Usher Hall to take centre stage in EIF curtainraiser
She was once turned down for a front of house job there.
Now Edinburgh musician and composer Anna Meredith’s latest work is to halt the traffic outside the Usher Hall for the big curtainraiser to the city’s festival season.
Around 15,000 ticket-holders are expected to gather on and around Lothian Road for a sound and light spectacular commorating the end of the First World War. Meredith has written a five-part piece for the 25-minute show, which will see the Usher Hall transformed by illuminations and projections by 59 Productions, which was behind the last three Edinburgh International Festival opening events.
It is a far cry for Meredith from her days playing in youth orchestras and wind bands in the city and studying music at Edinburgh Napier University. She has gone on to create work for the BBC Proms, won the Scottish Album of the Year Award and presented shows on Radio 3 and 6 Music.
She said: “I had various summer jobs in cafes and bars during the festival, and was also a steward at the Assembly Rooms. I remember trying to get a job at the Usher Hall– I didn’t get it, but I played in there a few times with various youth bands as a kid.
“It’s a lovely to be doing this with a building I know so well and working on a project so communal, farreaching and ambitious. The effort and level of detail that has gone into making it have as much impact as possible has been incredible. It feels good to be stopping the traffic.”