Festival remembers composer
ONE of Wales’ greatest composers will be remembered at the festival he created nearly 50 years ago.
Among those paying tribute to the late Professor William Mathias, who founded the North Wales International Music Festival in 1972, will be one of his proteges, Paul Mealor, who is also a globally renowned royal composer.
Paul Mealor will be discussing the life and music of William Mathias with his daughter, Rhiannon Mathias, during a special evening at St Asaph Cathedral to mark what would have been his 85th year.
Prof Mathias, who died in 1992 at the age of 57, was head of the music department at Bangor University.
The event at St Asaph Cathedral on Sunday, September 22, will feature works by Prof Mathias and also music that he loved, by composers including Mozart, who was one of Mathias’s favourite composers, Grace Williams, Debussy and Gershwin.
In 1981, he famously wrote the anthem, ‘Let the people praise thee, O God’, for the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana.
Fast forward to 2011 and his former pupil, Prof Mealor was commissioned to write Ubi Caritas by the Duke of Cambridge for his marriage to Catherine Middleton.
The occasion will be an emotional one for Dr Rhiannon Mathias.
She recalled: “The festival was very, very important to my father’s life. As today, things had to be planned well in advance and he very much enjoyed contacting the artistes. The festival remains a wonderful celebration of music, which is very much how he regarded it.
Dr Mathias, a flautist, is a trustee of the Caernarfonbased centre, Canolfan Gerdd William Mathias, founded in her father’s memory – of which her late mother Yvonne was patron. Dr Mathias now teaches flute there and is also a lecturer, writer and broadcaster.