Event Details
St Davids Cathedral Festival 2022 returns with a full ten day programme of events from 27th May – 5th June 2022.
Everyone is warmly welcomed to come along during the summer half-term to enjoy music, theatre, workshops, a FREE open air prom to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and much more – the full programme is available here: www.stdavidscathedralfestival.org.uk
After two years of silence, St Davids Cathedral Festival returns with a thrilling array of concerts in the first programme curated by new Artistic Director, Simon Pearce. Set in the stunning surroundings of St. Davids Cathedral, and with appearances from some of the finest artists in the UK, the Festival continues to live up to its reputation as being one of Wales’ greatest music events.
PERFORMANCES AND PREMIERES
Choral music will feature throughout the week with services sung by the Cathedral Choirs and a Jubilee weekend concert. We welcome the innovative vocal ensemble VOCES8 with violin virtuoso Rachel Podger, performing their new ‘Guardian Angel’ programme in an atmospheric concert using different spaces in the cathedral. We are delighted to welcome early music ensemble Florilegium with a Bach programme. Award-winning saxophonist and Radio 3
presenter Jess Gillam brings her ensemble to play music from her charttopping albums Rise and Time. Alis Huws, Harpist to HRH The Prince of Wales will play a late-night candle-lit recital. The Festival organ recital is given by Dan Moult. Wales’ first professional folk band Ar Log play the World Premiere of a Suite of Welsh folk songs composed by Paul Mealor with lyrics by poet Grahame Davies.
This year the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Ryan Bancroft will perform Beethoven’s 3rd Piano Concerto with Canadian superstar pianist
Stewart Goodyear and a World Premiere of ‘Landsker’ by local composer Alex Mills. The BBC NOW concert will be recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
PLATINUM JUBILEE
The Festival runs through the summer half term with the two new bank holidays to celebrate Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee. The Queen is St Davids
Cathedral Festival’s Royal Patron and we are delighted to share a celebratory programme including the legendary male voice choir The Morriston Orpheus Male Voice Choir singing a celebratory concert. Vox Angelica and Vicars Choral give a candlelit performance of A Song for the Commonwealth which will be performed by choirs up and down the UK and in all 54 Commonwealth countries. St Davids Cathedral Choirs and British Sinfonietta give the Platinum Jubilee concert of music written for the coronation of Kings and Queens through the ages.
Family celebrations include a family ‘Queen’s Castle’ sandcastle competition on Whitesands Beach, and our first ever open-air family prom. In a joint venture between the Festival and CADW, we are hosting a ‘Picnic in the Palace’, a concert to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee in The Bishops Palace with performances from Welsh NHS Choir Hospital Notes.
YOUNG MUSICIANS
The Festival is committed to young musicians. The Festival opens with the family friendly Children’s Festival Chorus led by the dynamic animateur,
Oliver Tarney which will include the premiere of a Festival anthem The Little Things written by Carrie Thompson. There is a series of performances by emerging stars from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama including a piano recital by Rachel Starritt, blind from birth and a rising star in classical and jazz improvisation. The popular Young Musicians Platform will also feature a concert by the Young Musician of Dyfed competition, winner to be announced in April.
WORKSHOPS AND FAMILY EVENTS
There are workshops and family events threaded throughout the Festival week – from learning about bees through art and gardening in the Community Garden in The Cathedral Close, to music and theatre workshops in Ty’r Pererin, the pilgrimage and education centre. There are events to join for young musicians including a singing workshop with VOCES8 to an informal session for young people on how an organ works with Dan Moult. As well as our first ever open-air family prom given in celebration this year of the Queen’s Jubilee.
NHS
As we come through the pandemic and can once again build opportunities for musicians and audiences to gather again we wish to say thank you to the NHS who have looked after us all during this time. We are pleased to offer NHS workers in Pembrokeshire a special offer for tickets to all events at the Festival. We are delighted that Hospital Notes, the NHS Choir in Wales, will perform at our Jubilee Celebration in our first ever Family Prom event.
TALKS
A new series of talks features conversations with musicians Rachel Podger, Jess Gillam, Dan Moult talking about their inspiring ‘Life in Music’, the artist Bedwyr Williams talks about his new commission of Bee Skeps which will be exhibited in St Davids Cathedral Close (commissioned by The Contemporary Art Society and Ancient Connections) and the historian Simon Jenkins gives an illustrated talk from his best-selling book Europe’s 100 Best Cathedrals which includes St Davids Cathedral.
