We're hiring! Are you an experienced and proactive administrator who'd like to get involved with our exciting work for GCF2024 as part of the small and dynamic festival team? If so, check out this page for full info! Hybrid and remote positions available, closing date 24 April 2024.
Join the GCF team: Usher Team Leader vacancy
We are seeking a friendly and efficient Usher Team Leader to join our team for a few days this September/October, to help with the smooth running of our events. Full info at this link
🚀 launching 🔜 Glasgow Cathedral Festival returns 28 Sept – 1 Oct 2023
Aaron Akugbo and Tom Pritchard bringing zest to last year’s festival with their energetic artistry
We've been working away behind the scenes for several months now, and are excited to share with you our fantastic programme for GCF2023—to be announced in the coming weeks! Although we’ve added more variety from last year, we’ve included plenty of familiar favourites, so – whatever your tastes – GCF2023 will let you experience Glasgow’s oldest building in a new light.
For now, save 28 Sept – 1 Oct in your diary, prepare for some unique events bringing life to our incredible medieval cathedral, and sign up to our mailing list (here) to get updates straight to your inbox!
Join the GCF team: Production Assistant vacancy
We are seeking a friendly and efficient Production Assistant to join our team for a few days this September/October, to help with the smooth running of our events. Full info at this link
GCF2021 programme released
Although we had to shelve our 2020 plans, we are very excited to be back for 2021! With concerts by leading international stars Sean Shibe and Andrea Baker, we’re showcasing the best of Scotland’s artistic talent. But there’s more to GCF than that — join us for unique late-night events, and the chance to experience how different the medieval cathedral feels after the sun has set… From silent film to new music, we’ve packed the programme full of variety, and are bringing life to Glasgow’s oldest building.
Head over to our event pages to see all the brilliant performances on offer at GCF2021. We look forward to seeing you in the cathedral again soon!
Award-winning new music at Glasgow Cathedral Festival
We are delighted to announce that Dhātu by Edwin Hillier (wp: GCF2019) is the winner of the Electroacoustic / Sound Artwork category in the fourth annual Scottish Awards for New Music. This groundbreaking work was a joint commission between GCF and Glasgow Experimental Music Series, featuring alongside Lattice by Hunter Coblentz (wp: GCF2019) in our inaugural late-night event.
Dhātu was conceived with the unique atmosphere of Glasgow’s oldest building in mind: after descending to the medieval cathedral’s vaulted crypt, audience members were enveloped with singing, percussion and electronics. This constellation of sound – visceral yet fragile – was manipulated by the grainy lo-fi electronics of analogue dictaphones, creating an utterly immersive experience.
From all at GCF, huge congratulations go to Edwin Hillier on this thoroughly deserved accolade. Not only does the award recognise his uniquely intense compositional voice, but it also affirms the place of experimental events in GCF’s mission to bring life to Glasgow’s oldest building, providing a great incentive to programme and celebrate new music as we move forward.
View more of Edwin’s work at https://www.edwinhillier.com
GCF2020: waiting and seeing
As the summer concert diaries continue to empty, our thoughts are with the artistic community – and the world in general – as this unprecedented global crisis gradually affects every facet of our daily life. It is heartening to see such an outpouring of fresh content on social media, with musicians and artists combining equal measures of sorrow and humour in some truly innovative online projects. However, no amount of digital wizardry can replicate the experience of live performance, and we therefore want to assure you that the GCF team are working hard to ensure the best odds of presenting the 2020 festival.
Public safety is our top priority, and we will follow the governmental advice to the letter, keeping our audience and artists healthy. Our fingers are firmly crossed that concerts, in some form, will be permitted by the time September comes, but as the virus continues to tighten its grip on the world it is clear that we simply cannot predict what will happen over the coming months.
With best wishes to you and your loved ones,
Andrew Forbes
Artistic Director
GCF2019 programme released
Our brochure is printed, our events are live online, and you can book your tickets on Eventbrite. We’ve filled the September weekend with a great selection of free tours and lunchtime recitals, alongside an exciting programme of evening events in the Cathedral and Drygate Brewery. With music ranging from Mozart to jazz/fusion, and events from spoken word to dance, we’re sure there’s something for everyone!
Glasgow Cathedral Festival 2019 runs 26–28 September:
– Education Project Sharing Session
– Daniel Pioro • James McVinnie
– Twilight in the Crypt
– Solem Quartet
– Stained Glass Tour
– Step+
– Mezcla
– Graveyard Tour
– John Butt conducts a new Mozart Requiem
GCF 2019 – save the date!
Our brochure is almost finished, and you can sign up on the homepage to receive an email as soon as it’s ready. In the meantime, keep 26th – 28th September 2019 free, so that you’ll be able to enjoy our selection of free tours and lunchtime recitals, alongside an exciting programme of evening events in the Cathedral and Drygate Brewery. With music ranging from Mozart to jazz/fusion, and events from spoken word to dance, we’re sure there’s something for everyone!
GCF2018 is complete!
Thanks to all our artists, audiences and festival staff for another great Glasgow Cathedral Festival. With several thousand visitors to the cathedral over the week (and our Mackintosh exhibition still running) we are delighted to know that the festival is still popular, and still growing.
We’ll be getting some videos and photos online soon so you can relive the highlights – but in the meantime we’re going to have a rest to recover from what was a very busy week!
GCF2018 programme released
Our 2018 programme is now public, with brochures are available to collect from the cathedral and various other locations throughout Glasgow. We hope you like what's inside, and look forward to seeing you at some of our events!
With free events including tours and concerts, plus our evening programme of world-class performances, we feel there's something for everyone. You can browse the full brochure here!
A bigger team for GCF2018
A few weeks after GCF2017 we said a sad farewell to John Slack, Festival Manager for our first two years, who has recently moved to London, where most of his time is spent running Berkeley Ensemble and teaching. Without John's expertise and hard work the Festival wouldn't have enjoyed such a successful start, so we wish him all the best for his future plans, and thank him for his excellent work for GCF.
The Festival Board have met several times since then, and are delighted today to announce the appointment of Rachel Thomas and David Lee to the GCF team, taking on the respective roles of Festival Manager and Development Manager. Rachel and David both have experience working in arts organisations at the forefront of their sectors (Royal Opera House and Dunedin Consort respectively), and we hope that their collective skillsets will allow GCF to consolidate and improve, ensuring that Glasgow can be proud of its sustainable and diverse chamber-arts festival for years to come.
Our 2018 programme is taking shape, so please use the sign-up form on our homepage to subscribe to our mailing list, and we'll let you know as soon as it's ready to launch!