Gregynog Festival, or Gŵyl Gregynog in Welsh, is the oldest extant classical music festival in Wales and takes place each summer at Gregynog Hall in the village of Tregynon

Tregynon

Tregynon is a small village and community in Powys, Wales. It rests on the B4389 road which runs from Bettws Cedewain to New Mills. The country house Gregynog is nearby....

, near Newtown, Powys

Powys

Powys is a local-government county and preserved county in Wales.-Geography:Powys covers the historic counties of Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire, most of Brecknockshire , and a small part of Denbighshire — an area of 5,179 km², making it the largest county in Wales by land area.It is...

, mid-Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

.

In its present form, Gregynog Festival has been running annually since 1988 but it is a revival of festivals held at the same venue from 1933 to 1938 by Gwendoline

Gwendoline Davies

Gwendoline Elizabeth Davies, CH , was a granddaughter of the philanthropist David Davies Llandinam. Together with her sister Margaret, she is remembered as a patron of the arts in Wales and important collector of Impressionist and 20th-century art...

 and Margaret Davies

Margaret Davies

Margaret Sidney Davies , was a Welsh art collector and patron of the arts. With her sister Gwendoline, she bequeathed a total of 260 works, particularly strong in Impressionist and 20th-century art, which formed the basis of the present-day National Museum Wales' international collection...

, major patrons of the arts in Wales. The original Festivals were directed by the composer and organist Henry Walford Davies. A sequence of festivals was then held under the direction of the composer Ian Parrott

Ian Parrott

Ian Parrott , who retired from the Gregynog Chair of Music at Aberystwyth in 1983, is a prolific Anglo-Welsh composer and writer on music. His distinctions include the first prize of the Royal Philharmonic Society for his symphonic poem Luxor, and commissions by the BBC and Yale University, and for...

 from 1956-61 and a one-off Festival took place in 1972 featuring Benjamin Britten

Benjamin Britten

Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...

, Peter Pears

Peter Pears

Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears CBE was an English tenor who was knighted in 1978. His career was closely associated with the composer Edward Benjamin Britten....

 and Osian Ellis

Osian Ellis

Osian Gwynn Ellis CBE is a Welsh harpist and composer.-Career:Osian Ellis was born in Ffynnongroyw, Flintshire in 1928. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Gwendolen Mason, whom he later succeeded as Professor of Harp from 1959 to 1989. He joined the London Symphony Orchestra in 1961...

. The modern incarnation was directed by the tenor Anthony Rolfe Johnson

Anthony Rolfe Johnson

Anthony Rolfe Johnson, CBE was an English operatic tenor.-Life and career:Born in Tackley in Oxfordshire, Rolfe Johnson studied with Ellis Keeler and Vera Rosza at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He first appeared in opera in the chorus and in small roles at the Glyndebourne Festival...

 from 1988 until his retirement in 2006 when Dr Rhian Davies, the music historian and broadcaster, succeeded as Artistic Director.

The Festival has hosted many major international performers including Jelly D'Aranyi

Jelly d'Arányi

Jelly d'Aranyi, fully Jelly Aranyi de Hunyadvár was a Hungarian violinist who made her home in London.She born in Budapest, the grand-niece of Joseph Joachim, and sister of the violinist Adila Fachiri. She began her studies as a pianist, but switched to violin at the Music Academy in Budapest...

 in the 1930s, Evelyn Barbirolli

Evelyn Barbirolli

Evelyn, Lady Barbirolli OBE was an English oboist, and wife of the conductor Sir John Barbirolli.She was born Evelyn Rothwell, and was known professionally by that name until after she was widowed, when she became known as Evelyn Barbirolli...

 in the 1950s, and, in its more recent history, John Lill

John Lill

John Lill CBE is an English classical pianist.-Biography:Lill studied at the Royal College of Music and with Wilhelm Kempff. His talent emerged at an early age, as he gave his first piano recital at the age of nine. At age 18, he performed Rachmaninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto under Sir Adrian Boult...

, John Mark Ainsley

John Mark Ainsley

John Mark Ainsley is an English lyric tenor. Known for his supple voice, Ainsley is particularly admired for his interpretations of baroque music and the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...

, Bryn Terfel

Bryn Terfel

Bryn Terfel Jones CBE is a Welsh bass-baritone opera and concert singer. Terfel was initially associated with the roles of Mozart, particularly Figaro and Leporello, but has subsequently shifted his attention to heavier roles, especially those by Wagner....

, Alison Balsom

Alison Balsom

Alison Louise Balsom is an English trumpet soloist.-Early life:Balsom was born in Hertfordshire. She attended the Tannery Drift Primary School, then the Greneway Middle School and the Meridian School, all in Royston, Hertfordshire...

