One of Wales’ leading exponents of traditional folk singing will feature in a special concert filmed exclusively for a top music festival.

Gwenan Gibbard from Pwllheli took her harp to Sain Studios, Caernarfon to record the concert which will form a key part of this year’s North Wales International Music Festival in St Asaph.

The event is being held in a hybrid format for the very first time and resumes virtually in mid-November.

Gwenan is well-known as a harpist, singer, performer, composer, adjudicator and accompanist at a national level. She is also a prominent figure in Cymdeithas Cerdd Dant Cymru, which promotes a traditional form of Welsh singing with two counterpointed melodies. Several years ago she formed a new choir, Côr yr Heli, specialising in cerdd dant and folk singing.

Festival organisers say support from the Arts Council of Wales and other sponsors was crucial in enabling the hybrid event to go ahead.

Six concerts have taken place in the festival’s traditional home, St Asaph Cathedral, while others were recorded elsewhere. All the concerts will be available online from Monday, 15 November.

Other highlights include chamber music group Ensemble Cymru, resident orchestra NEW Sinfonia with American pianist John Frederick Hudson, London Tango Quintet and harp virtuosa Catrin Finch performing with kora player Seckou Keita.

There is also the Welsh premiere of a new piano concerto by royal composer Paul Mealor which was jointly commissioned by the festival. The BBC National Orchestra of Wales, pianist Iwan Llewelyn Jones, the St Asaph Cathedral Choir and the UK Gospel Choir have also recorded a virtual concert especially for the festival.

Born and raised in Pwllheli, Gwenan Gibbard has travelled and performed extensively, and published three solo albums with Sain since 2006. She has gathered a collection of rarely-heard folk songs for this concert, which is called Wealth and Archives.

“I found many of them when I carried out research into the contributions of Dr Meredydd Evans and Phyllis Kinney to Welsh folk music,” Gwenan said.

“It was interesting to come across the new material and I’m pleased to be able to sing them again, possibly to a whole new audience.”

The discoveries were made after Gwenan was awarded a Doctoral Scholarship by the National Library of Wales. It was a collaboration between the Welsh Music Archive at the National Library of Wales, the School of Music and Media at Bangor University and Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol, and focused on specific aspects of collecting folk melodies in the second half of the 20th and 21st centuries in Wales.

It is the first time Gwenan has taken part in the North Wales International Music Festival.

Despite the pandemic it has been a busy time for Gwenan. She is a member of Pedair, a group of folk singers featuring her, Siân James, Meinir Gwilym and Gwyneth Glyn who have made new recordings and taken part in numerous performances online. She also presented a radio programme called Ambell i Gân for BBC Radio Cymru, featuring folk songs from the archive as well as from abroad.

Ann Atkinson, artistic director of the festival, is excited at the prospect of hearing rarely-heard folk songs.

She said: “The research Gwenan has done in the field of folk music sounds very interesting and I’m pleased she’s able to revive some songs that may not have been heard for many years.

“She is one of the leading performers of folk and cerdd dant singing in Wales and her concert is one not to be missed.”

For more information visit www.nwimf.com.