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The International Music Festival
Best of both
The North Wales International Music Festival goes hybrid this autumn…
Catrin and Seckou credit © Gareth Griffiths
NEWS recording with Rob conducting TOP: Family Affair Miriam and Daniel Hughes photo Above: London Tango Quintet
A mixture of live concerts in St Asaph Cathedral and online concerts recorded in Bangor, Caernarfon, Cardiff and London will make up this year’s 50th North Wales International Music Festival.
From Thursday 30th September to Monday 4th October the live concerts will include the extraordinary musical fusion of Catrin Finch & Seckou Keita, featuring music from their first
two award-winning albums and previewing new material from their upcoming third album.
Other performers include the London Tango Quintet, NWIMF’s resident orchestra NEW (North East Wales) Sinfonia with American pianist John Frederick Hudson, Family Affair with Brian Hughes & tenor Dafydd Jones, and Ensemble Cymru.
NEW Sinfonia and John Frederick Hudson will perform the Welsh premiere of Paul Mealor’s Piano Concerto, jointly commissioned by NWIMF. There will also be a ‘Pepper’s Ghost’ late evening art installation in St Asaph Cathedral.
A free to watch virtual festival will then be held online in November, including recordings from the St Asaph Cathedral concerts, BBC National Orchestra of Wales recorded in Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff, pianist Iwan Llewelyn-Jones, the UK Gospel Choir, and folk musician Gwennan Gibbard. Other events will include free instrumental projects, education sessions, podcasts, and NWIMF’s annual community tour with Live Music Now musicians. The renowned Welsh classical music composer William Mathias founded the North Wales International Music Festival in 1972. Mathias chose St Asaph Cathedral as the venue because of its superb acoustic qualities, and it is regarded as one of the cultural highlights of North Wales.
The festival went virtual last year, being hosted fully online for the first time in its history as a result of the pandemic, giving
access to a global audience. This year’s theme as NWIMF approaches its 50th anniversary in 2022 is ‘The Golden Journey’.n
