical and jazz, in an exhilarating conversation. Marsalis and his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra join forces with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Edinburgh Festival Chorus and Jason Max Ferdinand Singers – all under the baton of the renowned James Gaffigan. With over 200 performers on stage, this glorious ‘thunder’ of a work is a monumental opening to our Usher Hall series. Arrive early to enjoy pop-up performances and refreshments.

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Frequently asked questions

Edinburgh International Festival: Opening Concert: All Rise takes place on Saturday, 8 August 2026 at 19:30.

Edinburgh International Festival: Opening Concert: All Rise is held at Usher Hall in Edinburgh (Lothian Road, Edinburgh West EH1 2EA).

Tickets for Edinburgh International Festival: Opening Concert: All Rise can be booked via whatsoninedinburgh.co.uk using the "Check Tickets & Live Prices" button on this page, which opens the official booking site in a new tab.

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