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Internationally renowned violinist Midori brings two concerts to this year’s Festival, offering a fresh perspective on one of the greatest collections of music in the violin repertoire. With their colossal ambition, intellectual intensity and huge emotional scope, Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas stand at the pinnacle of solo violin music.
In her first concert, Midori sets the elegant Sonata in G minor against the rich, dense music of the C major Sonata. The eloquent D minor Partita concludes with the mighty Chaconne, one of the most powerful and demanding pieces ever written for a solo instrument.
By way of contrast, Midori begins the second half with Russian composer Alfred Schnittke’s brief yet poignant tribute to his forebear Shostakovich, in which she is accompanied by an invisible, ghostlypartner.
‘One wonders if there is a more purely and reliably satisfying violinist than Midori’ The Washington Post
This concert will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
Thursday 22 August 11.00amThe Queen’s Hall
Tickets£29 £26 £21 £17.50 £11 £8
1 hour 45 minutes approximately
eif.co.uk/midori1
Supported by Roxane Clayton

Author and broadcaster Paul Mason outlines the ways in which technology has enabled global protest movements and asks how the old political models of ruling and resisting are being undermined. Chairedb by Professor William Sweeney.
Supported by University and College Union Scotland, Scottish Federation of Entertainment Unions, Edinburgh Trades Union Council and National Union of Journalists Edinburgh Branches.
Monday 12 August 5.00pm
The Hub
Tickets £6
1 hour approximately
eif.co.uk/interfaces
Special Offer – Buy a ticket for 4 to 6 events and save 20%– Buy a ticket for 7 to 10 events and save 30%

A two-dimensional, cinematic black-and-white woman of yesteryear struggles to break free of the social, economic and political straitjacket of the time, while a three-dimensional woman of here and now struggles to what…? Break free…? Of what…? When the unfulfilled soul of a fictional woman surges down through the years to infuse a living and breathing woman with longing what happens, and, truly, how free is free?
A stunning and stirring fusion of live performance, fantastical filmed imagery and innovative digital technology, Madame Freedom dances with the classic Korean film of the 1950s of the same name, as well as with themes of identity, myth, and a sense of being trapped by the past. It tells the story of an ordinary woman and her dreams – of different lives, of different selves – and the choices that she can orcannot make.
‘Analogue body dances with digital video.’ The Hankyoreh
Tuesday 20 & Wednesday 21 August 8.00pmKing’s Theatre, Edinburgh
Tickets£30 £24 £16 £12
1 hour approximately
eif.co.uk/madamefreedom
Supported byKorean Ministry of Culture, Sports and TourismKorea Creative Content AgencyKorean Cultural Centre UKKorea Arts Management Service

Professor of Communication, Arts and Religion Jolyon Mitchell hosts a discussion with historian,broadcaster and author Bettany Hughes and Mona Siddiqui, Professor of Islamic and InterreligiousStudies, on the relationships between research and the media and the demands of addressing differentaudiences.
Thursday 29 August 5.00pm
1 hour approximately
The Hub
Tickets £6
eif.co.uk/university

He is renowned as one of the finest artists of the Renaissance – but Leonardo da Vinci was also one of the greatest anatomists the world has ever seen.
Leonardo da Vinci: The Mechanics of Man explores the artist’s groundbreaking work in anatomy. His studies of the human body are presented alongside state-of-the-art modern medical imagery, revealing a Renaissance man centuries ahead of his time. This Royal Collection Trust exhibition includes 30 sheets of  Leonardo’s work, each crammed with studies and notes made in the artist’s distinctive mirror-writing.
Many of the drawings were produced during the winter of 1510-11, when Leonardo made some 20 human dissections. This work allowed him to illustrate almost every bone in the human body and many of the major muscle groups with astonishing accuracy.
On Leonardo’s death, his anatomical studies remained among his personal papers and were lost to the world for hundreds of years. Had they been published at the time, they would have formed the most influential work on the human body ever produced. Five hundred years on, comparisons with CT and MRI scans show that Leonardo’s work is still relevant to scientists today.
2 August – 10 NovemberThe Queen’s Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse
Opening hoursAugust 9.30am – 6.00pm, late opening Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays until 8.00pm;
September – November9.30am – 6.00pm; last admission one hour before closing time
TicketsAdult £6.25; 60 and over £5.70; under 17 £3.15; family £16.00
eif.co.uk/leonardo
The award-winning Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomy app is available from the iTunes App Store

Regarded as one of the world’s great period-instrument orchestras, and acclaimed for its pristine playing and the emotional depth of its performances, Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble brings two concerts of Schubert symphonies – some little-known, others rightly celebrated – to the Festival under its founder, French conductor Marc Minkowski.
Schubert wrote his lively First Symphony at the remarkable age of 16, and his intimate Fifth Symphony, imbued with elegance and poise, sparkles with the influence of Mozart.
To end the concert, Minkowski directs what is probably Schubert’s most famous orchestral work, the ‘Unfinished’ Symphony. Although the composer completed only two of its four movements, it is one ofhis most beautiful creations, combining searing emotion with gloriously lyrical melodies.
‘one of the most breathtakingly beautiful concerts to be heard in this country for some time’ The Guardian
Wednesday 14 August 7.30pmUsher Hall
Tickets£42 £35 £26 £24 £17 £12
1 hour 50 minutes approximately
eif.co.uk/louvre1

