Works by 36 living composers in this year's Vale of Glamorgan Festival

This year's Vale of Glamorgan Festival runs from 22 to 28 September 2023 and features works by at least 36 living composers. Featured artists are Canadian violinist Mark Fewer and Cello Octet Amsterdam whilst featured composers are David John Roche and Huw Watkins.

At the festival's opening concert, Mark Fewer will be performing Bramwell Tovey’s immense Nine Daies Wonder with Tredegar Town Band. A musical depiction of Will Kempe's 100 mile Morris Dancing journey from London to Norwich in 1600, the piece was premiered by Mark Fewer in Toronto in 2007, and it is a remarkable combination of brass band intensity, virtuosic violin playing, and theatrics like nothing else; the soloist recites lines from Shakespeare during the work and he and the band are also called upon to sing. This concert also includes music for band by Gavin Higgins as well as a new piece by David John Roche commissioned by the festival.

Fewer will also be giving a duo recital with Huw Watkins when the programme includes music by Huw Watkins alongside works by Lynne Plowman, Sarah Lianne Lewis and Steph Power. The extraordinary Cello Octet Amsterdam will be performing music from Kate Moore and Philip Glass, to Theo Loevendie and Sofia Gubaidulina, to Arvo Pärt and Kinan Azmeh, and to a new work by the festival's artistic director, John Metcalf. 

Also featured in the festival are Sinfonia Cymru who will be performing music by Caroline Shaw, Augusta Read Thomas, Lera Auerbach, and Gabriela Lena Frank in Penarth Pier Pavilion, and Augusta Read Thomas will be giving a pre-concert talk.

The six young composers from the festival's Peter Reynolds Composer Studio will be working with Huw Watkins and Mark Fewer, and Cello Octet Amsterdam in two public masterclasses.

Full details from the festival's website.