Absolute Classics Summer Festival returns to Easterbrook

Absolute Classics Summer Festival 2026 returns to Easterbrook Hall, Dumfries, from 9th to 12th July.

Over four days it moves from the bright, immediate lift of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons to the intimacy of chamber music, a Saturday morning spotlight on emerging local artists, and a major solo recital to close the classical strand, before a final night of swing tips its hat to the golden age of jazz.

The festival opens on Thursday evening with music that arrives like warm weather. Elgar’s Serenade for Strings sets the tone, before Mozart and Schubert lead into Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, played by violinist Victoria Lyon with Ensemble Lyon.

Friday turns inward, with cellist Ivan Skanavi and pianist Mana Oguchi in a wide ranging programme that brings Brahms songs into a new light, alongside music by Kodály, Bloch, Schubert, and Schnittke.

On Saturday morning, the focus shifts to the region’s next generation. Young singers Catriona Arthur and Lewis Menzies are joined by cellist Will Archibald, with pianist Simon Callaghan, for a recital that gives emerging performers a proper festival stage. Saturday evening brings the Sacconi Quartet with Callaghan for a programme that pairs lyricism with sweep, from Rachmaninov’s Romance and Schumann’s Piano Quintet to Dvořák’s much loved Piano Quintet.

Sunday afternoon is reserved for a final classical statement, as pianist Giordano Buondonno brings together Rachmaninov and Scriabin, Debussy’s colour, and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Then, to close in celebratory style, trumpeter Colin Steele, Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year 2025, leads Kings of Swing in classics made famous by Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, and Duke Ellington, with plenty of room for requests in the second set.