The Early Music Festival in South Wales

EARLY VOICES - LLEISIAU CYNNAR

The Early Music Festival in South Wales

St Illtud’s Church, Llantwit Major

11th and 12th of May 2024

A new Early Music Festival will take place in Llantwit Major, Vale of Glamorgan, on the weekend of the 11th and 12th May 2024.

Early Music as a musical genre is quite a broad definition, and often this term is related to the Baroque period. However, this festival - called Early Voices/Llaisiau Cynnar - will focus on the previous centuries, from the Middle Ages to late Renaissance.

Anna Cristoni-Apel, founder and director of the festival explains: “This year’s topic will be Pilgrimage. Historically, places like Canterbury, Montserrat and Santiago de Compostela have been – and still are – the final goal for pilgrims who pursue spiritual and personal research paths. And medieval codices like the Llibre Vermell and the Codex Calixtinus collect the songs these pilgrims would have sung along the way. For this reason, St Illtud’s Church is the perfect space to encompass our festival. As the site of the oldest college in the United Kingdom, St Illtud’s ancient walls will resonate once again with the sounds of those early voices.”

The festival programme includes concerts by Pavane Early Music Consort, the Elizabeth Singers, the Fountain Singers and ContraBand; special guests coming directly from Italy will be the Ensemble San Pietro.

But this is not all: there will be a “Meet the instruments!” event, where the audience will have the possibility to learn more about period instruments and their use. On the programme there are also two talks: prof Ad Putter, from Bristol University, will explore the medieval English song; Anna Cristoni-Apel will talk about medieval pilgrimage music.

The festival will launch on the 13th April 2024 at 6pm in St Illtud’s Church, with “Tu solus – Spiritual Quest in Early Music”, a concert by the Ewenny Chamber Choir followed by a fundraising event.

Tickets available on Ticketsource or at the door. All concerts are £10, 16–18-year-old will have a reduced price of £5.00, while under 16 will have free entrance. Both talks and the “Meet the instruments!” will be free and open to everyone. For those buying tickets for all four concerts there will be a discount of £10 – one concert for free.

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