Traditional music comes to the concert hall! The chamber-folk string trio VRï has risen to prominence in Wales and further afield over the last two years, gaining high acclaim for their exciting sound, stylish arrangements and innovative art-music interpretations of folk melodies and songs.
Ty Ein Tadau (House of Our Fathers), their début CD, is receiving rave reviews from the Guardian and fRoots and has just won Best Album at the 2019 Wales Folk Awards. Catch them while you can in an intimate acoustic concert in the popular former chapel which has become a popular Gregynog Festival in recent years. A delicious afternoon tea at Cwpan Pinc is included in the ticket price.
Although their roots are in Wales and the backbone of their repertoire is Welsh, VRï make a point of blending other traditional musics from around Europe and have been heavily influenced the ‘chamber-folk’ artists from both sides of the Atlantic.
VRi’s vision has always been to maintain the integrity and individuality of their fiddle styles within the ideals of classical chamber ensemble, and to deliver a product which harnesses both the raw energy of the fiddle and the finesse of the violin.
Patrick Rimes has extensive touring experience across three continents with the likes of Calan, Ghazalaw and Cerys Matthews Band. He plays fiddle and viola and adds some flagrantly-appropriated Quebecois foot percussion! Patrick is also in demand as a composer/arranger and won a Bafta in 2017 for work with regular collaborator Bryn Terfel.
As one of the leaders of a new generation of trad cellists in Wales, Jordan Price Williams is in the interesting position of almost entirely inventing a new style. Although he is strongly influenced by eminent cellists such as Natalie Haas, his voice is unmistakably his own. He is also a member of Elfen and Nogood Boyo.
Aneirin Jones is part of the new wave of young traditional musicians coming from Wales. Having already been working professionally since the age of 16 with the likes of Nogood Boyo and Pendevig, he is now studying traditional fiddle at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland – but he remains a Welshman through and through!
VRi will also be opening Gregynog Festival at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth on 22 June and providing a number of pop-up community outreach performances throughout the Festival run. Other concerts this season include the Odysseus Piano Trio (28 June), A Nocte Temporis with the tenor Reinoud Van Mechelen (29 June), and the organist Meirion Wynn Jones (30 June).