Philomusica present their spring concert this Sunday, 10 April (7pm) at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, with an exciting programme featuring much loved classics and a brand new work.

The concert will include Beethoven Symphony No.5, Richard Strauss’ Death and Transfiguration, and a new work by Errollyn Wallen, This Frame is Part of the Painting, receiving only its second performance in the world ever. Errollyn Wallen CBE is a Belize-born British composer. She has written 18 operas and two large scale works for the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games for London 2012 that were broadcast to a billion people around the world. She has received an Ivor Novello Award for Classical Music, a British Composer Award and a FIPA D’Or for Best Music for a Television Series.

Philomusica chairman, Stephen Johnson said: “We’ve been rehearsing hard this year, as Iwan has programmed an ambitious programme, with lots to get our teeth into! It’s great to have an opportunity to perform Beethoven’s classic 5th Symphony, which audiences will know and love, and to challenge ourselves with the Strauss, which is a wonderful piece of music.

“Wallen’s work has been fascinating to discover – not just because we’re using nearly every percussion instrument we have in the performance!

“It had its premiere with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales at the Proms in 2019, so we’re taking inspiration from their performance and hoping audiences will enjoy hearing something completely new and exciting.”

Iwan Teifion Davies will take to the podium to lead the orchestra having recently returned from conducting La Boheme for English National Opera. He has invited mezzo soprano Stephanie Windsor-Lewis who lives in Pennal near Machynlleth, as soloist for the Wallen.

Stephanie has performed with English National Opera, Mid Wales Opera and at The Metropolitan Opera in New York, amongst many prestigious appearances.

Her concert engagements include a gala concert with the esteemed tenor Josè Carreras in Singapore, Berio’s Sinfonia for the Lucerne Festival with Pierre Boulez, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony at the Barbican Centre with the Royal Philharmonic, and Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem and Vivaldi’s Gloria at the Royal Albert Hall.