Donald MacDonald has announced he is to stand down as Chair of the East Neuk Festival (ENF).
He co-founded the festival in 2004 with his wife Louise and Artistic Director, Svend McEwan-Brown, and will now become Honorary President for life, a role allowing him to maintain his close connection with the festival for years to come.
The announcement follows the close of the 21st East Neuk Festival, the most successful in its history, with ticket sales up 4% on previous years. Music fans travelled from the USA and Japan to spend five days listening to some of the world’s greatest musicians perform across East Fife’s atmospheric seaside locations.
MacDonald established ENF in 2004, drawing inspiration from events such as the Aldeburgh Festival and identifying East Neuk’s restful location and its local churches and halls as ideal venues. The event grew out of a 1999 platform for players of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, of which MacDonald was Chair for 29 years, before evolving into a full-scale festival.
His personal passion for chamber music, particularly string quartet and solo piano repertoire, helped shape its artistic direction, with performers including the Alban Berg, Belcea, Elias, Pavel Haas, Skampa and Tokyo quartets, and pianists Christian Zacharias, Elizabeth Leonskaja and Bertrand Chamayou.
MacDonald has presided over the festival for two decades, during which it has established itself as one of the highlights of the UK’s music festival calendar, earning two Royal Philharmonic Society awards among multiple other prizes.
Donald MacDonald said: “Seeing the East Neuk Festival in such fine form in its 22nd year is a great pleasure to me personally and I am delighted to continue my involvement in it as President. I find it is a good moment for the festival to seek my successor as chair to take ENF into its next two decades.”
Artistic Director Svend McEwan-Brown said: “Without Donald there would be no East Neuk Festival – and we are just one of many music organisations in Scotland and around the UK generally that have good cause to be grateful for his enthusiasm, knowledge, wisdom and generosity. I have benefited from all of those in these past 22 years of delivering ENF together and am delighted we will continue as Donald takes up the role of President.”
Cellist Su-a Lee, who plays with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and has performed at every East Neuk Festival since it began, said: “Donald is a true visionary. In his quiet, humble, yet deeply passionate way, he fundamentally helps to shape Scotland’s musical life. During nearly 30 years as Chair of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, countless tours, concerts, and recordings were made possible through the incredible generosity of Donald and Louise.
“His commitment to music has always been practical and from the heart: the Dunard Centre, the first new concert hall to be built in Edinburgh in over a century, will open in a few years, having been a personal mission of his since the mid-1990s, and I remember him travelling the world in search of the very best concert halls to inspire it.
“The East Neuk Festival grew from that same spirit. Because Donald and Louise knew and loved the area so well – and recognised the beauty of its churches – they wanted to bring world-class music to the East Neuk of Fife – and with Svend McEwan-Brown, they have absolutely nailed it!”
Alan Morrison, Head of Music at Creative Scotland said: “For over two decades, the East Neuk Festival has brought world-class music to some of the most unusual and atmospheric venues in the region. It has grown in artistic strength and international stature and, in recent years, gained Multi-Year Funded status with support from the Scottish Government through Creative Scotland. As the festival moves confidently into the future, Donald MacDonald’s guiding role in securing this level of stability cannot be understated.”
The East Neuk Festival will return with an eclectic programme of classical, orchestral and world music from 30 June – 4 July, 2027. First details will be announced at the end of this year, with tickets on sale in January 2027.
Details of the recruitment process for a new Chair of the East Neuk Festival will be advertised in the near future.
