May Festivals

As well as many interesting individual concerts of contemporary music, May sees the earnest beginnings of festival season.

The Vale of Glamorgan Festival runs from 9th–18th May in various venues in the county. Highlights include: the visit of Graham Fitkin to celebrate his 50th birthday with a world première of a new work; the music of award winning American Sebastian Currier, who will also be in attendance; and world premières of works by Aaron Kernis, Galina Grigorieva, Festival Director John Metcalf and the first public performance of a new percussion concerto by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales’s Composer in Residence, Mark Bowden.

At the Barbican the ever-energetic Nico Muhly is curating ‘A weekend of new sonic pleasures’ on 10th–12th May. The intriguing title, ‘A Scream and an Outrage’, is fully explained in a two-part podcast available on the mini-festival website. A complete list of composers and performers is available here.

The Prague Spring International Music Festival runs from 12th May–2nd June. The full programme can be viewed here. Concerts that contain new music include: on 14th May the Czech première of Kryštof Mařatka’s Vábení. Ritual of the Prehistoric Fossils of Man for mixed choir and symphony orchestra; on 19th Ensemble Intercontemporain playing Harvey, Boulez, Mantovani and Srnka; and, on 27th May, the chance to hear Ľubica Čekovská’s Violin Concerto.

The Bath International Music Festival takes place from 22nd May–2nd June. On 25th the BBC Singers perform, amongst other pieces, Paul Crabtree’s Tenebrae Responsories on Songs  by Bob Dylan and Benard Hughes’ The Death of Balder; there is composers’ masterclass on 29thwith Alasdair Nicolson and the Hebrides Ensemble; and Britten’s Women, a music theatre piece on 30th May given by students of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama that explores the role of women in works by the composer.

The Norfolk and Norwich Festival (10th– 26th May) features the world première on 11th of Ideas of Light for choir, solo voices, saxophone and string trio – a collaborative work by Barbara Thompson, Orlando Gough, Jonathan Baker and Karen Wimhurst. There is also the chance to hear Britten’s Our Hunting FathersSinfonia da Requiem and Four Sea Interludes on 13th May and, on 23rd, John Adams’ Shaker Loops and Chamber Symphony and Nico Muhly’s Seeing is Believing and Double Standards (UK première). 

The English Music Festival, from 24th– 27th May is held in and around Dorchester-on-Thames. It largely features music from the earlier part of the twentieth century and before. The final concert, however, is dedicated to new commissions. The programme is available here.

Just down the road from me, in beautiful St. Davids, Pembrokeshire, the Cathedral Festival takes place from 24th May–2nd June. The varied programme includes works by Philip Moore, James Macmillan and Paul Mealor. The last of these composers will be present for the first performance of his new work The Farthest Shore on 28th

Originally posted at Composition:Today ©Red Balloon Technology