George Vass looks forward to conducting four large-scale concerts in a busy week at the Presteigne Festival, where he celebrates his 30th year as Artistic Director.

All taking place in the Festival’s principal venue of St Andrew’s Church, Presteigne, George will conduct both the Presteigne Festival Orchestra and the Nova Music Opera Ensemble, as well as a line-up of world-class soloists, in music by Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Stravinsky, Jackson, O’Regan and more…

On Thursday 25th August, George will conduct members of Nova Music Opera Ensemble in the Welsh premiere performance of Julian Philips’s Looking West, an extended dramatic cantata specially commissioned to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ birth. The performance features soloists Rebecca Bottone and Rebecca Afonwy-Jones, and actor Alexander Knox, the same line-up that gave the first performance at the Ryedale Festival last month.

On Friday 26th August, the Festival Orchestra, under George’s baton, is joined by oboist Nicholas Daniel to perform the Vaughan Williams concerto, together with works for string orchestra by Dani Howard, Gabriel Jackson, Vaughan Williams, Stravinsky and Ireland.

On Sunday 28th August, George invites Bath Camerata to join the Festival Orchestra in a concert entitled “Countless and wonderful are the ways to praise God”, which includes Gabriel Jackson’s work of the same name. Jackson’s work for choir and string orchestra takes its place alongside James Francis Brown’s Psalm settings The Heavens and the Heart (recorded by George for Resonus Classics in 2018), as well as music for string ensemble by Elgar, O’Regan and Vaughan Williams, the latter featuring harpist Olivia Jageurs.

On Tuesday 30th August, the 2022 Presteigne Festival concludes with a Gala Concert in celebration of its 40th anniversary, with George conducting the Festival Orchestra once again. The programme includes the world premiere of Tarik O’Regan’s Machine, a concerto for saxophone and string orchestra which will feature star saxophonist Amy Dickson, as well as Vaughan Williams’s Violin Concerto in D major with soloist Benjamin Nabarro. Also featured will be Sarah Frances Jenkins’s Trallali, Trallaley, Trallalera for large chamber ensemble, Finzi’s Three Soliloquies from ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’ and, to end the concert, Julian Philips’s freshly orchestrated Divertissement.

Tashmina Artists is also delighted that George has invited pianist Tim Horton to give a solo piano recital as part of this year’s Festival, featuring three very special world premieres composed in memory of British composer Hugh Wood. Read more about Tim’s recital here.

Tickets for all events are on sale and available via the Presteigne Festival website.