Bangor music festival wins award
Bangor University music festival has been selected for the PRS New Music Biennial and awarded £20,000 to commission a new work by Arlene Sierra
The INTER/actions Festival of Interactive Electronic Music, which will be held in Bangor next year, has been selected for the PRS for music foundation New Music Biennial to commission a new work by American composer Arlene Sierra.
The 2014 INTER/actions festival will feature the world premiere of Sierra’s "Urban Birds" for pianos, electronics and sampled birdsong with three acclaimed keyboard soloists - Sarah Nicolls (London), Xenia Pestova (Bangor) and Kathleen Supove (New York).
After the Festival, the project will go on tour to Cardiff, New York, London and Glasgow.
The New Music Biennial is presenting a series of 20 brand new music commissions to audiences across the UK in 2014. All of these commissions will be presented at two weekend showcases in London, 4th & 6th July 2014, and Glasgow, 2nd & 3rd August 2014, coinciding with the Commonwealth Games.
In addition, the School of Music has also been awarded £26,000 from the Benefactions Group, towards piano restoration.
Xenia Pestova from Bangor University’s School of Music, said: “The School of Music is extremely grateful to the Benefactions Group for their generous support towards piano restoration.
“In addition to buying a brand new Yamaha baby grand piano for teaching purposes we will be able to fully recondition our wonderful Boesendorfer Imperial concert piano in PJ hall. This work is due to take place over the summer.
“We are very excited as this means we will be able to invite professional concerto soloists to perform in PJ hall on the reconditioned Boesendorfer Imperial.This instrument is very rare, having nine extra notes in the lower register, and we are overjoyed to be able to save it and bring it into playing condition.
"The students are very happy with this new addition, and have already named the piano "Clara" after composer and pianist Clara Schumann!”
Publication date: 30 April 2013