July has well and truly arrived (albeit with some very unseasonal weather!) which means there are just three short weeks until the Conwy Classical Music Festival opens its doors! Hosted in our own St. Mary’s Church Conwy, the week-long event sees both up and coming artists and established, prestigious musicians give a series of varied and exciting concerts.
As always, the festival opens with the Festival Evensong, where our resident choir Cantorion Celynnin will be joined by members of Cantamus and the Much Wenlock Parish Choir, where they will perform Sir Charles Villiers Stanford’s most challenging and highly regarded service, the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in A to mark the centenary of his death. The service will be directed by Joe Cooper from Bangor Cathedral, with organist Martin Brown, and the Rev. Sam Erlandson preaching.
The first concert then follows, given by the King’s Harpist Alis Huws. The programme features music by Claude Debussey and Caroline Lizotte, as well as a piece celebrating the twinning of Conwy with Himeji in Japan, where Alis played at the twinning ceremony in Himeji in 2019. The origami cranes installed in our church this summer provide a fitting setting for this special concert, which are also a celebration of this international friendship.
Other highlights through the week include performances from the Manchester-based string sextet The Fitzimmon Ensemble, lutists Dowland’s Foundry, woodwind group The Manchester Ensemble, and Genesis Trombones, who will deliver an eclectic classical, jazz and contemporary programme. The much anticipated Festival Orchestra concert and A Night at the Opera also make a welcome return, two concerts guaranteed to reach capacity audiences- be sure to arrive early to avoid disappointment!
Soloists this year feature festival-favourites Erin Gwynn Rossington, Eiry Price, Ryan Vaughan Davies, and John Ieuan Jones, and welcomes newcomers Rhys Meilyr, Owain Rowlands, Nathanael Horton, and Daisy Ou – as well as Conwy’s own Florence Kaiser, member of Cantorion Celynnin and recent graduate of Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester. Two other newcomers, David Shaw and Garwyn Linell will give a wonderfully creative string recital, where they blend Bach masterpieces with traditional and contemporary folk.
This impressive array of musicians will give performances of music by Debussey, Bach, Dvorak, Beethoven, Ligeti, Glinka, Liszt, Poulenc, and many more. Closing the week as always, festival goers can look forward to this year’s Male Voice Choir, Cor Meibion Bro Colwyn, performing with Cor Cantilena in what we’ve come to expect as a rousing, entertaining evening. There is so much to enjoy in this year’s programme, we hope you can join us for what we hope will be a very successful year. As always, there are no fixed entry fees for the performances, and seats are allocated on a first come first served basis, with a retiring collection at the end. Suggested donations are around £20, and support both the church and the festival so it can continue for many years to come.
caruconwy.com 