Tîm Yr Ŵyl

John Metcalf

Cyfarwyddwr Artistig

John Metcalf is a leading Welsh/Canadian composer whose work, represented by a growing catalogue of recordings, has received wide exposure internationally. His creative output includes seven operas, two to commission from Welsh National Opera, the most recent being his highly acclaimed opera to the iconic text of Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood. They have received productions in Canada, Sweden and the USA as well as the UK.

2022 highlights include the premiere at St. David’s Hall, Cardiff of an extended setting of the single word Hallelujah for 8 part choir, the first performance of a new solo piano work Metaphysical Studies and the recording by the Solem Quartet of his String Quartet Towards Silence which references the extinction of species.

2022 also sees the return to live concerts, following the pandemic, of the Vale of Glamorgan Festival – the celebration of living composers – of which he is the founding Artistic Director

John Metcalf is an Honorary Fellow of Cardiff University, St. David’s College Lampeter, and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. His music was played as Her Majesty the Queen signed the Act bringing into being the Welsh Assembly in 1999.  He was awarded an MBE for services to music in the 2012 New Year’s Honours List.

David John Roche

Cynhyrchydd Yr Ŵyl

Welsh composer David John Roche joined us as Producer in July 2023, but was already a firm member of our festival family!

He was part of our inaugural Peter Reynolds Composers Studio cohort and has continued to work with as a composer and mentor. He is currently writing a new piece for Tredegar Town Band, whilst mentoring 6 promising composers though the process of creating fabulous new pieces for the Band.

David’s music is direct, determined, and loud. Strongly influenced by heavy metal, lush orchestral music, and his working-class Welsh background, his work has been praised for its “passages of intense expressive power” (Thomas Adès), described as “exquisite” (Adam Walton, BBC Introducing), and marked out as “bold, exciting, and beautiful” (Sir James Dyson).

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In tandem with a consistent string of international performances and commissions, his compositions have been broadcast, televised, and written about internationally to millions of people (Rai5, Tellebelluno, S4C, NHK, BBC Radio 3, BBC Introducing, London Evening Standard, and many others). David has recently completed commissions for the Tanglewood Music Center, Tokyo Opera City Cultural Foundation, and the Solem Quartet, and he is now working on newly commissioned works for the Vale of Glamorgan Festival (working with Tredegar Town Band), Jeremy Huw Williams, and Aberystwyth Philomusica. David holds degrees from the universities of Cardiff, Oxford, and Cambridge – he is the recipient of over 30 academic and professional awards.

Robert Fokkens

Cyfarwyddwr Cwrs PRCS

Robert Fokkens is a South African composer based in the UK. His work explores a range of influences from traditional South African music to 20th- and 21st-century experimental music, via jazz, electronic dance music and the classical canon, creating a music characterised by twisted cycles, rhythmic energy, and microtonal inflections. The Times has described his work as being “fascinating”, “imaginatively orchestrated” and having its “own engaging quirkiness”.

Robert is Senior Lecturer in composition at Cardiff University, and regularly gives masterclasses and presentations on his work at other institutions in the UK, Ireland and South Africa. He was composer-in-residence for the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival 2017, NewMusicSA Indabas in 2008 and 2015, Festival Capriccio-en-Maine 2017, and for the South African National Youth Orchestra Courses in 2005 and 2013. He is Course Director of the Vale of Glamorgan Festival’s Peter Reynolds Composers Studio. Robert studied at the University of Cape Town and at the Royal Academy of Music, also holding the Manson Fellowship at the RAM in 2001-2002. He completed his PhD at the University of Southampton in 2007, where he was supervised by Michael Finnissy.

Robert is an experienced conductor, currently working as director and conductor of the Cardiff University Contemporary Music Group. With this ensemble he recorded “Only Breath”, a CD of contemporary Welsh choral music for the Ty Cerdd label in 2018, and world premiere performances of two recently-discovered early works by Peter Maxwell Davies in April 2020. In 2014 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.