A highly talented young Welsh pianist has paid tribute to his inspirational late grandmother ahead of his first starring appearance at a prestigious festival.
Ellis Thomas, from Penrhyn Bay, will be performing with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales at the North Wales International Music Festival at St Asaph Cathedral on Friday evening, September 20.
The 23-year-old Cambridge University music graduate, who recently earned a Master’s degree from the Royal Academy of Music, will play festival founder William Mathias’s First Piano Concerto. The BBC National Orchestra of Wales will also perform Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations.
Professor Mathias, who is buried in the Cathedral grounds, founded the festival in 1972, directed it until his death in 1992, and composed the anthem “Let the People Praise Thee, O God” for the 1981 royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana.
The wheel has come full circle as Mathias’s protégé, the festival’s newly-appointed Artistic Director and fellow royal composer Paul Mealor, will also participate. Mealor, from Connah’s Quay, wrote the Kyrie sung by Sir Bryn Terfel at the King’s Coronation.
In the New Year’s Honours List, Professor Mealor was appointed a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order (LVO) for his services to royal music and received the Coronation Medal for his contributions to the service at Westminster Abbey.
Bittersweet
According to Ellis, a former pupil of Ysgol John Bright, performing at the festival will be a bittersweet experience.
He said: “My grandmother, Marion Hawley, was Head of Music at St David’s College and a local piano teacher.
“She introduced me to music, and I doubt I would have started playing the piano if it hadn’t been for her.
“She used to pick me up from primary school when I was five, take me to her house, and we’d sit at the piano and sing and play nursery rhymes. She always encouraged me.
“Sadly, she died a couple of years ago, but she traveled to Cambridge and London to see me play. I was pleased she saw me graduate from Cambridge.
“She was a big influence, and my mum and dad, Stephen and Megan, have also dedicated a lot of time to taking me to concerts and supporting me.”
Ellis, who currently lives in West Hampstead, London, divides his time between teaching music and performing, including trips abroad to play with other musicians in Spain, Italy, Finland, and Germany.
He said: “It will be nice to be home and see my family. My younger brother, Callum, is at Durham University, not studying music but still playing the cello, and my sister, Lucy, is in high school.”
It’s not his first time at the festival in St Asaph, as Ellis added: “I used to play violin and saxophone in the orchestra there, but this is my first time in the Cathedral playing piano. I’m looking forward to it.
“I like the Romantic composers, particularly Chopin, but I also listen to jazz and pop – it gets boring if you just listen to one kind of music.”
Ar Log
Top brass band Foden’s Band are first-time visitors to the festival, and leading Welsh folk band Ar Log will perform an evening of their popular classics and some new songs.
Baritone Jeremy Huw Williams will explore the music of William Mathias in what would have been his 90th birthday year. The world-famous King’s Singers will make a welcome return to the festival with their dazzling vocal artistry.
The combined choirs of Trystan Lewis’s North Wales Choral Union will make their festival debut with a performance of Mendelssohn’s Elijah.
The festival, which runs from September 12 to 21, has been made possible thanks to the support of headline sponsors, the Pendine Park care organization via the Pendine Arts and Community Trust, which supports community and arts activities, and main grant funders the Arts Council of Wales, Colwinston Charitable Trust, and Tŷ Cerdd. This year’s festival is also partially funded by the UK government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund for Denbighshire.
