With her quick wit and sharp observations, Kelsey Cook is a stand-up comedian who feels like your best friend. Kelsey can turn her most embarrassing moments into relatable conversation, as she tours clubs nationally and connects with her growing audience online. Kelsey’s one-hour special “The Hustler” was released on YouTube in 2023 and currently has 2.6 million views. She's performed on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon multiple times, as well as This is Not Happening, EPIX's Unprotected Sets, NBC's A Little Late with Lilly Singh, and most recently After Midnight on CBS. You can check out Kelsey’s podcast with Chad Daniels, entitled ‘Pretend Problems’. With over a billion streams across his 8 albums, Chad Daniels is one of the most listened-to comedians of all time. A Minnesota native, Chad has spent over 20 years touring the country, bringing his sharp wit to audiences nationwide. He's made 6 late-night appearances and is one of only 13 comics ever featured on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. Chad's latest special, EMPTY NESTER, recently premiered on Netflix. Chad co-hosts the podcast PRETEND PROBLEMS with his fiancée Kelsey Cook, as well as Middle of Somewhere with his buddy Cy Amundson.

Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and pianist Makoto Ozone join the Kleio Quartet for this unusual programme.The Kleio Quartet – BBC New Generation Artists and winners of the 2023 Carl Nielsen International Chamber Music Competition – made an ecstatically received Festival debut in 2024. Now the ensemble joins forces with star cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and genre-defying pianist Makoto Ozone to perform two great quintets. Franz Schubert’s String Quintet is one of the pinnacles of the chamber music repertoire. Completed just weeks before his death, it contains a world of emotions, from agitation to exuberance to serenity. Its poignant slow movement is especially beautiful. It is paired here with Béla Bartók’s rarely performed Piano Quintet. This early masterpiece blends the luscious melodies and textures of late Romanticism with elements of Hungarian folk music – especially in the rhapsodic finale. Supported by Niall and Carol Lothian 

Start your Festival with this resplendent jazz symphony embodying the human condition from Jazz at Lincoln Center and its Musical Director, Wynton Marsalis.Wynton Marsalis’s magnificent work, All Rise, is the inspiration behind this year’s Festival theme. This massive jazz symphony in 12 movements, a tribute to the 12-bar blues, blends musical influences from around the world in a full-blooded expression of the human condition.It traces a journey from birth, play and self-discovery, through pain and sacrifice, to maturity and joy. Teeming with the multiplicity, contradiction and surprise which life brings us, the music swings from juba to blues, via a New Orleans funeral and the rhythms of a train, to classical and jazz, in an exhilarating conversation.Marsalis and his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra join forces with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Edinburgh Festival Chorus and Jason Max Ferdinand Singers – all under the baton of the renowned James Gaffigan. With over 200 performers on stage, this glorious ‘thunder’ of a work is a monumental opening to our Usher Hall series.  Arrive early to enjoy pop-up performances and refreshments. Supported by Sheila Colvin Sung in English with surtitles

WORLD PREMIEREA world exclusive collaboration between classical superstar pianist Yuja Wang and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.An Edinburgh International Festival commission, this is a unique opportunity to experience star pianist Yuja Wang performing with these titans of jazz. Discover a programme of pieces selected by Wang and Wynton Marsalis, Artistic Director and founder of JLCO. These pieces have been specially arranged for Wang’s charismatic artistry to combine with the jazz orchestra’s infectious spontaneity and flair.  Selection of works to be announced

Join the LA Phil, conductor Gustavo Dudamel and singers from the Los Angeles Master Chorale for a feast of sonic beauty. The Grammy Award-winning partnership of Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil are joined by singers from the ‘perennially superb’ (New Yorker) LA Master Chorale for the first concert of their International Festival residency, filled with rhythmic vitality and sonic beauty.Ludwig van Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony is irresistible, from the dignified and passionate theme of the second movement (a beloved choice for film soundtracks including The King’s Speech) to the sweep-you-off-your-feet melody of the finale.Dudamel has stated: ‘Gabriela Ortiz’s music speaks to both the body and the spirit, full of visceral primal rhythms and mysterious, soul-searching melodies’. Her glittering ballet score Revolución diamantina (Glitter Revolution) – inspired by Mexican feminist protests against state violence towards women – is a powerful and celebratory work. Ortiz plays on repetition to evoke the tenacity and relentless pursuit needed to enact change. The LA Phil performs the UKScottish premiere of this piece, which they commissioned in 2023.This is Dudamel’s 17th and final year as the LA Phil’s Music Director – don’t miss the chance to experience their legendary partnership live.Supported by Dunard Fund  with additional support for this concert from Edinburgh Napier University Sung in Spanish with English surtitles 

Let your hair down at the last night at The Hub, with Capercaillie-founding folk musician Donald Shaw and friends.Scottish musician Donald Shaw’s multi-faceted career began when he founded the folk group Capercaillie while still at school. He has since collaborated on over 100 albums and composed award-winning TV and film soundtracks that instantly conjure up Scotland for millions of listeners worldwide.  Shaw performs alongside an elite troupe of folk musicians. Whistle and pipes join bouzouki, bodhrán, accordion and step dance to bring a wealth of Scottish folk music to life.  Expect a toe-tapping, barnstorming Festival finale.   Supported by Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo

