THE Gregynog Festival comes home to its Montgomeryshire roots this year with a programme inspired by various aspects of the Davies family’s interests, including Gwendoline and Margaret Davies, the sisters who founded the original festivals in the 1930s.

Last year’s festival celebrated the centenary of the Welsh composer Morfydd Owen with events stretched over six months and at venues around Wales and England.

The 2019 programme was launched on Monday and has most events taking place at Gregynog Hall, at Tregynon, in June.

Inspired by various aspects of the Davies family’s interests and philanthropy, including David Davies and three anniversaries.

It marks 100 years since Gregynog Festival’s first artistic director, Henry Walford Davies, became the first Gregynog Professor of Music at Aberystwyth University 1919-26, and first director of the National Council of Music for Wales 1919-41, appointments that were funded by the Davies sisters.

The season also celebrated the anniversaries of two foundations sponsored by Davies Davies, the Department of International Politics at Aberystwyth University and the Temple of Peace and Health in Cardiff.

Launching the season and its theme of ‘Vision’, the festival’s artistic director Dr Rhian Davies said: “We’re delighted to be returning to Gregynog with chamber and early music concerts that are perfect for summer evenings in the Music Room.”

Dr Davies will give a lecture on Walford Davies’ ambition to “further the expression of Welsh nationality in music” at Aberystwyth on June 28, and the festival’s opening and closing concerts, on June 22 and June 30, will also take place at Aberystwyth.

There will also be a concert at Llangadfan on June 23, but the festival’s five other events will all be at Gregynog.

They include the Odysseus Piano Trio on Friday, June 28, at 7.30pm, paying tribute to the Aberystwyth Trio appointed by Walford Davies in 1919 as the first resident chamber ensemble at any university in the world.

The trio gave free weekly concerts to students and townspeople and even shared the platform with Blea Bartok when he made his UK debut at Aberystwyth in March 1922.

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Gregynog also hosts A Nocte Temporis, directed by the tenor Reinoud Van Mechelon, in a beautiful programme of arias by Bach, on Saturday, June 29, at 7.30pm.

The Flemish tenor and the French baroque ensemble, featuring the flautist Anna Besson, are the rising stars of the early music world, and this will be their debut appearance in Wales.

Other events at Gregynog will be another chance to hear Rhian Davies’ ‘Walford and Wales’ lecture on Friday, June 28, at 6pm; a talk on ‘David Davies and International politics’ by Dr Jan Ruzicka on Saturday, June 29, at 2.30pm; and a lecture on ‘David Davies and the Temple of Peace’ by Craig Owen on Saturday, June 29, at 4pm.

The festival box office is now open with tickets and full information available at www.gregynogfestival.org, and on 01686 207100.