The “can’t” has already grabbed the headlines. The Scottish government’s delay in announcing its arts funding plans has had a knock-on impact on planning throughout the sector in Scotland and 2025 will see what Benedetti is describing as a “more compact programme” for the Edinburgh International Festival as a result.
There will be no large-scale opening event, a curtain-raising feature of the last decade, and there may well be a scaling back of concerts in the Usher Hall.
As for the “can”, already announced are a world premiere from Scottish Ballet based on the story of Mary, Queen of Scots, the first full-length narrative ballet choreographed by Sophie Laplane, and a new Australian take on Gluck’s opera Orpheus and Eurydice. This will be the European premiere of an Opera Queensland production starring Grammy winner Iestyn Davies as Orpheus and Australian soprano Samantha Clarke as Eurydice, alongside acrobats from Fringe favourites Circa. It will also see the European debut of the American National Youth Orchestra 2, the first fruit of a new three-year creative partnership with Carnegie Hall.
Benedetti, 37, has now two festivals under her belt as director, so she has her feet firmly under the cultural table. As a world-renowned violinist, of course, she has a long association with the festival, but what has surprised her now that she’s at the heart of it?
“Very little has surprised me, but one thing that is most striking is the work ethic, the passion around the job that everyone does.
And what has she learned about herself?
“I would say that it’s confirmed that I really thrive being around that many people for an entire month and love it. That I really like people.”
Well indeed. So much so she’s had one of her own. Last year saw Benedetti doubling up as festival director and new mum. Her daughter was born a few weeks before the festival began. Just another in the long line of responsibilities she faced last August, presumably.
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“Not to diminish the importance of another whole being,” she says, laughing, “but I think that is pretty accurate really. She was very young so I could carry her around with me quite easily and she travelled around the festival pretty successfully.”
Things may be more difficult next year, Benedetti concedes. And not just in parenting terms.
It’s impossible to look beyond the issue of funding in the Scottish arts sector at the moment and if the EIF is on more solid ground than many others that’s not to say it hasn’t been hit by the Scottish government’s delays in announcing what it is committing to the arts until next year.
“Given the current uncertainty of public art funding in Scotland we have planned prudently for the 2025 festival, which means practically we will present a more compact programme and be increasingly reliant on income from earned ticket sales and the generosity of those who support us,” Benedetti admits.
“But we are driving towards our 80th anniversary in a couple of years. We have an ever increasingly ambitious plan.”
But you can’t really plan without knowing what resources you have. The festival – along with 280 other organisations – had applied for funding for the next three years. A decision was expected last month but has now been delayed until 2025.
“We don’t know what settlement that will be,” Benedetti admits.
“After all of the positivity and relief around the potential to be able to plan for three years in a row without the nail-biting cycle of ‘What are we going to get this year?’, we are now in a situation where the jubilation of a three-year funding bid has been dampened slightly given the ongoing delays. It makes it very difficult for all of us to plan in the way we would like to.”
How frustrating is that?
“It’s very frustrating. For us it’s frustrating, for some organisations it’s heartbreaking and has literally stopped productivity. People don’t know who they are going to be able to pay. Our organisation is very old and has a lot of checks and balances, but it doesn’t mean we’re immune on any level.”
And this uncertainty and resulting financial squeeze has consequences, not just on the programme but in a wider way. After all, the festival is an important element of Scotland’s “soft power”, Benedetti argues. It brings representatives of governments from all over the world to Edinburgh, she points out. That’s a measure of its international reach and importance.
In the light of that, she says, “for us to have to programme a reduced festival is difficult.
“But,” she adds, “we have to look at our picture in relation not only to other organisations struggling within the arts but all civic institutions and their struggles too. We are all very much in the pipe together. It doesn’t make it easier, but we’re not in a singular situation.”
Since she took over the reins as director, one of the themes of Benedetti’s time in charge has been that each festival is themed. Last year it was “Rituals That Unite Us.” Next year it will be “The Truth We Seek”, which feels, let’s face it, painfully timely.
But the idea of “truth” has been weaponised these days. Given that we live in an increasingly polarised world, how does a festival walk that line?
“Look, the world is always polarised. It’s just more or less so depending on where you live. The world is a huge, huge place and you can say you live in London and that means entirely opposing things depending what part of London you occupy. The same can be said of Edinburgh.”
The recent American election and even the UK election may have been divisive, she says, “but in actual fact that polarisation is ongoing and is consistent if you are to take a worldview.”
She cites the Edinburgh International Festival’s own origin story in 1947. It was born, she reminds me, “immediately off the back of direct conflict and combat and genocide and the most horrific atrocities human beings are capable of.
“And it’s really interesting to juxtapose that against a principle of reconciliation and one that is not side-taking. It’s one that we have to scrutinise at every single turn and we scrutinise it in who we invite to the festival.”
And art remains the best way to address the big questions, Benedetti believes. It is, she points out, “one of the most powerful tools we have to impact mind and body and heart all at once.” And, she adds, to change perspectives.
To talk to Benedetti is to talk to someone who seems in this for the long run.
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She is keen to continue the diversification of how the festival presents orchestral music, to enhance the digital experience and build on the programme of debates and conversations. “I think for us as an organisation to stay in the experimental space is vitally important.”
And, she adds, to emphasise the festival’s Scottishness. She gets very animated when I suggest some might sometimes see it as something of an alien imposition.
“More than 50 per cent of our artists are based in Scotland, so that’s just a completely false narrative about the festival. We are as rooted in Scotland as we are outward looking. And who we put on the stage represents that fully.
“That ranges from up and coming new artists that are Scottish who we particularly want to champion to those who have huge international careers who perhaps don’t perform in Scotland all that much.
“I think there has historically been a misrepresentation of that mix of Scottish to international, but I would say with my time at the festival we are doubling down on how that story is told and who we actually put on stage.”
For Nicola Benedetti the future is already here and it speaks with a Scottish accent.
