Due to Covid restrictions in place at the time, soundfestival 2020 was split over two weekends - October 2020 and January 2021 - and featured a mix of livestreamed and pre-recorded performances, films, and conversations.
The festival continued its “Endangered Instrument” theme with a focus on the horn and featured performances from BBC Young Musician 2016 Finalist, Ben Goldscheider, the Guild of Hornplayers, the Rookh Quartet, Richard Watkins and Ensemble Court-Circuit, and a number of new works for horn by composers including Tansy Davies, Jane Stanley, Drew Hammond and Tim Jackson.
Other highlights included performances from Any Enemy, Red Note Ensemble, Ensemble Court-Circuit, EXAUDI, Hebrides Ensemble, Scottish Opera, Sarah Watts, Laura Bowler, Ruth Morley, Richard Watkins, Richard Ingham, Pete Stollery, Xenia Pestova-Bennett, Roger Williams and Ruth Wall; premieres of new works by composers including John De Simone, Ben Lunn, Laura Bowler, Deirdre McKay, Carmel Smickersgill, Amble Skuse and many more; film screenings; and live conversations and Q&A's where we delved deeper into the artists' works.
"soundfestival provided exactly the music you didn’t know you needed in our challenging current times, but which you really did."
David Kettle, The Scotsman, October 2020
