The 2026 Edinburgh International Festival programme will mark the 250th anniversary of American independence with its largest-ever representation of American artists.
The Festival opens with Wynton Marsalis’s “All Rise”, a jazz symphony in 12 movements, featuring 200 performers on stage. It will strike a thematic note for the 24-day Festival, running from 7-30 August.
“Our 2026 Edinburgh International Festival is an invitation to All Rise,” says EIF director Nicola Benedetti.
“It's a rallying cry to artists and audiences to stand with us, in our belief that through artistic endeavour we will see each other more truthfully and more tolerantly,” Benedetti adds, describing the USA as “a nation whose ideals of freedom sit alongside deep hypocrisy."
Jazz Residency
EIF 2026 will see the first-ever jazz ensemble residency, from Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, as Wynton Marsalis - Benedetti’s husband - prepares to step down after four decades as its founding artistic director.
It’ll be performing Duke Ellington's groundbreaking Black, Brown and Beige and a world exclusive collaboration with piano virtuoso Yuja Wang, performing new arrangements by the Orchestra and Marsalis.
Elsewhere in the programme the spotlight on the USA includes the return of San Francisco Ballet to the EIF for the first time in over 20 years with the European premiere of Aszure Barton’s AI-themed Mere Mortals. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra perform the live score in this reimagining of the Pandora’s Box myth.
The Los Angeles Philharmonic returns, under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel in his final year and tour as the orchestra's Music & Artistic Director.
Over at the newly renovated King's Theatre two productions will offer more reflections on America: Internationaal Theater Amsterdam's epic five-hour staging of Tony Kushner's Angels in America, the epoch-defining work of the AIDS crisis, and Geoff Sobelle's Clown Show, a darkly satirical portrait of the modern American Dream.
The Festival’s 147 performances will see artists from a total 44 countries, with five world premieres and ten works commissioned by Benedetti in her fourth programme as Festival Director.
The Festival programme also includes seven post-show talks, two exhibitions, and a dedicated Global Ideas Stage offering deeper opportunities to unpack the themes shaping the world today.
Other highlights in the programme include:
The Berliner Philharmoniker with conductor Kirill Petrenko and soloist Augustin Hadelich.
For fans of Opera: the world premiere of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek's The Galloping Cure confronting the global opioid crisis, is performed by Scottish Opera and conducted by Stuart Stratford; the UK production premiere of Verdi's A Masked Ball from Zurich Opera House, set in America's opulent Gilded Age; and operas in concert Don Giovanni (Mozart) from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Chorus with conductor Maxim Emelyanychev and Elektra (Strauss) from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with conductor Karina Canellakis, each featuring internationally acclaimed soloists including Nina Stemme and Louise Alder.
Theatrical highlights
The theatrical line-up also includes a first-time collaboration between award-winning Brazilian director Christiane Jatahy and Wagner Moura (recent Golden Globe winner and Oscar-nominated actor) in A Trial - after An Enemy of the People, a modern-day courtroom continuation of Henrik Ibsen's classic. A Trial also marks the first chapter in a historic three-year commissioning collaboration between Edinburgh International Festival, Holland Festival and Festival d'Avignon.
Theatre that foregrounds themes of resilience, exile and belonging, including Khashabi Theatre's retelling of epic poem 'Al-Sirah Al-Hilaliyyah', Jaha Koo's Haribo Kimchi set in a Korean snack bar, Mario Banushi's visually strong Taverna Miresia - Mario, Bella, Anastasia, and the UK premiere of Olympique Dramatique's innovative [seagull], an adaptation of Chekhov in Flemish Sign Language.
Dance highlights
The dance programme sees the UK premiere of Ihsane from double Olivier Award-winning choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, exploring how the world changes in a never-ending cycle of destruction and rebirth, whilst Groupwork's When Prophecy Fails delves into collective belief through the psychology of a 1954 UFO doomsday cult and Dan Daw's EXXY reclaims space for disabled artists.
Classical concerts
The Queen's Hall concert series launches with a new commission of Passion of Mary Magdalene from leading baroque ensemble Dunedin Consort, and features performances from Vilde Frang and Sean Shibe, as well Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Makoto Ozone with the Kleio Quartet, while there’s a series of concerts in tribute to the late Alfred Brendel. An evening performance in The Queen's Hall sees a world premiere collaboration between Scottish smallpipes player Brìghde Chaimbeul and Scottish Ensemble.
The wider orchestral programme nets Orchestre symphonique de Montréal performing two concerts with conductor and music director, Rafael Payare.
Jordi Savall, Hespèrion XXI, La Capella Reial de Catalunya and Tembembe Ensamble Continuo honour the millions of victims of the transatlantic slave trade in A Sea of Music, and the trailblazing National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America return as part of a three-year collaboration with Carnegie Hall.
Informal beanbag concerts return to the Usher Hall, featuring a Festival debut from the Sinfonia of London with the music of Hollywood's Golden Age and a Brass Fanfare tribute to the late inspirational trumpeter John Wallace.
Festival Chorus and Hub
From Scotland, the Edinburgh Festival Chorus and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra take on Mahler's epic Das klagende Lied led by Sir Donald Runnicles, and the Colin Currie Group celebrates the work of Steve Reich, including a world premiere of Festival co-commission In All Your Ways.
The Hub, the Festival's home on the Royal Mile, will host an expanded number of spontaneous Up Late sessions curated by Mark O'Connor, Gustavo Dudamel, Donald Shaw and Nicola Benedetti.
Further performances include musicians from the Aga Khan Music Programme, Senegalese dance band Orchestra Baobab, Mercury Prize-shortlisted Glasgow group corto.alto and contemporary Celtic musicians Gnoss, RÓIS, and Simon Thoumire, as well as Routes to Roots, a project led by Catriona Price in collaboration with Argentinian ensemble El Guapo.
Family Events
Events for families include the Scottish premiere of Hostile, a one-man Spaghetti Western from French theatre company Bakélite, a Family Concert from the inspirational Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) alongside their Scottish peers Big Noise, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, and the International Festival's interactive workshops for children and families, the Art of Listening, in Space @ The Broomhouse Hub.
Visual Arts
In visual art and talks, the first international exhibition of Alabama’s The Legacy Museum presents The Legacy of Slavery in the Playfair Library, charting the history of racial injustice in America as well as Scotland’s links to slavery, while British sculpture artist Anne Hardy transforms Talbot Rice Gallery with a site-specific solo exhibition turning the iconic Georgian Gallery into an immersive ‘found object’.
The Global Ideas Stage curated and hosted by Harvard University professor Sarah Lewis and Nicola Benedetti promises a bold new form of public discourse with world-leading thinkers and cultural icons live on stage at the newly-refurbished King’s Theatre.
A series of illuminating post-show talks with creative teams complements seven productions in the opera and theatre programme.
Ticket deals
Over 50,000 tickets for the 2026 International Festival will be available for £30 or less, including £10 'give it a go' tickets for all events in the programme, encouraging audiences to try something new.
Thousands of free tickets through the Young Musicians Pass for 8-18-year-olds and Tickets for Good for NHS staff, charity workers and low-income benefit recipients, will also be available across the programme.
Nicola Benedetti, Festival Director, Edinburgh International Festival said:
"At moments of uncertainty, the arts offers a space to gather, to question and to imagine differently. Join us this August as we rise together - through the dark, the dazzling, the challenging and the transformative. In doing so, we celebrate not only artistic excellence, but the resilience and flourishing of the human spirit."