Fowey Valley Music Festival

About

The inaugural Fowey Valley Music festival in September 2015 filled the beautiful coastal town of Fowey in Cornwall with world-class classical music, complementing the Fowey Festival of Arts and Literature held annually in May. Though a festival featuring musicians of international calibre was something new for the town, it has already become an eagerly awaited fixture on the annual calendar.

We can now reveal that the artists heading to Fowey for the third FVM festival on Friday September 15th and Saturday 16th 2017 are: Catrin Finch, harp - former Royal Harpist to HRH The Prince of Wales, and Benjamin Goldscheider, horn - winner of the Brass Category Final in the 2016 BBC Young Musician, with Callum Smart violin and Richard Uttley piano.

Welsh harpist, Catrin Finch, now one of the most accomplished harpists of her generation, was inspired to learn the harp at the age of five. From 2000 to 2004, she was Royal Harpist to HRH The Prince of Wales, the first to hold the title since 1873. By then she had risen far in the public eye. Her concert performances span the globe, she appears with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras and she has recorded for most of the major international recording companies. Known for her work within the community and with the younger generation, Catrin is committed to promoting the harp and classical music in general to a wider audience.

Described as “a musical Bear Grylls, fearlessly leaping through dangerous terrain”, 19-year-old Ben Goldscheider has quickly emerged as one of the most exciting horn players of his generation. Winner of the Brass Category Final in the 2016 BBC Young Musician, Ben went on to reach the concerto finals at London’s Barbican. Ben was approached by the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin, where he was chosen from applicants from all over the world to be his hero Radek Baborák’s one student. Among other things, Ben was awarded a full tuition scholarship, weekly horn lessons with Baborák and tutorship from Barenboim himself. In December 2016 Ben performed a concert in Geneva with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and Daniel Barenboim. In May 2017 he performed Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 4 at the Royal Albert Hall and from there he jetted off to Caracas to represent the UK in the European Soloists’ Festival.

With career guidance provided by the Young Classical Artists Trust, he has prestigious concert dates lined up well into 2018.   

In Fowey, Ben will play masterpieces of the horn and piano repertoire with pianist Richard Uttley, who is noted for the integrity and breadth of his musicianship as a soloist, chamber musician and recording artist. Both will also perform with violinist Callum Smart, in 2016 named a BBC Music Magazine Rising Star: Great Artists of Tomorrow.  The trio may be fairly recent entrants on the music scene, but they have already been touted as three of its rising stars.   

The FVM festival would not be the FVM festival without the now well-established Young Musicians’ Coffee Concert on Saturday morning September 16th, featuring the cream of young musical talent from the south west under the direction of concert pianist Dr Marlene Bowden.

 

FRIDAY EVENING SEPTEMBER 15TH

Catrin Finch, harp, one of the most accomplished harpists of her generation and former Royal Harpist to HRH The Prince of Wales.

18.30 hrs ‘Catrin Finch in Conversation’ (for Friends of FVM only)

19.30 hrs Concert 

Tickets: in advance: £14; on the door: £16; under 18s: £9

 

SATURDAY MORNING SEPTEMBER 16TH

Young Musicians’ Coffee Concert by young, award-winning musicians from the region

11.00 hrs Coffee

11.30 hrs Concert

Tickets in advance: £3.50; on the door: £5.00 (includes coffee, tea or soft drink)

 

 

SATURDAY EVENING SEPTEMBER 16TH

 

Benjamin Goldscheider, horn, Winner BBC Young Musician Brass Category Final 2016,

with Callum Smart, violin and Richard Uttley, piano

 

19.30 hrs Concert 

Tickets: in advance: £14; on the door: £16; under 18s: £9

 

 

‘FESTIVAL TICKET’ (all 3 concerts) PAID IN ADVANCE: £26 (under 18s: £14)

 

Tickets available from Bookends in Fowey or online at www.brownpapertickets.com    

Information: www.foweyvalleymusic.org.uk; 01726 832274