Compose for Harp | 2025

Professional development opportunities for early career composers

In 2024, the Presteigne Festival, supported by the PRS Foundation’s Talent Development Network, the Garrick Trust, the Colwinston Charitable Trust and in partnership with Tŷ Cerdd, launched a new composer development project for up to six emerging music creators, of whom three were born or based in Wales.

The scheme, open to early-career composers not in full-time education, afforded a commission to each selected candidate for a five-minute solo piece, which was workshopped in front of a live audience at the Presteigne Festival’s Springboard weekend and now, a video recordings of the works have been published on the Presteigne Festival website.

The selected candidates received mentoring from specialist instrumentalists with extensive experience in contemporary music, as well as from composers and the Festival’s Artistic Director, George Vass. Mentors for ‘Compose for harp’ were Lynne Plowman, Anne Denholm‑Blair and Olivia Jageurs; they offered important guidance on both composition and the practicalities of making each piece work well on the chosen instrument.

Click on the composers’ photos below to learn more about them, read about their pieces, and enjoy performances of the new ‘Compose for Harp’ works by Olivia Jageurs.