• »Bangor Home
• »School of Music

Profile of Dr Guto Pryderi Puw

Background

Guto Pryderi Puw is one of the most promising Welsh composers of his generation. He studied at Bangor University with composers John Pickard, Andrew Lewis and Pwyll ap Siôn where he gained his M.Mus degree in 1996, and after winning the Parry Williams Scholarship he was awarded with a PhD in composition in 2002. In 2004 he was appointed as a Teaching Fellow at the School of Music, University of Wales Bangor, later to join as a full member of staff in 2006. He is the Chairman and Artistic Director of the Bangor New Music Festival, which has been running since 2000.

He first made an impact as a composer in 1995 when he won Tlws y Cerddor - the Composer's Medal - at the National Eisteddfod (and won the award again in 1997). Since then he has received many commissions and performances while being much in demand as a composer at various festivals such as the Bath Music Festival, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, State of the Nation, The North Wales Music Festival, the Bangor New Music Festival, and the Vale of Glamorgan Festival, with a number of performances during the UKwithNY festival in New York, USA. His music is regularly broadcast on radio (BBC Radio 3) and television (S4C).

In 2005 his orchestral work (and BBC Radio 3 commission), Reservoirs, was nominated in the Large-Scale Composition category of the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards, and in February 2006 he was appointed as the first Resident Composer with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales to compose three new orchestral commissions over a period of three years. 

His Concerto for Oboe won the BBC Radio 3 'Listeners Award' category at the 2007 British Composer Awards.

Teaching

Composition, Contemporary Music, Music Technology, Publishing and Processing Music.

Responsibilities

Conductor of the University Chamber Choir
Health and Safety Officer
Website Officer

Research Interests

Composition, Contemporary classical music (especially from a Welsh perspective), and the Music of John Metcalf.

Main publications

Compositions

'...onyt agoraf y drws...' ('...unless I open the door...') for orchestra (2006-7) - 15'.  Commissioned by the Proms. Premiered by the BBC NOW directed by David Atherton during the Proms, Albert Hall, London on 09/6/07.

Dawns y Sêr (Dance of the Stars) for baritone and ensemble (2006) – 22'. Arrangement of the original song cycle for baritone and large ensemble. The first three songs were premiered by Jeremy Huw Williams and members of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales directed by Grant Llewellyn at the Weston Theatre, Milennium Centre, Cardiff on 16/3/07.

Concerto for Oboe and orchestra (2006) – 20’. Commissioned by BBC Radio 3 for BBC NOW. Premiered by David Cowley (oboe) and the BBC NOW at Theatr Brycheiniog, Brecon on 26/4/06, and a second performance in Newtown on 27/4/06.

Stereo Type (2005) for amplified typewriters and tape – 10’. (A collaboration with Ed Wright) Premiered by students from the School of Music, Bangor University during the Bangor New Music Festival, Deiniol Shopping Centre, Bangor, 05/3/05.  

Ffantasia IV (Canon) (2003) for solo organ – 8’. Commissioned by The North Wales International Music Festival. Premiered by Huw Tregelles Williams, St Asaph Cathedral, 20/9/03 

Reservoirs (2002) for full orchestra – 20’. Commissioned by BBC Radio 3 for BBC NOW. Premiered by BBC NOW under Grant Llewelyn, St Davids Hall, Cardiff on 7/5/04

Trioled (2001) improvisation for ensemble and dancer – 7’. Commissioned by The Bangor New Music Festival. Premiered by the Chris Burn Ensemble with Eddie Ladd (dancer) at Powis Hall, Bangor University on 6/4/01.

Dawns y Sêr (Dance of the Stars) (2001) cycle of songs for baritone and piano – 21’. Words by Nesta Wyn Jones. Commissioned by Jeremy Huw Williams. Premiered by Jeremy Huw Williams and Nigel Foster at the Joseph Parry Hall, Aberystwyth, 12/3/01.

Publisher: Oriana Publications

Blodeuwedd (2000) for baritone and piano – 6’. Words by Nesta Wyn Jones. Commissioned by Jeremy Huw Williams. Premiered by Jeremy Huw Williams and Nigel Foster at the Vale of Glamorgan Festival, Bardenstock Hall, St Donats.

Publisher: Oriana Publications

different light (2000) for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano – 9’. Commissioned by the Vale of Glamorgan Festival. Premiered by the Icarus Ensmble, The Point, Cardiff on 7/9/00. Subsequent performances at the Angel Orensanze Arts Centre, New York on 25-26 and 28/10/2001.

Ffantasia III (2000) for solo piano – 11’. Commissioned by The Bangor New Music Festival 2000. Premiered by Ian Pace at Powis Hall, UWB, 15/4/00

Recordings

Blodeuwedd

Jeremy Huw Williams and Nigel Foster, CD Songs for Jeremy (Sain label SCD2266, 2000).

Visages 

Tubalaté on their CD Earth and Moon (TCD label, January 2001)

Articles

‘Dwy Eisteddfod’, Barn, Rhif 486/487 (Gorffennaf/Awst 2003), pp42-45.

‘Cyrn’, Barn, Rhif 459 (Ebrill 2001), pp32-35.

‘Y Crwth’, Barn, Rhif 455/456 (Ionawr 2001), pp44-47.

Awards

The Concerto for Oboe won the BBC Radio 3 'Listeners Award' category at the 2007 British Composer Awards.

Reservoirs was nomianted in the large scale composition category for the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award in May 2005.