Plans for 2027 East Neuk Festival announced, artistic director Svend McEwan-Brown’s last

Stockhausen’s Donnerstags-Abschied at the 2026 East Neuk Festival [Photo: Neil Hanna]

Next year’s East Neuk Festival (ENF), which runs from 30 June to 4 July 2027, will be Svend McEwan-Brown’s last as artistic director as he steps down after 23 years. Svend McEwan-Brown has been instrumental in shaping the festival’s 5-day programme of music since it began and the 2027 festival sees a number of favourite performers returning including Elisabeth Leonskaja, Elias Quartet, Pavel Haas Quartet, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra who have performed at every festival since the beginning.

There will be a festival debut for Swedish nyckelharpist Erik Rydvall. The nyckelharpa is a Swedish keyed fiddle (with some similarities to the hurdy gurdy) which has been coming into prominence in both classical and folk music since the early 20th century (the 1995 Eurovision Song Contest winner used the instrument, and  English composer Natalie Holt used nyckelharpa for background score of the Disney+ series Loki). The other festival debutant is the vocal ensemble The Marian Consort.

Svend McEwan-Brown in Anstruther at the 2025 East Neuk Festival

Svend McEwan-Brown, Artistic Director said: “Not many people are so lucky as to get to co-found and direct a festival and be given so free a hand with it. It has been a life-changing pleasure, and I count my blessings: I thank Donald and Louise MacDonald, the wonderful ENF team and audience, and of course, the many performers who have given us all so many great memories. After 23 years at the helm, I also think that it is time now for someone else to be given the chance to bring all of their imagination and a fresh take on the possibilities ENF offers. I look forward to seeing who takes over and where they go with this lovely event.“

ENF was the idea of Donald (ENF President) and Louise MacDonald who co-founded it with Svend McEwan-Brown in 2004. It exists because of their belief in the joy and power of live music and its potential to transform lives and life. 

In any given year, their smallest project might be a concert in a tiny space for 30 people. Their biggest project to date was 2016’s Memorial Ground. Commissioned from David Lang, Memorial Ground is a work for amateur and professional singers, a choral commemoration of the centenary of the Battle of the Somme. This UK-wide commission which involved thousands of people throughout the UK and nearby Europe. 

Since 2015, the ENF Retreat has offered exceptional young musicians a matchless opportunity to spend time with outstanding world-class players, to learn both specific repertoire and also more general aspects of musical wisdom that will influence their work for years to come. Or to work on a project of special importance to them

Read more at the festival’s website.