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Happy 10th Birthday Bangor New Music Festival! (21/4/10)
In March 2010 Bangor New Music Festival celebrated its tenth anniversary. Building upon the success of previous years the festival this year ran over a two week period, culminating in a concert given by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales featuring three premieres by three Welsh composers. Favourably reviewed in the Guardian which said "no concert signalled the event's energy and range better than the one given by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and featuring three firsts."
The festival also held a successful community event, this year with a difference... "Music For Babies" was a series of workshops aimed at pre-school aged children. Inspired by this, the event also featured a brand new work specially written by Artistic Director Guto Puw, "Music For Prams" in which the acoustic possibilities of a pram were explored.
As ever plans are already for Bangor New Music Festival 2011 with artists to be announced here soon....
BNMF 2010 announces the concert schedule (20/11/09)
This exciting 10th Anniversary of the Festival is only a few short months away, and we have a great line-up of artists, world premieres, and educational projects to announce! All information can be found under 'Concerts' on our website. Keep checking back for even more events and announcements as we get closer to this highly anticipated event.
BNMF 2009 bows out in style (21/5/09)
"The 2009 Bangor New Music Festival has been our most successful to date" writes Guto Puw, BNMF's Artistic Director, "This year's Festival has succeeded in combining the highest standard of artistic integrity with our aim to bring the best of today's music into schools, universities and the wider community."
BNMF 2009 included more young performers, from more schools, than ever before, and (perhaps consequentially) also recorded increased audience figures for all its events. Parents were thrilled by their children's performances and the regular concert-going public were inspired by the Festival's line-up of some of the most internationally recognised artists within their fields.
Plans for BNMF 2010 are already afoot - artists provisionally confirmed to take part include the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Catrin Finch, and ElectroacousticWALES. The Festival hopes to be able to announce more names in the coming months - in the meantime, watch this space for news...
Only a month to go... (17/2/09)
With only a month to go until the opening night of BNMF 2009, all is in place for another truly exciting and successful week's activities. EXAUDI, ElectroacousticWALES and Huw Warren will all shortly begin rehearsing with pupils at their partner schools, and both sides are looking forward to the collaboration. Guto Puw, the Festival's Artistic Director, writes: “2009 is shaping up to be a particularly exciting Festival, with opportunities for school pupils and the general public to link up with professional artists fulfilling the Festival's commitment to enhancing the musical life of Bangor and North Wales.”
Potential Festival-goers are reminded that tickets are available in advance of the Festival from The Muse Bookshop (01248 362072) or online
here.
Continuing Commitment to Education (25/10/08)
BNMF 2009 is to continue the Festival's practice of temporarily taking its artists out of their usual concert halls and into the schools of Gwynedd and Anglesey. This year, partnerships will be forged between:
Ysgol Bala Deulyn, Ysgol Talysarn and EXAUDI
James Weeks, musical director of EXAUDI and respected composer in his own right, will be spending two days with junior school children from Ysgol Bala Deulyn and Ysgol Talysarn. Whilst ensuring that general classroom music making, and singing in particular, remains an exciting part of the school curriculum, Weeks will also be teaching the pupils to perform the children's parts in Howard Skempton's The Flight of Song. The pupils will then have a unique opportunity to join EXAUDI in concert, performing in Bangor Cathedral, on March 18th (see elsewhere on the website for further concert details).
Ysgol Syr Thomas Jones, Ysgol Uwchradd Caergybi and Huw Warren
Whilst the primary schools from Gwynedd will be sharing the experience and enthusiasm of EXAUDI's professional singers, the two secondary schools of coastal North Anglesey will be enjoying the skills of jazz pianist and composer Huw Warren. The GCSE music students and staff of Ysgol Syr Thomas Jones and Ysgol Uwchradd Caergybi will be involved in two workshops lead by Warren, during which they will be encouraged to express themselves through jazz and blues improvisation. Having grasped the fundamental principles, Warren and the students will compose a brand new work to be premiered in the Festival concert on March 19th in Powis Hall, Bangor University.
Ysgol Pendalar and ElectroacousticWALES
BNMF's final collaboration for 2009 features the teachers and children of Ysgol Pendalar, Caernarfon, and ElectroacousticWALES's Ed Wright. The pupils will be encouraged to explore the sounds their bodies, voices, instruments and environment can create. These sounds will be recorded and the pupils will be able to use the cutting-edge technology of ElectroacousticWALES to explore how a simple sound can be manipulated and expanded into new and exciting forms. Once again, the children will join their professional counterparts in the final concert of BNMF 2009, on March 20th, in a Powis Hall fully rigged with diffusion and amplification technology rarely seen in North Wales.
If further details are required, please contact the Festival Administrator.
Calling All Choirs (10/10/08)
In an exciting new development, BNMF is pleased to announce that EXAUDI, one of Britain's leading choirs, will be leading an open workshop for all choral singers on Tuesday, March 17th, in Prichard Jones Hall. The workshop begins at 19:30, will last two hours (including a break) and there is no need to book in advance. Those attending will also be eligible for discounted entry into EXAUDI's concert in Bangor cathedral the following night (for details of the concert, please see elsewhere on this website).
The invitation is extended to all, regardless of age or experience, and attendance is completely free! All that's required is enthusiasm!
If further details are required, please contact the Festival Administrator.
BNMF 2010 (4/10/08)
Despite the fact the BNMF 2009 is not yet upon us, tentative plans are already in place for 2010. Artists provisionally engaged to appear include the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and harpist Catrin Finch. Further details will appear here as they are confirmed.
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