A TOP harpist has revealed that a new piece of music to remember the controversial drowning of a village will tug at her heart strings.

Sioned Williams’ grandfather, Huw T Edwards, led the campaign against the submerging of Capel Celyn in the Tryweryn valley above Bala in 1965 to create a reservoir to provide water for the city of Liverpool and the Wirral.

Although ultimately unsuccessful, the mass protests were a touchstone political moment and are credited with sparking a rebirth of Welsh nationalism.

The harpist, originally from Sychdyn in Flintshire, who is stepping down as the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s principal harpist after nearly 30 years in the role, commissioned the work, The Drowning of Capel Celyn, on her 60th birthday.

She will be playing the piece, written by composer Michael Stimpson, at the Wales International Harp Festival at St Mary’s Church in Caernarfon on Easter Monday, 2 April.

Back in the 1960s, Mr Edwards was an influential trade union leader with the Transport and General Workers’ Union in north Wales and he was elected chairman of the Save Tryweryn campaign, something of which Sioned is extremely proud.

She recalled: “I remember sitting on the banks of Llyn Celyn as a young girl with Taid and I felt a huge sense of sadness which remains with me to this day. I have visited there many times since and reflected on the catastrophic events which should never have happened.

“The work by Michael Stimpson is so poignant and the Caernarfon concert will be the Welsh premiere of the work and will be performed in the presence of the composer as Michael Stimpson will be there."

Sioned added: “My Taid, Huw T Edwards, played a major part in trying to stop the flooding and three men, [Gwynedd councillor] Owain Williams, Emyr Llewelyn Jones and John Albert Jones, who sadly died in November last year, attempted to bomb a transformer at the site of the dam.

“It was Taid who apparently paid the bail money to get one of the three men out of prison."

A former pupil of the festival’s director, Elinor Bennett, Sioned went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music where she was taught by Dr Osian Ellis.

However, after years of success which led to her signing a contract to be the principal harpist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1990, Sioned was left devastated after being diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder – McArdle disease, a glycogen storage disorder.

She said: “I cannot express the emotions I went through. However, my heart decided to rule my head and here we are 28 years later and I’m still a harpist.

“However, after 28 exciting years working with the most wonderful composers and conductors in the world, I will relinquish my position and have a final concert with the orchestra under the baton of Sir Andrew Davis in the Barbican on 13 April. I will then concentrate on pursuing other musical adventures.

“I aim to never stop playing the harp. I simply couldn’t!”See this week's north editions for the full story, in shops and online now