Sally Beamish Composer-in-Residence at Presteigne Festival

Organisers of the 2012 Presteigne Festival have confirmed that Sally Beamish, the Scottish-based composer, is to be composer-in-residence at this year’s event which celebrates its 30th anniversary. Beamish, who has won a number of awards during her career, was formerly composer-in-residence with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra.

She’ll be joined by a number of other composers who will be presenting original pieces. Two new orchestral pieces in the shape of Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe’s saxophone concerto and Variations on a Theme of Reger for string orchestra by Matthew Taylor will be performed. Elsewhere, other original contributions include chamber pieces from Michael Berkeley, a string quartet from John McCabe, a new work for two violins and viola (Rousseau’s Execution) from Cecilia McDowall, a piece for solo cello (Set in Motion) by Elizabeth Winters and three songs for soprano and piano by James Francis Brown, Peter Fribbins and Alan Mills. 

Taking place on the Herefordshire/Powys border, the 30th Presteigne Festival will host over thirty events. In addition to the original compositions, the festival will feature works by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy, Dvorak, Ross Edwards, Grieg, Haydn, Hindemith, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Rachmaninov, Saint-Saëns, Schubert, Schumann, Richard Strauss and Webern.