Charles Dance to Perform Aaron Copland's LINCOLN PORTRAIT at the Edinburgh International Festival and BBC Proms

The award-winning British actor, writer and director Charles Dance is to narrate Aaron Copland's orchestral work Lincoln Portrait with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra conducted by Louis Langrée at the Edinburgh International Festival on Friday 25 August.

Dance, whose distinguished career across film, television and theatre has included acclaimed performances in Game of Thrones, The Jewel in the Crown, Bleak House and The Imitation Game will narrate the American composer's musical homage to President Abraham Lincoln with the orchestra which gave the world premiere of the work in 1942.

Written for narrator and orchestra, the work sets the speeches and writings of Lincoln against orchestral composition to create a musical portrait of the former President. Charles Dance joins an eminent group of narrators who have performed the work since its premiere by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 1942 including Gregory Peck, Paul Newman and Barack Obama.

The concert at Edinburgh's Usher Hall marks the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra's debut performance at the Edinburgh International Festival in a programme that also includes Bernstein's Symphonic Suite from On the Waterfront and Brahms's Symphony No 1 in C minor.

Following the concert at the International Festival, the orchestra will appear at the BBC Proms on Sunday 27 August in a programme that will include Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait, Bernstein's Symphonic Suite from On the Waterfront and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 in E minor.

Photo by Dave M. Benett