Hay Music Festival

 It's almost time for the Hay Music Festival.  It runs from 11th to 14th September this year, and there's lots of good stuff happening in several venues around Hay.  There's a theme running through the weekend of music and healing.

On Friday 11th, the Fitzwilliam String Quartet are giving a concert, with Simon Callaghan on the piano, called Bringing light into darkness.

On Saturday 12th there's the Sinfonia Cymru Wind Quintet with piano, doing two concerts (the second as an Octet/Nonet!), followed by Martin Litton and the Doctors of Jazz.

The three concerts are entitled: Music to lift your day, Music that brings joy and Music that lifts the soul.

On Sunday there's a discussion entitled Music as a Treatment, with composer Nigel Osborne and Michael Trimble, Professor of Neuroscience at Queen's Square and UCL.

There's also a film called Love and Mercy, about Brian Wilson, the founder of the Beach Boys, and his struggles with mental illness - and how music was central to his life and recovery.

The final concert will be the Fitzwilliam Quartet again, with Mozart, Beethoven and a world premiere by Osborne. 

There are also outreach workshops, which are by invitation only.

The first is with composer Robert Peate, cellist Roz Gladstone and violinist Selina Hamilton which is specially for children who are part of the Adoption Support Service, using music, writing, movement, crafting and so on, with trained therapists.

The Fitzwilliam Quartet will be doing outreach workshops with primary and secondary school pupils, and also an interactive performance at the HayDay Cafe for disabled adults, people with dementia and their carers. 

More information, and tickets, are on the Hay Music website. 

h.art week

 It's time for h.art week, beginning on Saturday 5th September, and as usual there are several exhibitions and open studios locally.

Hawthorn Gallery on Castle Street is showing landscapes by Barry Martin-Andrews, alongside their usual selection of pottery, glass, jewellery and woodturning.

John Clare has his paintings in the room at the back of Tinto House.

Menna Angharad and Jeremy Stiff have their studio up in the hills beyond Tregoyd.  He makes wood and steel sculptures and she paints in oils.  Some of Jeremy Stiff's work can be seen in the garden of Hay Cinema Bookshop, and for a while hcb also had some of Menna Angharad's paintings on display inside the shop.  There was a big picture of golden eggs hanging in the Travel department that I liked very much, so I was quite disappointed when the exhibition came down.

Up in Michaelchurch Escley there Crispin Thornton Jones has his studio.  He paints detailed landscapes, which are well worth a close look.

And Dore Abbey is hosting thirteen local artists, with ceramics, felting, glass works, painting, printmaking, textiles, willow work and woodcraft. 

Meal with an Author at North Books

 North Books are having a special event on Thursday3rd September at 6pm - an entire three course Italian meal, with a glass of Etna wine, to celebrate the book The Fire in the Mountain.  It's a book about wine growing in Sicily, by local author Helena Attlee, who lives in Presteigne.

It's essential to book, because the tickets are £50 each, and space is limited. 

Community Campus

 There was a presentation in the back room of the Swan today of the plans for the Community Campus.  This is the sports centre/community space/offices for local bodies like Dial-a-Ride/youth club which has been proposed by HADSCAL for the site next to the doctors' surgery on Forest Road.  They also want a cafe and a hall that would seat 150 people, with a stage.

I was reminded that it was happening by seeing a post on Facebook from Gareth Ratcliffe, who went to the VIP presentation last night.  Today was for any member of the community to come and make their views known, and it looked as if a good number of people had come through.  They had various places around the room where people could write their ideas or what they thought about the project, and there were plenty of answers on display.

The next stage for the organisers is to get planning permission from the National Parks - they've been thinking carefully about green roofs, and solar panels over the parking places, and keeping the light pollution as low as possible because of the National Parks Dark Skies area.  Only after that can they start applying for funding to build.

It's been designed in modules, so it can be built in several stages as the funding becomes available.  One aspect of the plan that I really liked was the idea of a swimming pool that is part covered and part open air (and I don't even swim!).  

Part of the plan is for 10 business units, and the rent from those would be used to fund the campus, as well as rent from the offices inside the main buildings.  The design also includes allotment plots, some of which are already there at the edge of the playing fields. 

A lot of hard work has been done to get the plans to this stage, and I hope that they succeed in getting the campus built. 

Wildfire near Builth Wells

 We saw a fire engine from the Hay fire station heading off with sirens blaring yesterday lunch time.  It seems they were answering a call out to a wildfire near Builth Wells.  Five fire engines were on the scene, from all over the area.

There have been more wildfires this year than I ever remember in Wales before.

Which is worrying.

(Yes, climate change is real, and the fossil fuel companies should be shut down before they make the situation any worse.) 

Schumann Concert

 Before I start, I'd like to say that the cake making ladies are awesome!  I had a delicious blackberry sponge cake before the concert started.

I went into this knowing nothing about Clara and Robert Schumann, and it was such a sad story, beautifully illustrated with piano pieces played by Rosemary Firmin.  At one point, she also played the part of Maria, Clara and Robert's oldest daughter, playing for her father.  

When Clara's father finally allowed them to marry (they had to bring a law suit to force him!) they had eight children together and seemed to be very happy.  He was composing and running a music magazine, and she was a concert pianist who also composed.

Then he became ill, and ended up in an insane asylum, and Clara was left to provide for all the children and pay his medical bills.  Sadly, he never recovered, and died, and Clara spent the rest of her life touring, becoming the foremost concert pianist of her age.

The performance was made up of letters and diary entries, as well as linking passages explaining what was happening in their lives, and it was brilliantly well done.

I'm sorry to say that I no longer have the flyer for the performance, so I can't remember the names of the performers, but they were really very good. 

Secret Wine Bar and Japanese Lunch

 

This is the view from the garden of Belmont House, which was open for the Secret Wine Bar and Japanese food.  I had a glass of pink fizz called Running at Rabbits from the Black Mountain Winery, which was very nice, and for lunch I had the marinaded vegetables and pork meat balls, which were delicious.