I think there are certain things that underlie the choice of the composers for the Festival. There’s a certain iconoclastic element to some of the composers that we choose. I think it’s very interesting to have composers who take a strongly individual line, a very, very distinctive line, whatever the fashions or tastes happen to be. Among the many excellent composers this year, we have three in particular who have done that, and from really quite different generations.

It’s Ned Rorem’s 80^th birthday. He is an extremely cultured composer, very American in style, in a certain way, very East Coast, very New England American. And of the generation that had the connection with Paris. But a composer of great craftsmanship, of great wit, and sensitivity. A remarkable composer.

Then we have Stephen Montague, who really spans a number of different traditions – obviously the experimental tradition, with wit and humour, the experimental tradition of Cage, of exploring the extent to which sound can form part of the natural palate that a composer has. As the experimental pieces from his American background. Obviously the influence of minimalism in his music. And finally there’s a decided romantic streak in Stephen Montague’s music. He’s a very, very interesting composer. Very, very individual again.

And then, of course, there’s Matthew Hindson, who is in his 30s, a young composer, influenced by some of the commercial music of his generation, and also by the references to the history of classical music.

So, in a sense, the Festival has reverted to an earlier approach we had, which is one of composer portrait, where there are similarities between composers, and also real differences. I think back to the year when we had Gorecki and Sculthorpe, which looks at two ends of the world. And I suppose we’ve got that this year, an American, and an ex-American, and an Australian.

It’s just the sheer exuberance and over the top liveliness of Matthew Hindson’s music that I really like. It’s the extraordinary way he treats the whole orchestra like a rock band! (as Stravinsky treated the whole orchestra as a percussion instrument) and all the references to vernacular music, … But this is borrowing from the current music. Rather than the way in which Stravinsky borrowed from jazz. So it’s borrowing from the street music of today. Not borrowing, …. it’s transmuting through his own individual filter.

Devoting a concert just to his music is an unusual thing to do, but when somebody’s music is not known at all I think it is interesting to find out, and that does emphasise the composer portrait element of this year’s Festival. I think it’s interesting to challenge normal ways of programming concerts.

I think he fits directly in that tradition, and of course he is a pupil of Peter Sculthorpe, who recommended him for an award with Faber for the Millennium 2000, for Whitewater, which is one of the pieces we are going to do. He directly fits into the tradition of engagement with all the Western music, with all the slightly left field element that you get in a lot of Australian music. It’s engagement with a tradition, but also distance from it. What he shares with Elena Kats-Chernin is this incredibly – and the only word I can use is – ‘masculine’ energy, incredible exuberance and vitality. A lot of the pieces are very fast, and they’ve got great, great energy.

I think it will fit in well with Matthew Hindson’s. Some of the same elements are there. The exuberance, certainly of personality, and the energy, and the breadth of reference points, things that come into the music, so that the music is informed by other cultural ideas and traditions. Various pieces that we are not doing by Stephen Montague such as the Horn Concerto for klaxon horn and twenty automobiles [1998], the Philup Glass – a Lullaby for Wine Glasses [2001], so it’s that same sense of sheer fun and exuberance that is common to those two composers.

As you say, there are quite a lot of other reference points. The BBC NOW concert has a substantial work by Anthony Powers and a work by David Sawer. The OKEANOS concert is wonderful array of some fine composers – including some we have had before, Elena Kats-Chernin, Anne Boyd, and others. But also includes a new work by Nigel Osborne, and a work by Gabriel Jackson, so there’s a nice range of composers in that concert.

Yes, the other real highlight, I suppose, of the Festival is the toy piano. It seems to me it’s a very nice colour to have in the concert, and we have a wonderful concert on the Saturday night, which has all sorts of piano references – piano with CD; piano with electronics; piano with tape recorders; toy piano; and toy piano with piano. So there’s quite a range of extraordinary and quite unusual references in that.

Of course, the toy piano is not really a piano, it’s more like a keyed glockenspiel really. But it will be very interesting. And, if you go back, there’s the connection with John Cage, who wrote the only previously existing piece for that instrument, and, with the experimental tradition, with Stephen Montague.

There is also the connection, again with the experimental tradition, in that one of the things that is ‘stuck’ with our music, if I can put it that way, is our concert-going habits. We are still stuck with the idea that you pay for your ticket, and you sit, in the one place, the concert lasts two hours, there’s an overture, then a concerto, and a symphony in the second half…. But the particular way in which that is limiting for the audience is in the acoustic, because you don’t have the chance to hear the concert from difference acoustic perspectives. That’s what’s so lovely about rehearsals – you can wander around the hall and hear what’s going on in different ways.

This is a genuine prom concert – which doesn’t mean only that you can stand up, it means that you can actually move around. And it’s in a remarkable setting, the Atrium of that glass building, and three storeys, and a rubberised floor which absorbs the sound, and so it’s a great opportunity for people to experience music in a highly different way. It is also contemporary music in a contemporary venue. So instead of sticking with the early 19^th century model of the burgher’s concert hall in the city and you pay to go in, it’s the idea that music, as it has done in the past, can evolve to new settings.

Well, we’re gradually evolving the Festival to having a number of residencies, and we have two this year, because Chamber Domaine, who were resident last year, are coming back, and we have Sinfonia Cymru, who will be staying at St Donat’s, in the Vale of Glamorgan, and will be working for several days, on their concert, of course, and working with the schools as part of their residency. Another thing worth saying about that is that it is quite unusual for an young orchestra to work with a young composer. That’s another feature. You can go through music college without too much exposure to a large amount of contemporary music or play in an orchestra. But this is a young orchestra playing a young composer. Both are going to be in residence, and will have a chance to meet and chat, and have a beer.

There is that element too. It’s an important way of developing the appreciation and understanding of contemporary music, that you don’t only sit, you can play it, you can meet the composers, you can get into it on a number of levels. That part of our work is very important, for young people to play pieces. They will be playing string pieces by Stephen Montague and Matthew Hindson, and also in the main concert there are performances by young players of pieces written for piano for a moderate level of difficulty.

Yes. All of this is being accomplished with performers of the highest standard, and among those we’ve not yet mentioned are Craig Ogden, an outstanding guitarist, and Claire Bradshaw, and of course, Andrew Zolinsky, who has made a special study of contemporary music with David Lang, and who will play the new David Lang Piano Concerto in the 2004 Festival. So, there are a number of wonderful performers.

And finally, it’s worth mentioning that, as well as contemporary venues, we’ve got some of the most beautiful old venues, the old Celtic church in Llantwit Major, the beautiful private house in the heart of the Vale, and the candlelit concert at Ewenny Priory. So we’re coming at contemporary music from a lot of different angles, hoping to continue to draw new audiences into it.

I’m working on a South American theme, and also on the idea of having a festival around the cello – around an instrument. We’re sort of nibbling with that idea this year, in featuring the piano, but to have a whole festival around the cello, and multiple cellos. With other instruments, of course, but to have that as the focus. We’ve never had an instrument as the focus for the Festival. It’s another way of looking at it. There are geographical ways – it’s always repertoire first – but you can have a geographical focus, a composer-portrait focus, you can have an instrument focus. It’s another way of planning what I hope is a very distinctive event.