, The Sixteen

The Sixteen

The Sixteen are a choir and period instrument orchestra; founded by Harry Christophers in 1979.The group's special reputation for performing early English polyphony, masterpieces of the Renaissance, bringing fresh insights into Baroque and early Classical music and a diversity of 20th century...

 and The King's Singers.

Gregynog Festival has also hosted world premiere performances by composers including Gustav Holst

Gustav Holst

Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....

, William Mathias

William Mathias

William Mathias CBE was a Welsh composer.-Brief biography:Mathias was born in Whitland, Carmarthenshire. A child prodigy, he started playing the piano at the age of three and composing at the age of five. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music under Lennox Berkeley, where he was elected a fellow...

, Hilary Tann

Hilary Tann

Hilary Tann is a Welsh composer now based in the United States.Tann holds a degree in music composition from the University of Wales, Cardiff. Her overture, With the Heather and Small Birds, commissioned by the 1994 Cardiff Festival, is her tribute to the land of her birth...

, Huw Watkins

Huw Watkins

Huw Watkins is a British composer and pianist. Born in South Wales, he studied piano and composition at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, where he received piano lessons from Peter Lawson...

 and Eric Whitacre

Eric Whitacre

Eric Whitacre is an American composer, conductor and lecturer. He is one of the most popular and performed composers of his generation. In 2008, the all-Whitacre choral CD Cloudburst became an international best-seller, topping the classical charts and earning a Grammy nomination...

.

The 2010 Festival revived music associated with Vauxhall

Vauxhall

-Demography:Many Vauxhall residents live in social housing. There are several gentrified areas, and areas of terraced townhouses on streets such as Fentiman Road and Heyford Avenue have higher property values in the private market, however by far the most common type of housing stock within...

 and Ranelagh

Ranelagh

Ranelagh is a residential area and urban village on the south side of Dublin, Ireland. It is in the postal district of Dublin 6. It is in the local government electoral area of Rathmines and the Dáil Constituency of Dublin South-East.-History:...

, the great Pleasure Gardens of Georgian London, and ran from 8–21 June, featuring Emma Kirkby

Emma Kirkby

Dame Carolyn Emma Kirkby, DBE is an English soprano singer and one of the world's most renowned early music specialists. She attended Sherborne School For Girls in Dorset and was a classics student at Somerville College, Oxford, and an English teacher before developing a career as a soloist...

, Catrin Finch

Catrin Finch

Catrin Anna Finch is a Welsh harpist born in Llanon, Ceredigion, Wales. She was the Official Harpist to the Prince of Wales from 2000 to 2004 and is Visiting Professor at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and the Royal Academy of Music...

 and The Academy of Ancient Music.

The 2011 Festival has been curated on the theme of Gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

 and includes programmes inspired by alchemy, synaesthesia and the Field of Cloth of Gold. This year's headline artists include The Cardinall's Musick

The Cardinall's Musick

The Cardinall's Musick is a United Kingdom-based vocal ensemble specialising in music of the 16th and 17th centuries and contemporary music. They have earned themselves an enviable reputation around the world both for the excellence of their voices and the way in which they work together as a...

, Ex Cathedra

Ex Cathedra

Ex Cathedra is a British choir and early music ensemble based in Birmingham in the West Midlands, England. It performs choral music spanning the 15th to 21st centuries, and regularly commissions new works....

 and Llyr Williams

Llyr Williams

Llŷr Williams is a Welsh pianist.-Childhood:Llŷr Williams was born in 1976 in the village of Pentre Bychan in Wrexham, Wales....

. The Festival runs between 17 June and 3 July with concerts taking place in Aberystwyth

Aberystwyth

Aberystwyth is a historic market town, administrative centre and holiday resort within Ceredigion, Wales. Often colloquially known as Aber, it is located at the confluence of the rivers Ystwyth and Rheidol....

, Kerry

Kerry, Powys

Kerry is a small village in Powys, Mid Wales. The area around the village was the Welsh Commote and Lordship of Ceri, part of the region of Rhwng Gwy a Hafren, and it was originally ruled by the Princes of Maelienydd and their descendants....

, Montgomery

Montgomery, Powys

The historic county town of Montgomery in Powys, Wales lies just three miles from the English border in the Welsh Marches. It is best known for its castle, Montgomery Castle, begun in 1223, and its parish church, begun in 1227. However its origins go back much further, as seen by the Celtic Iron...

 and Shrewsbury

Shrewsbury

Shrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England. Lying on the River Severn, it is a civil parish home to some 70,000 inhabitants, and is the primary settlement and headquarters of Shropshire Council...

 as well as at Gregynog Hall itself.