Discover the magic of classical music in this joyful concert for children and their grown-ups.A perfect introduction to the excitement of the concert hall, our Family Concert welcomes children and their grown-ups to hear not one, but two orchestras playing together. The LA Phil’s youth orchestra, YOLA, provides young people from underserved communities with instruments, music instruction and opportunities to perform. They are joined by Scotland’s very own Big Noise, a music programme that changes lives by fostering confidence, discipline and teamwork in the young people taking part.  Together, they present a selection of high-spirited classical pieces led by superstar conductor Gustavo Dudamel, a powerful advocate for the importance of expanding access to music and the arts for young people.    You’ll be welcomed to the concert and introduced to the musicians, bringing you closer to the magic of live music. Supported by Dunard Fund

PART OF THE ANDERSON OPERA SERIESOpera Ventures Productions and Scottish Opera present a bold new opera for the opioid age.Local doctor Theresa Hart works tirelessly for her community in a fading, forgotten corner of the world. When the charismatic Lucky Mack comes to town, her daughter Noy is captivated. A ride on his carousel – the first one always free – promises miraculous relief from all aches and pains, and soon the whole town is swept up in euphoria. But getting off the ride gets harder with every turn.  This world premiere from Opera Ventures Productions reunites Scottish Opera with the creative forces of Missy Mazzoli, Royce Vavrek and Tom Morris, following their International Festival hit Breaking the Waves (2019). Mazzoli weaves club beats into her richly textured score, brought to life by conductor Stuart Stratford and The Orchestra of Scottish Opera.  The Galloping Cure is a haunting allegory for a crisis that has become a worldwide epidemic. Visually stunning and emotionally gripping, this contemporary fable evokes a darkly funny and devastating vision of a crumbling society. The Anderson Opera Series, made possible by James and Morag Anderson, allows the Festival to bring internationally acclaimed opera to Edinburgh and ensures these unmissable performances remain accessible to the widest possible audience. Performed in English with surtitles 

PART OF THE ANDERSON OPERA SERIESGreek tragedy meets modern psychology in Richard Strauss’s audacious opera. Elektra is determined to avenge the murder of her father Agamemnon by her mother Klytämnestra – but will Klytämnestra destroy her first?Strauss evokes his characters’ larger-than-life emotions through massive orchestral forces and daring harmonies. Wild, violent episodes such as the epic confrontation between Elektra and her mother contrast with moments of exquisite tenderness, as when Agamemnon’s son Orest returns to this most dysfunctional of family homes. Karina Canellakis – noted for her impressive ‘command of large-scale musical architecture’ (The Guardian) – conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and an outstanding cast. Leading dramatic sopranos Iréne Theorin and Nina Stemme perform the virtuoso roles of Elektra and Klytämnestra.  The Anderson Opera Series, made possible by James and Morag Anderson, allows the Festival to bring internationally acclaimed opera to Edinburgh and ensures these unmissable performances remain accessible to the widest possible audience with additional support from the Embassy of Sweden in LondonSung in German with English surtitles

A rare opportunity to experience Duke Ellington’s monumental jazz symphony, Black, Brown and Beige. Duke Ellington’s Black, Brown and Beige weaves the sounds of blues, spirituals and work songs into a suite for jazz orchestra. Ellington, troubled by clichéd representations of Black culture, felt it was ‘time a big piece was written from the inside’. His ambitious suite gives a powerful account of Black life in America, from slavery, through emancipation, segregation and military service, to a new era of prosperity and cultural assertiveness. In the years since its 1943 premiere, Black, Brown and Beige has been hailed as a remarkable musical and political statement. Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra recently released a definitive recording of the work.  JLCO trombonist Chris Crenshaw conducts and Ekep Nkwelle joins to sing the haunting, melancholy ‘Blues theme mauve’. The orchestra is also joined by emerging stars of the American jazz scene, who will curate a surprise programme to complement Ellington’s masterpiece.    Sung in English with surtitles 

Alisa Weilerstein performs the feat of playing all six of JS Bach’s dance-inspired Cello Suites.American cellist Alisa Weilerstein describes a complete performance of the suites as ‘a kind of shared spiritual experience… they go straight to the head and the heart’ (Gramophone). Her 2020 Cello Suites recording was praised by The Guardian for its ‘sunlit clarity’.Johann Sebastian Bach composed his six Cello Suites during an especially happy period of his career. After his death they faded into obscurity – until their rediscovery in the 1900s by the virtuoso cellist Pablo Casals. They are now considered among the greatest works for the instrument.  All six draw on Baroque dance forms, including the courtly Allemande, the lively Courante, the stately Sarabande and the spirited Gigue. But each suite has its own distinct character. Together, they encompass optimism, sorrow and transcendent jubilation. Supported by Scobie Dickinson Ward

Enjoy a programme of 20th-century French chamber music.Wind soloists from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra explore music from Poulenc, Ravel and Françaix, with their conductor Maxim Emelyanychev on piano. Francis Poulenc’s chamber music is a beguiling mix of lyrical and frenetic, sombre and playful. Written the year before he died, the sonatas for oboe and clarinet take an occasionally melancholic look back at his musical life, quoting from both early and more recent works. The famous Flute Sonata retains its power to charm, yet is infused with memories of a lost loved one. In contrast, the much earlier Sextet bursts out of the blocks with astonishing, effervescent energy. Dazzling piano music from Maurice Ravel and Jean Françaix’s bustling ‘Musique de Brasserie’ – a vivid portrait of a busy Parisian restaurant – add to this enthralling, colourful, and thoroughly French concert.