On Friday 22 September Vale of Glamorgan Festival launches with the ground-breaking Tredegar Town Band and the renowned Canadian violinist Mark Fewer and a rare performance of Bramwell Tovey’s Nine Daies Wonder.
Since its inception in 1969 by Welsh composer John Metcalf, the Festival has committed to bringing entirely new works to audiences – this year two new Festival commissions receive their premiere with Tredegar Town Band (22 September). The first by American composer Benjamin Wallace, known for his work with the Albany Symphony Orchestra, Zedd, and PlayStation. The second is a major new brass band work by the award-winning young composer David John Roche. Continuing its mission to champion and support today’s composers, the Festival will feature works by 36 living composers.
Artistic Director John Metcalf said: “this is the Festival that enables the audience to experience tomorrow’s classics today. To get a sense of where music is going, rather than where it has been.”
The opening concert also marks the culmination of a new collaboration with Tredegar Town Band. Supported by the Arts Council of Wales and Tŷ Cerdd, the process aims to seek out hidden, ignored or missed Welsh music-making talent, from both traditional and non-traditional musical backgrounds, with the goal of creating new music for the world-famous brass band. David John Roche, who was born and raised in Tredegar, and has been mentoring the music-makers throughout the process said: “I would never have learned to play or read music without the free education I received from Tredegar Town Band as a child.” On the launch day of the 2023 Festival, audiences are invited to a free Community Engagement Day (1pm, 22 September) with Ben Wallace, Tredegar Town Band mentees and a performance by Crosskeys Silver Band.
Vale of Glamorgan Festival represents exceptional musical talent from Wales and internationally. The 2023 programme showcases the home-grown talents of the brilliant young players of Sinfonia Cymru in the picturesque surroundings of Penarth Pier Pavilion (Wednesday 27 September). A specially curated and wide-ranging contemporary programme includes Augusta Read Thomas’s ‘Silent Moon’ and a pre-performance talk with the American composer. Cello Octet Amsterdam return to the Festival after an interval of more than a decade, for what promises to be a superlative finale in Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama’s Dora Stoutzker Hall (Thursday 28 September). Wales’ own Huw Watkins will be performing a series of beautiful works at All Saints Church Penarth in conjunction with Mark Fewer. The program features solo piano works, solo violin works, and works for violin and piano and the chance to hear Lynne Plowman’s Lullaby for Ianto, Steph Power’s Dreamtides, and Sarah Lianne Lewis’s Until the thread breaks. A snapshot of Welsh music, with beautiful international works represented too.
The support and nurture of emerging talent has always been at the forefront of the Festival’s objectives. Directed by contemporary South African composer Robert Fokkens, The Peter Reynolds Composers Studio returns for 2023 to provide vital experiences for developing musicians. Audiences will witness new music-making in action as the six young Composers of this year’s Studio work with professional musicians in two creative masterclasses at Cardiff University Concert Hall with Huw Watkins & Mark Fewer (Sunday 24 September) and Cello Octet Amsterdam (Wednesday 27 September).