TOWN and gown orchestra, Philomusica, will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a celebratory concert on Saturday, 3 December at Aberystwyth Arts Centre.

The concert will be performed under its new conductor, Aberystwyth University’s director of music, Iwan Teifion Davies. There will also be a talk before the show on Bartók by Dr Rhian Davies.

Philomusica was founded back in 1971/72 by a group of students from the then Music Department under Professor Ian Parrott. There were not enough opportunities for all the students to play in the university orchestra so under the baton of Robert Jacoby, the first violinist of the university String Quartet, Philomusica was formed to include players from the local community and schools. Its first concert was in 1972 at CLW (College of Librarianship Wales) at its Llanbadarn Campus. Shortly after, in May 1972, they played in the newly opened Great Hall at Aberystwyth Arts Centre. Fifty years later they are still going strong.

Robert Jacoby conducted the orchestra until 1983 when he left. He was followed briefly by Richard Simm (the university pianist), then Haydn Wyn Davies, H.M.I for Wales.

The orchestra has survived several music crises, such as the closure of the Music Department and the sad, untimely death of Haydn Davies in 1991. One of Haydn’s ex-pupils and long time French horn player from the orchestra, Wynford Jones, stepped into the breach. Due to the closure of the Music Department, Philomusica had lost the rich pool of music students but with the appointment of a new vice-chancellor, Professor Kenneth Morgan, came hope. With a campaign by the public a new appointment of a director of music, and a music centre was achieved. Dr David Russell Hulme, a former student in the department and one of the founder students of Philomusica, was appointed to the new post and the orchestra invited him to take over as conductor, a role he took up in 1992. This reinforced ties with the university and Philomusica truly became a ‘Town and gown’ orchestra. Dr David Russell Hulme introduced a student music bursary scheme to attract talented instrumentalists to Aberystwyth and Philomusica thrived.

There have been quite a few celebratory concerts - 20th , 25th, 30th and 40th anniversaries, mostly under the baton of Dr Russell Hulme. Also the 125th anniversary of the university in 1998. Unfortunately, along came Covid and lockdown, just before their March 2020 concert. This is the only gap in Philomusica’s 50 year history and, along with the retirement of Dr Russell Hulme, the orchestra was in limbo once again. Fortunately, after various public consultations, the university decided to appoint a new director of music. Philomusica is very pleased that Aberystwyth University continues to support them as its flagship orchestra, providing them with an excellent new conductor in Iwan Teifion Davies, a venue for rehearsal and financial support for the students who are such an important part of the orchestra.

It’s a very exciting time for Philomusica, entering a new era, and we have been lucky to benefit from Iwan’s connections and expertise,” an orchestra spokesperson said.

With Philomusica committee’s desire to do more concerts for children, Iwan commissioned a narrated children’s piece from Anglesey composer Gareth Glyn and Welsh writer Mererid Hopwood, to be performed by Philomusica at the National Eisteddfod. ‘Ceffyl y Sêr’ was a great success, enhanced further by animation funded by the National Eisteddfod. With a pool of about 50 available players it was given five performances, each performance featuring 23 players and a narrator, Carys Eleri. It was wonderful to see the reactions from children who have been so deprived during the covid pandemic.

Philomusica hopes to give this piece another airing in Aberystwyth and it is a step towards their desire to reinstate concerts for children/youth.

Their concert on Saturday, 3 December has a dance theme, starting with the sparkling Overture to Die Fledermaus by J. Strauss (ll). Fledermaus is German for bat (the flying variety) and the title comes from the fact that one of the characters is found sleeping off his hangover in a public square dressed as a bat! We will be celebrating not just our own 50th birthday but the 100th anniversary of renowned composer and pianist Béla Bartók making his UK public recital début at the Parish Hall ( now the Castle Theatre) in Aberystwyth, on 16th March 1922. To honour this we will play Bartok’s Dance suite. It was composed in 1923 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the union of the cities, Buda and Pest, to form the Hungarian capital Budapest. Lots of tied in anniversaries there! Alun Hoddinott’s Four Welsh Dances Op.15 are ten minutes of very joyful pieces written in 1958. They were premiered by the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Vilem Tausky at the Royal Festival Hall in 1959. These dances owe little to specific Welsh folk or hymn tunes yet today do convey Hoddinott’s ‘Welsh’ style. Tchaikovky’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’ suite Op.66a will need no introduction to ballet fans. Tchaikovsky first considered the idea of creating a concert suite from ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ in February 1890, shortly after the ballet’s premiere. In the event he was unable to settle on a selection of numbers, and it was only several years after his death( in 1893) that such a suite of five numbers was published. A flourishing and fun finish will be Paul Hindemith’s ‘Ragtime’. Ragtime provided a dance craze in the 1920’s. In 1921 Hindemith took the subject of Bach’s C minor fugue from his ‘Well Tempered Clavier’ and ‘ragtimed’ it. Philomusica looks forward to seeing you all with us on Saturday 3rd December. We would like to thank our ‘Friends’ who support us financially through donations. If you would like to become a Friend you can join through our new website: www.philomusica.cymru or emailing: [email protected] We also run a 100 Club to raise further funds.

Putting on a concert is a very expensive business but Philomusica will continue to provide exciting live music for audiences here in Mid Wales, we hope for another 50 years.

Prior to the concert, the talk ‘Baffling!’: Béla in Aberystwyth will be delivered by Dr Rhian Davies.

It is an amazing fact that the world-renowned composer and performer gave a concert 100 years ago in Aberystwyth! Philomusica is celebrating this with a performance of Bartók’s Dance Suite in its 50th anniversary concert this Saturday, 3 December, at Aberystwyth Arts Centre. The free concert talk will be at 6.30pm in the Studio at the arts centre.

On 16 March 1922, the great Hungarian pianist-composer Béla Bartók made his UK public recital début at the Parish Hall in Aberystwyth, playing his own compositions plus a Beethoven Piano Trio with members of the University chamber ensemble. A hundred years on, Rhian Davies considers this remarkable concert, described by the Cambrian News as ‘an epoch-marking occurrence in the career of the music students’ and by Professor Walford Davies as ‘Baffling!’.

Dr Rhian Davies is a historian of Welsh music and an Honorary Fellow of Bangor University.