The launch for the 2011 Presteigne Festival took place on Wednesday 13 April at the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania, London, by kind permission of the Lithuanian Ambassador. Deputy Head of Mission, Petras Anusas, made everyone very welcome and Algirdas Galdikas (a second year Lithuanian undergraduate student at the Royal College of Music) gave a breathtaking performance of the Partita for solo violin by Vytautas Barkauskas.
It was pointed out by clutural attache, Daiva Parulskiene, that while other British festivals have often featured Baltic music in general, the Presteigne Festival is the first such organisation to offer a serious and varied showcase for Lithuanian music. Zita Bruzaite, one of Lithuania's brightest talents, will be an associate artist-in-residence at the 2011 Presteigne Festival and her specially commission work Cum Spe is to be premiered by the Presteigne Festival Soloists, who will, as part of the Festival's ever-growing outreach programme, tour the piece to Birmingham, Bristol and Cardiff.
George Vass, artistic director of the Festival, announced that Joseph Phibbs is to be composer-in-residence in 2011, and that there were several major new works to be unvieled this year – from Phibbs, Joe Duddell, John Hawkins, Julian Philips, John Pickard and Huw Watkins. Details of the full programme have recently been uploaded onto the website.
The Priority Booking period for Patrons and Friends of the Festival opens on 18 April, with General Postal Booking starting on 9 May. For copies of the Presteigne Festival brochure please email eleanorward at presteignefestival dot com.