Britain's What's On Event Guide
2026 Presteigne Festival
Now in its 44th year, the internationally celebrated Presteigne Festival brings an exceptional roster of world-class musicians, composers, artists and writers to Radnorshire’s cultural capital for five inspiring days of music, ideas and imagination over the August Bank Holiday weekend.
The 2026 Festival celebrates the remarkable contribution of women composers from the 20th and 21st centuries. We mark three important anniversaries: the 75th birthday year of celebrated choral composer Cecilia McDowall, together with the 70th birthdays of Sally Beamish and the Presteigne Festival’s founding Artistic Director, Adrian Williams. Michael Zev Gordon joins us as composer-in-residence and we shine a spotlight on Mathilde Wantenaar, one of the Netherlands’ most exciting composing talents.
Contemporary music features prominently throughout the Festival, with a rich selection of new and recent works from some of today’s most exciting voices – Michael Berkeley, Cameron Biles-Liddell, Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade, Lillie Harris, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Gabriel Jackson, Tayla-Leigh Payne, Robert Peate, Electra Perivolaris, Lynne Plowman, Emma-Ruth Richards, Claire Victoria Roberts, Natalie Roe and Daniel Soley – programmed alongside timeless classics from Bach, Bartók, Beethoven, Britten, Elgar, Holst, Prokofiev, Ravel, Schumann and Stravinsky’s masterpiece 'The Soldier’s Tale'.
A fresh mix of voices and styles which showcases and celebrates the creativity, innovation and diversity that define today’s classical music landscape.
Artists appearing at the Festival include HearAndNow Collective (Amsterdam), Fenella Humphreys, pianists Clare Hammond and Jâms Coleman, James Gilchrist (tenor), Rowan Pierce (soprano), narrator Jonathan Gunthorpe, Ben Goldscheider (horn), Imogen Whitehead (flugelhorn), cellist Rainer Crosett, Sally Pryce (harp), guitarist Eva Victoria Schockmel, the Choir of King’s College, together with the Festival Orchestra and Ensemble.
The 2026 Festival celebrates the remarkable contribution of women composers from the 20th and 21st centuries. We mark three important anniversaries: the 75th birthday year of celebrated choral composer Cecilia McDowall, together with the 70th birthdays of Sally Beamish and the Presteigne Festival’s founding Artistic Director, Adrian Williams. Michael Zev Gordon joins us as composer-in-residence and we shine a spotlight on Mathilde Wantenaar, one of the Netherlands’ most exciting composing talents.
Contemporary music features prominently throughout the Festival, with a rich selection of new and recent works from some of today’s most exciting voices – Michael Berkeley, Cameron Biles-Liddell, Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade, Lillie Harris, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Gabriel Jackson, Tayla-Leigh Payne, Robert Peate, Electra Perivolaris, Lynne Plowman, Emma-Ruth Richards, Claire Victoria Roberts, Natalie Roe and Daniel Soley – programmed alongside timeless classics from Bach, Bartók, Beethoven, Britten, Elgar, Holst, Prokofiev, Ravel, Schumann and Stravinsky’s masterpiece 'The Soldier’s Tale'.
A fresh mix of voices and styles which showcases and celebrates the creativity, innovation and diversity that define today’s classical music landscape.
Artists appearing at the Festival include HearAndNow Collective (Amsterdam), Fenella Humphreys, pianists Clare Hammond and Jâms Coleman, James Gilchrist (tenor), Rowan Pierce (soprano), narrator Jonathan Gunthorpe, Ben Goldscheider (horn), Imogen Whitehead (flugelhorn), cellist Rainer Crosett, Sally Pryce (harp), guitarist Eva Victoria Schockmel, the Choir of King’s College, together with the Festival Orchestra and Ensemble.
Thu 27 Aug, Mon 31 Aug
P O Box 30
Presteigne Powys LD8 2WF
Various times and ticket prices
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