A FINAL call has been made to Wales’ finest young musicians to enter a prestigious new competition. The Pendine Young Musician of Wales competition is being launched at the North Wales International Music Festival, that’s being held at St Asaph Cathedral between September 12 and 21. It’s being funded by the festival’s headline sponsors, the Pendine Park care organisation, via the Pendine Arts and Community Trust, which supports community and arts activities.
The performances during the final will be broadcast on BBC Radio Cymru and the winner will receive a cash prize of £2,000 and the Pendine Trophy, as well as being invited back to perform at next year’s festival. The contest is being masterminded by the event’s new artistic director, royal composer Paul Mealor, who is following in the footsteps of his mentor and fellow royal composer, William Mathias, who founded the festival. Professor Mealor said: “I am very excited about my first festival.
I grew up here in St Asaph and I sang in the cathedral choir and my first experience of high quality classical music was here at the festival. “Another exciting development is the inaugural Pendine Young Musician of Wales competition which is open to anyone who is born, living here or studying here to come and perform at the Cathedral which has one of the best acoustics in Wales. “The competition will be judged by four of the top musicians around the world – we have Alun Jones, singer and the former principal of C.