For the love of Art

The effervescent French conductor, Stephane Denève, describes taking over as the new musical director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) in September 2005 as "marrying a sleeping beauty".

"The RSNO has always been a major orchestra," he says, "but I felt I had to give it a big kiss on the lips to bring the sleeping beauty to life." The 35-year-old's kiss of life has certainly reaped spectacular results in a remarkably short period of time and even though the personable Frenchman is too polite to blow his own trumpet, it's clear the orchestra has thrived under his bold new direction.

"We have a remarkable number of new subscribers to the orchestra. It is up 65% and our audiences have increased by 35% too," Denève says, brimming with enthusiasm. "I think this is unique, unprecedented for any orchestra in the world. I travel to many locations and other orchestras tell me they are struggling to maintain their audience."

Top names booked for the French figurehead's third season this autumn include the pianists Emmanuel Ax, considered among the greatest pianists of his generation, and Lars Vogt, as well as the cellist Stephen Isserlis.

And despite being sought after by many of the world's leading orchestras, Denève's reason for abandoning Paris for bonny Scotland was, quite simple.

"The excellence of the orchestra," he states matter-of-factly. "When they offered me the position as director I didn't hesitate." Denève speaks passionately about forming a new bond with the RSNO's traditionally conservative public and is determined to "break down the glass wall between the orchestra and the audience and to turn the passive into active listening."

It is a simple, direct, unpretentious and most importantly for Denève, inclusive way to enjoy classical music, which he hopes will encourage more Scots to leave the comfort of their homes, come into town and have an experience.

The Gallic charmer, who also likes to talk to the audience about the music between pieces, feels that in Scotland he has found the perfect home for his own unique way of forming a rapport with his audience.

"I find the lack of pretension in Scotland very liberating and the people here are very warm. They are very open-minded to new ideas and this is something that is very important to me."

With a recent cash-injection of £750,000 from the Scottish Executive, in recognition of the importance of the RSNO, which Denève found "motivating and satisfying," and a new contract that will keep him in Scotland until 2011. Denève explains why he is staying in Scotland for the long-haul: "When something is totally right, it needs little explanation. I love the orchestra, I adore our audience and I feel totally at home now in Scotland."

Like Denève, Vicky Featherstone is unequivocal about the appeal Scotland has for attracting the very best people in the world of arts.

"Top people are coming to Scotland because the jobs are good. They are up there with any of the jobs in the international arena and the best you could get anywhere in the world. I don't think that Scotland should be grateful for that but rather demanding that there are more opportunities."

The 40-year-old English-born artistic director of the National Theatre of Scotland (NtoS) says, she was excited by the opportunity to launch a national theatre company. "For me it was the opportunity to set something up from scratch and try and create a new way of doing things and of creating theatre. I couldn't imagine doing this anywhere but Scotland actually, there's something about the way that you can create work here."

The National Theatre of Scotland flamed into being in February 2006 with 10 simultaneous productions at different locations all over the country, each on the theme of "home".

In Shetland, 100 fiddlers played on a ferry; Glaswegians experienced a multimedia thriller starring Billy Boyd, which took over a tower block in one of the city's poorest areas; in Edinburgh an all-star cast acted out a surreal drama about First Minister's Question Time as imagined by Scottish children.

In its first 12 months the company produced 28 shows in 62 locations and reached 100,000 people, with some spectacular successes in the shape of Gregory Burke's Iraq war drama Black Watch which scooped the prestigious South Bank Show Award for theatre, beating a host of top London plays. With additional funding from the Scottish Executive, the National Theatre of Scotland are planning to take the award wining production on tours around the USA.

Featherstone, who enjoyed a highly successful seven-year tenure as Artistic Director of Paines Plough in London before heading north of the border, says the secret of the NToS's success is down to home-grown talent.

"I think it is all about the quality of the Scottish artists and the Scottish voice in terms of playwrights, musicians, actors and, really, the National Theatre has only been successful because it has provided an opportunity for these people to reach their potential or reach a different potential."Unlike the National Theatre in London, the NToS does not have its own building or a permament core of actors but Featherstone thinks the lack of a permanent base is more a strength than a weakness and that it's more important to try to build lots of audiences rather than one audience.