Using instruments and playing styles that the composer himself would have known, Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble conclude their survey of Schubert symphonies with the composer’sgrandest and most ambitious contribution to orchestral music.
Schubert’s ‘Great C major’ Symphony is considered by many to be the greatest 19th-century symphony after Beethoven. It earnt its nickname because of its sheer majesty and grandeur, and its ambition is clear from the noble horn melody that opens the work right through to the urgent, restless momentum of its finale.
Before it, Minkowski conducts the charmingly lyrical Third Symphony, a.graceful, humorous piece that Schubert wrote at the age of just 18.
Thursday 15 August 7.30pmUsher Hall
Tickets£42 £35 £26 £24 £17 £12
1 hour 50 minutes approximately
eif.co.uk/louvre2

As we spend more time online or attached to a mobile device and with increasing amounts of information being generated and captured, Jon Oberlander, Professor of Epistemics at the University of Edinburgh, explores the cost to privacy of this new technological power. Chaired by Guardian journalist Aleks Krotoski.
Saturday 10 August 2.30pm
The Hub
Tickets £6
1 hour approximately
eif.co.uk/interfaces
Special Offer – Buy a ticket for 4 to 6 events and save 20%– Buy a ticket for 7 to 10 events and save 30%

A brilliant programme of modern masterworks from one of the hottest names in dance. Benjamin Millepied brings his new company to the UK for the first time, following his huge success as choreographer and star of Darren Aronofsky’s award-winning film Black Swan.
L.A. Dance Project is an artist collective founded by Millepied, composer Nico Muhly, art consultant Matthieu Humery, producer Charles Fabius and film producer Dimitri Chamblas. At the peak of his career, after starring with New York City Ballet, Millepied embarks on a new adventure.
‘The eclecticism is admirable. All three works look remarkably “now”. The dancers tackle their diverse challenges with skill.’ The New York Times
‘The biggest dancer to cross over into pop culture since Mikhail Baryshnikov.’ The New York Times
Quintett
William Forsythe Choreography (in collaboration with Dana Caspersen, Stephen Galloway, Jacopo Godani, Thomas McManus and Jone San Martin)Stephen Galloway Costume designerWilliam Forsythe Lighting designer
Forsythe’s seminal work, set to Gavin Bryars’s emotional and elegiac Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet, is a moving final love letter to his wife before she died.
Winterbranch
Merce Cunningham  ChoreographerLa Monte Young  Music (2 Sounds)Robert Rauschenberg  Décor and costume designerBeverly Emmons  Lighting designer (based on concepts by Robert Rauschenberg)Jennifer Goggans  Staging (assisted by Robert Swinston)
This dramatic work features costumes by Robert Rauschenberg and a score, 2 Sounds, by La Monte Young. Merce Cunningham talked about two ‘facts’ of dancing – the act of falling, and unless one stayson the ground, the subsequent act of rising. The dancers engage in a series of falls, in both slow and fast motion, eventually clustering together to fall and rise united as a cohesive group.
Moving Parts
Benjamin Millepied  ChoreographyNico Muhly  Music compositionChristopher Wool  Visual installationKate and Laura Mulleavy (of Rodarte)  Costumer designersRoderick Murray  Lighting designer
A new work by the group’s founding choreographer.
Saturday 24 – Monday 26 August 7.30pmThe Edinburgh Playhouse
Tickets£30 £27 £22 £17 £12 £10
2 hours approximatelyeif.co.uk/ladance
Sponsored byBaillie Gifford Investment Managers
Supported byDunard Fund
With additional support from Embassy of the United States of America, London
Monday 26 AugustTouch Tour 6.15pm Audio Described 7.15pm
 
 

Minimalist composer Philip Glass’s magical reimagining of Jean Cocteau’s 1946 La Belle et la Bête combines the classic black and white film with live performance in a sophisticated work that is at once a touching fairy tale and a meditation on creativity.
Removing the film’s original dialogue track and score by Georges Auric, Glass replaces them withhis own scintillating music, played live by the Philip Glass Ensemble, the dialogue sung by vocalistssynchonised live with the screen.
The result boldly harnesses movie technology to create a stunning synthesis of opera and film,as Cocteau’s bewitching storytelling is matched by some of Glass’s most evocative music in anunforgettable tale of love triumphing over greed.
Saturday 10 & Sunday 11 August 8.00pmThe Edinburgh Playhouse
Tickets£35 £28 £22 £16 £14 £12
1 hour 30 minutes approximately
eif.co.uk/labelle
Supported byEwan and Christine Brown