Special relationships shape the 2026 Edinburgh International Festival

Nicola Benedetti fell in love with the United States when she was just 16 years old.

The Ayrshire violinist had just been named BBC Young Musician of the Year and found herself sharing an airport taxi with a total stranger who spent the journey arguing with the driver about philosophy, religion and the economy.

"Within 24 hours, my relationship to its wild, abrasive, exuberant, heart-filled yet harsh ferocity was sealed," she recalls.

Twenty-two years later, Benedetti is putting America at the centre of her fourth programme as director of the Edinburgh International Festival.

The theme All Rise marks the 250th anniversary of American independence and brings together the largest representation of American artists since the festival first began in 1947.

Among them is her husband Wynton Marsalis, whose Jazz at Lincoln Centre Orchestra (JLCO) will be in residence throughout the festival.

The orchestra was founded 40 years ago by Marsalis with surviving members of jazz legend Duke Ellington's band.

"These were all people I'd only heard on records and the idea you could just phone them up and they'd turn up in the rehearsal room?" he says.

"You're in your 20s and they're in 60s and 70s but boy, when they came into the room and talked about the music, boy, there were sparks."

One of what Marsalis calls these "hip grandpas" was Scotland's Joe Temperley.

The saxophonist from Cowdenbeath had played with Ellington since the 1960s, and would go on to spend 25 years with the JLCO until his death in 2016 at the age of 86.

"When Joe was in the band we picked songs for him to play, especially when we came to Scotland. He was salty, he was not a touchy-feely kind of guy so he was always trying to deflect attention," says Marsalis.

"Even now we can't play certain songs without tearing up thinking of Joe. He had so much integrity and feeling about the music."

As well as paying tribute to Temperley, this will be Marsalis's final season before stepping down as director of the orchestra.

"Playing is always personal but it has added significance for me because of the history we have with Scotland and of course with Nicky and her vision," he says.

"Having a chance to be part of her vision is great and we're honoured to be there."

The opening concert will be Marsalis's symphonic work All Rise, featuring 200 singers and musicians in a piece that combines African chant, New Orleans parade music, gospel and Latin American styles.

It was commissioned and first performed by the New York Philharmonic in 1999. The conductor was Kurt Masur, a German who had been conscripted by the Nazis as a teenager.

A paratrooper, he was one of only 27 members of his 150-strong unit to survive the war and was captured by allied forces in May 1945.

According to Marsalis, that had a lasting effect on the rest of Masur's life and work.

"He said we had to understand the seriousness of pursuing that vision of coming together to celebrate common humanity," he says.

"All Rise has that triumphant feeling and affirmation of our common humanity in spite of the tribulations and pitfalls."

Although he and Benedetti come from very different musical traditions, they are both passionate about the power of all music and the need for music education.

And they believe that has never been more timely.

"With music, everything is different but also the same," he says.

"It's important, especially in times of turmoil and strife, that we keep sight of our common humanity and use that in our contemporary struggles."

This year's festival programme is an opportunity to celebrate the best of the USA.

"America is a big place with 350 plus million people all babbling over their identity and their agency and those struggles create interesting patterns," he says.

"We need more of our music around our world, it's such an important key to contemporary conversations."

Benedetti agrees. She says this year's programme is a rallying call to artists and audiences.

"It's our belief that through artistic endeavour we will see each other more truthfully and more tolerantly," she says.

"The American story is filled with innovation and ingenuity, perseverance and prejudice. Tensions that have fuelled some of the most extraordinary artistic achievements in history."

Two other orchestras will take up residence at this year's festival.

The Berliner Philharmoniker and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the latter under the baton of Venezuelan Gustavo Dudamel, no stranger to Scotland thanks to his work with the El Sistema orchestral education programme.

In theatre, the newly-renovated King's Theatre will reopen with two productions offering reflections on America - Internationaal Theater Amsterdam's five-hour staging of Tony Kushner's Angels in America, and Geoff Sobelle's Clown Show.

Also on the stage, the year's Golden Globe winner and Oscar nominee Wagner Moura, star of the Brazilian political thriller The Secret Agent, will head up a modern update of Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People.

Scottish Opera will stage the world premiere of The Galloping Cure, which confronts the global opioid crisis.

Events for families include the Scottish premiere of Hostile, a one-man Spaghetti Western from French theatre company Bakélite, and a family concert from the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA)

That is a collaboration with their Scottish peers Big Noise, also conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, who like Benedetti has supported Sistema Scotland since it first began in 2008.

The 2026 Edinburgh International Festival takes place between 7 - 30 August. General booking opens on Thursday 26 March, with tickets available to members and supporters from Thursday 19 March.