Welcome to the Gower Festival

Next year’s festival will be held from
1-12 July.

International acclaimed performers will include...

Leon McCawley

Fiddlesticks Ensemble

Jane Austen 250

Joe Dunthorne

Lumas Wind Quintet

Heath Quartet

An evening with Martyn Brabbins

Comedy Genius of Rainer Hersch

Bartosz Głowacki was a hit at the 2022 Festival and we are delighted that he is returning to Gower in July. His programme of baroque, classical and world music includes pieces by Scarlatti, Maxwell Davies (Farewell to Stromness) and Astor Piazzolla. An evening to remember.

Morgan Szymanski is Mexico’s leading guitarist and an international ambassador for his country’s music and culture. In the beautiful surroundings of Cheriton Church he takes us on a Latin American musical journey, with pieces from Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina.

A mixed programme of music by baroque and classical composers – Bach, Sor, Tárrega and Albéniz. Also included is a movement from Jigges and Fancies by Gareth Walters.

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In conversation with music presenter John Suchet, our President Sir Karl Jenkins, born and raised in Penclawdd, talks about his life and career as a multi-talented composer and instrumentalist. His appeal is universal: ‘music without boundaries, loved by everyone’.

‘A pianist of extraordinary gifts’, Clare Hammond offers a beautifully varied programme. She will play Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight’ Sonata as well as a new workby Samy Moussa, pieces by Fauré and Debussy alongside music of Clara Schumann and Cécile Chaminade. An evening of delights and discoveries.

The Bach Choir’s recent concerts in Swansea have been wonderful and we look forward to welcoming these talented singers to Gower. Their programme includes music by Britten, Holst and Vaughan Williams, plus the premiere of a new work written for them by Welsh composer Gareth Treseder.

Leading recorder player Tabea Debus and lutenist Toby Carr move across the centuries from anonymous medieval dances to the music of 16th- and 17th-century masters such as John Dowland and Henry Purcell. A fascinating exploration of ‘ear worms’, those tunes that get lodged in the mind.

Celebrating Gower art and artists, the Festival pays affectionate tribute to the painter Glenys Cour in the year of her one-hundredth birthday. Come and enjoy an exhibition of work inspired by Gower, a talk by the art historian Peter Wakelin, and a tea party.

We welcome the acclaimed Castalian Quartet on their first visit to Gower. Alongside Viennese classics by Schubert and Beethoven, they play Five Fantasy Pieces by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, full of colour and rhythmic vitality echoing the music of Dvořák.

Name that tune–name the composer?

Griff Harries tells the stories of some composers from across South Wales who wrote melodies which became famous. Featured on film and television, their tunes were sung, whistled and hummed by millions. Sadly not all these composers are remembered: their names have disappeared into the mists of time but their music hasn’t. There will be sound clips, film, surprising facts, controversy, humour and even the chance to join in.

In the beauty of Llanrhidian Church the Castalian Quartet perform three late masterpieces. Haydn’s ‘Sunrise’ Quartet, Op. 76, is followed by Janáček’s First Quartet, drawing on Moravian folk music, and then Schubert’s great G major Quartet, with its amazing fund of melody and drama.

A firm favourite with Gower audiences, Pavel Kolesnikov is one of the most sensitive and thoughtful pianists of his generation, admired for his ability to offer listeners a fresh perspective on familiar music. After an absence of some years we look forward to welcoming him once again. He will perform one of the greatest works in the piano repertoire. J.S.Bach: Goldberg Variations.

Named after the original ‘red priest’, Antonio Vivaldi, this quartet of musicians are famous for their uniquely energetic approach to baroque music, combining technical wizardry and dramatic showmanship. They will bring this year’s festival to an exhilarating conclusion.