The Bridge Festival in Glasgow

A new festival celebrating music for strings, will be taking place across Glasgow from 21-24 April 2022. The Bridge Festival is being presented by four collaborating organisations from the UK, Germany, Norway, and Estonia - Scottish Ensemble, Trondheim Soloists, Ensemble Resonanz and PLMF Music Trust.

Each organisation will present a headline concert, as well as creating collaborative events, with contributions from visual artists and musicians from non-classical genres. The festival opens with its most significant collaboration, Nachtmusik; over forty string musicians, including all three ensembles as well as musicians from the PLMF Music Trust umbrella, will take to the stage at Glasgow’s Barrowland Ballroom performing a programme that centres around commissions from two very different composers, Mica Levi (UK) and Erkki-Sven Tüür (Estonia). 

PLF Music Trust will be presenting a concert of music by Estonian composers, focusing on four influential 20th-century figures, Jaan Rääts (1932-2020), Heino Eller (1887-1970), Helmut Rosenvald (1929-2020), and Rudolf Tobias (1873-1919), plus contemporary composer Erkki-Sven Tüür, . The Scottish Ensemble will be collaborating with composer Anna Meredith and visual artist Eleanor Meredith, whilst Ensemble Resonanz will present its award-winning urban string chamber music club night. And Trondheim Soloists perform a programme that moves from Grieg to Britta Byström, as well as including the Norwegian national instrument, the Hardanger Fiddle (Hardingfele).

But The Bridge is more than just a festival, it is a four-year project - 1 network, 12 audience development events, a summer academy, a 4-day multi-event festival, a bespoke website, and a film, delivered across Scotland (UK), Germany, Norway and Estonia.

Further information from the website.