And, while Featherstone is not an outright populist, believing that the trick is to create work the audience didn't know they wanted until it's there in front of them, she is passionate about making theatre an inclusive experience.

"For me, the theatre audiences in Scotland have a real hunger to be entertained and be part of the work. To create theatre in Scotland is not to look for some kind of elite separate form; it's about finding a way to engage the living audience. So that as a drive is a really exciting way to be making theatre."

Having spent most of her recent working career in the heart of London's West End, Featherstone enjoys the way that she can feel connected to so many people and places in Scotland. But with Featherstone's new National Theatre of Scotland garnering rave reviews across the board and attracting international recognition it's clear she believes theatre is one way in which Scotland can start to gain more confidence as a nation.

"Great Scottish artists have got their work on all around the world in high profile productions. I think the National Theatre is able to communicate because the eyes of the world are upon us and there is a lot of interest in us which is brilliant. There's a very high perception of us from overseas so hopefully we can live up to it!"

Stephane Denève, and Vicky Featherstone are not alone in revitalising the landscape of the Scottish arts world in recent years. Former Royal Ballet principal dancer and award-winning post-modern choreographer, Ashley Page OBE, was appointed Artistic Director of Scottish Ballet in 2002 and has instigated a major resurgence in the Company's fortunes.

Under the Englishman's leadership the Company received the TMA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance in 2004 and was nominated for the Critics Circle Company Prize for Outstanding Repertoire two years in a row, while it also picked up the Herald Angel Award on a triumphant return to the Edinburgh International Festival in 2005.

Included in their series of productions at the 2007 Edinburgh International Festival will be the world premiere of Stephen Petronio's Ride the Beast, with music by Radiohead, while Page's own Olivier award-winning Fearful Symmetries makes its Scottish debut at the Festival.

The adventurous 30-year-old Israeli maestro, Ilan Volkov, has brandished his own unique magic wand since taking over as Chief Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBCSSO) in 2003. Volkov, child of a musician father and an academic mother, has been conducting since his teens and studied at the Royal College of Music in London. Afterwards, he was invited to be young conductor in association of the Northern Sinfonia, working with its youth orchestra.

In 1997 he was appointed Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and two years later was invited by Seiji Ozawa to join the Boston Symphony Orchestra as his Assistant Conductor.

The maverick young gun has performed all over the world with many of the top orchestras before coming to Scotland to reinvent the BBCSSO with his envelope-pushing musical workouts. He was named the Royal Philharmonic Young Musician of the Year in 2004 in recognition of his work with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Another non-Scot is breathing new life into the Scottish Opera. New Zealander Alex Reedijk, who is an eight-year veteran of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and who has also lived and worked in Glasgow, took over as general director of Scottish Opera in 2005. Presently Reedijk is overseeing a rebirth of Scottish Opera with an eclectic series of five touring operas during its 2007-08 season and an innovative series of five mini operas called Five:15.

The Five:15 works will be fifteen minutes long and include intriguing collaborations between authors such as Ian Rankin, William Boyd and Alexander McCall Smith and composers like Patrick Doyle, who wrote the scores for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Kenneth Branagh's adaptations of Henry V and Hamlet.

Another gem in Scotland's cultural repertoire is the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Formed in 1974 with a commitment to serve the Scottish community, the orchestra is one of Scotland's foremost cultural ambassadors. The 2007/2008 season sees young Estonian conductor Olari Elts, join the orchestra as Principle Guest conductor. Elts previously was Principal Conductor of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, and he is sure to add his creative flair to the SCO.

The Orchestra is internationally recognised for its innovative approach to music-making and programme planning, and regularly tours abroad. SCO also appears regularly at the Edinburgh International Festival, the BBC Proms and the St Magnus (Orkney) and Aldeburgh Festivals.

The recent resurgence in the Scottish arts scene looks to be gathering pace and a handful of inspirational expats, like Stephane Denève, Vicky Featherstone, Ashley Page, Ilan Volkov and Alex Reedijk, have been at the vanguard of this rejuvenation – helped, of course, by an army of talented native Scots. But the foreign legion's message is loud and clear: come and join the Scottish arts renaissance!