Friday 7 March 2014

Wales Comes to Oxford

Here I am in Oxford for a performance of my piece Beiliheulog (see petereynoldscomposer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/song-for-hidden-chapel.html for more details of the piece) 












It was part of a concert, This is Wales C21, at St Hugh’s College, put on by Claire Roberts from Ferryside, Carmarthenshire, who I met when she won the Young Composer of Dyfed prize in 2009. Claire is now a third year music student at Oxford University and decided to put on a St David’s Day concert (albeit on 7 March) of music by Welsh composers.



I was very proud to be one of group of composers who she asked to provide pieces, along with John Metcalf, Andrew Wilson-Dickson, Rhian Samuel, Gwyneth Glyn, Joseph Davies, Gareth Moorcraft and Claire herself. And Hanna Hopwood was also on hand to read some poetry in Welsh.

We had a full hall of people who turned out on the Friday to hear the music – though it might also have been the lure of a table groaning with Welsh cakes and Bara brith (not looking forward to my encounter with the weighing scales tomorrow).


Flautist Daniel Lewis, viola player Ffion Beven and harpist Lucy Nolan made a fantastic job of my piece, which is very quiet throughout and Claire boldly decided to put it in the programme as a final item. Thanks again Claire, it was a great evening.



2 comments:

  1. Glad to see the full range of Welsh culture, both musical and culinary, on show!

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  2. The Welsh cakes were much admired - and the music was ok too...

    ReplyDelete