The Machynlleth Festival takes place in the
Auditorium
An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community ...
of
The Tabernacle
The Tabernacle is a mid-size concert hall located in Downtown Atlanta, Georgia. Opening in 1911 as a church, the building was converted into a music venue in 1996. It is owned and managed by concert promoter Live Nation Entertainment and has a c ...
,
Machynlleth
Machynlleth () is a market town, community and electoral ward in Powys, Wales and within the historic boundaries of Montgomeryshire. It is in the Dyfi Valley at the intersection of the A487 and the A489 roads. At the 2001 Census it had a popul ...
,
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
in late August every year.
During the week eminent performers take part in events ranging from recitals for children to jazz.
Events
The festival begins with a sing-along of sacred hymns, the Cymanfa Ganu.
Special features include the
Hallstatt Lecture on some aspect of
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
* Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Fo ...
culture.
The
Glyndŵr Award
The Glyndŵr Award (Welsh: Gwobr Glyndŵr) is made for an outstanding contribution to the arts in Wales. It is given by the Machynlleth Tabernacle Trust to pre-eminent figures in music, art and literature in rotation. The award takes its name aft ...
for an Outstanding Contribution to the Arts in Wales is given during the festival.
Performers
Performers in the first three Machynlleth Festivals included tenor
Paul Agnew
Paul Agnew (born 1964 in Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europ ...
(1987), oboist
Nicholas Daniel
Nicholas Daniel (born 9 January 1962) is a British oboist and conductor. In 2003 he was appointed Artistic Director of the Leicester International Music Festival.
Education
He was educated at Salisbury Cathedral School and the Purcell School ...
(1988), soprano
Elizabeth Vaughan (1988), actor
Leonard Fenton
Leonard Fenton (''né'' Finestein; 29 April 1926 – 29 January 2022) was a British actor, director and painter, best known for his role as Dr. Harold Legg in ''EastEnders''.
Early life
Fenton was born Leonard Finestein[Don Rendell
Donald Percy Rendell (4 March 1926 – 20 October 2015) was an English jazz musician and arranger. Mainly active as a tenor saxophonist, he also played soprano saxophone, flute, and clarinet.
Career
Rendell was born in Plymouth, England, an ...]
(1989) and bass-baritone
Bryn Terfel
Sir Bryn Terfel Jones, (; born 9 November 1965) (known professionally as Bryn Terfel) is a Welsh bass-baritone opera and concert singer. Terfel was initially associated with the roles of Mozart, particularly '' Figaro'', ''Leporello'' and ''D ...
(1989). Among the Festival performers in the next few years were:
Alan Skidmore
Alan Richard James Skidmore (born 21 April 1942) is an English jazz tenor saxophonist, and the son of saxophonist Jimmy Skidmore.
Career
He was born in London, England. Skidmore began his professional career in his teens, and early in his care ...
, tenor saxophonist, 1990;
Bernard Roberts
Bernard Roberts (23 July 1933 – 3 November 2013) was an English pianist. He was born in Manchester. His treatment of the cycle of Piano sonatas (Beethoven), Beethoven's piano sonatas has been highly acclaimed.
He is also noted for his recordin ...
, pianist, and
Kit and The Widow
Kit and The Widow were a British double act, performing humorous songs in the vein of Tom Lehrer or Flanders and Swann; they also cite Anna Russell as an influence.''London Theatre Record'', 1988, "Kit Hesketh-Harvey (who co-scripted Maurice) is ...
, 1991; and Robin Williamson of the
Incredible String Band
The Incredible String Band (sometimes abbreviated as ISB) were a Scottish psychedelic folk band formed by Clive Palmer, Robin Williamson and Mike Heron in Edinburgh in 1966. The band built a considerable following, especially in the British ...
, 1992.
The 1994 Festival, the last to contain four events per day for eight days, featured musicologist
John Amis
John Preston Amis (17 June 1922 – 1 August 2013) was a British broadcaster, classical music critic, music administrator, and writer. He was a frequent contributor for ''The Guardian'' and to BBC radio and television music programming.
Life a ...
, violinist
Tasmin Little
Tasmin Little (born 13 May 1965) is an English classical violinist. She is a concerto soloist and also performs as a recitalist and chamber musician. She has released numerous albums, winning the Critics Award at the Classic Brit Awards in 2011 ...
, soprano
Joan Rodgers
Joan Rodgers C.B.E. (born 1956, Cleator Moor, Cumbria, England) is an English operatic soprano. She was married to the conductor Paul Daniel, and married Alan Samson in 2013. She studied singing with Audrey Langford. She made her professional oper ...
, clarinettist
Emma Johnson and pianist
Joshua Rifkin
Joshua Rifkin (born April 22, 1944 in New York) is an American conductor, pianist, and musicologist; he is currently a professor of music at Boston University. As a performer he has recorded music by composers from Antoine Busnois to Silvestre ...
. In 1995 the Festival was reduced for reasons of economy to two events each day, more or less the pattern of the first Festival. Performers included broadcaster
Richard Baker and mezzo-soprano
Sarah Walker.
Jazz singer
George Melly
Alan George Heywood Melly (17 August 1926 – 5 July 2007) was an English jazz and blues singer, critic, writer, and lecturer. From 1965 to 1973 he was a film and television critic for ''The Observer''; he also lectured on art history, with an ...
and trombonist
Christian Lindberg were amongst the highlights of 1996.
References
{{reflist
External links
The Tabernacle Website
Music festivals in Wales
Music festivals established in 1987
Folk festivals in Wales
Classical music festivals in the United Kingdom
1987 establishments in Wales
Summer events in Wales