"Once again, preparations are beginning for the Presteigne Festival of Music and the Arts to take place in Radnorshire's cultural capital over the August Bank Holiday weekend.
The Festival will promote over thirty events of which fifteen are concerts together with complimentary events which include talks, composers in conversation, exhibitions, poetry readings, a film, children's shows and guided walks.
The main venue for concerts is St Andrew's Church in Presteigne, for many years the jewel in the festival's crown with other performances given at village churches and halls nestling in the beautiful countryside of the surrounding Welsh Marches.
The outstanding Welsh musical polymath, Huw Watkins, is composer-in-residence and will also take part in three events as concerto soloist, chamber music player and recital partner.
He will be represented with a variety of orchestral, chamber and instrumental pieces.
As in previous years at Presteigne, important musical anniversaries are marked - the seventieth birthday of John McCabe, the eightieth birthday of Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe and the hugely important Haydn year will all be celebrated.
A further musical strand is a truly amazing series of chamber and orchestral masterworks by such composers as J S Bach, Bartók, Beethoven, Brahms, Britten, Françaix, Janácek, Martinu, Mathias, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Ravel, Schumann, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky.
The Presteigne Festival is well-known for its continuing commitment to the performance and promotion of contemporary music and has been regularly nominated and, in 2003, was short listed for the annual Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards.
For the 2009 Festival, five of the UK's brightest composers have been commissioned to write exciting new works: a saxophone concerto from Martin Butler, a piano concerto from Gabriel Jackson, a string quartet from Adrian Williams, a solo cello piece from David Matthews and a work for saxophone quartet from Steve Martland.
The Festival will also premiere a new solo cello work by David Knotts. Six British composers have written special piano miniatures to celebrate the 70th birthday of John McCabe and his connection with Haydn (Richard Rodney Bennett, James Francis Brown, David Matthews, Alan Mills, Matthew Taylor and Hugh Wood).
Other living composers to be performed at the 2009 Festival include Sally Beamish, Philip Cashian, Jonathan Dove, Robin Holloway, Nicola LeFanu, Colin Matthews, John McCabe, Cecilia McDowall, Steve Reich, Michael Torke and Ian Wilson.
The artist roster for 2009 is very impressive indeed, and includes a broad mix of well-established musicians with an international reputation together with some wonderfully talented younger performers: the Carducci Quartet, James Gilchrist (tenor), Zephirus Saxophone Quartet, Gemma Rosefield (cello), Huw Watkins (piano), Richard Watkins (horn), Alexandra Wood (violin), Amy Dickson (saxophone), Gretel Dowdeswell (piano), Anna Bradley (violin), Pippa Goss (soprano), Michael Bundy (baritone), the City of Canterbury Chamber Choir and the Presteigne Festival Orchestra - hand-picked from some of the UK's finest young professionals, conducted by Artistic Director, George Vass.
BBC Radio 3 will once more broadcast from the Festival this year. Brochures will be available at the end of April, with postal booking opening on 27 April 2009 for Patrons and Friends and 11 May 2009 for the general public."
Article written by George Vass
