Christopher Painter from Barry is the winner of the Blaenau Gwent and Heads of the Valleys National Eisteddfod Musicians Medal, announced during a special ceremony on the Pavilion stage on Wednesday evening, 4 August.
This year’s Musicians Medal is presented for an original composition for a combination of one voice and two instruments in any suitable style, without being longer than eight minutes. The judges were Mervyn Burtch and Geraint Lewis. 9 compositions were received for the Medal and the judges chose the work of Harri-Ifor. Speaking from the stage, judge Geraint Lewis said:
“This is a composer who is totally self-possessed when choosing his musical medium, a composer who naturally understands how to set words to music. This is chamber music at its best, and he wins this year’s Musicians Medal with great praise.”
Christopher Painter was born at Port Talbot in 1962 and studied music at University College, Cardiff. His composition studies were initially with Richard Elfyn Jones and in 1984 he began to study with Alun Hoddinott. He studied full-time with Hoddinott until 1989 and also had lessons from Samuel Adler (Eastman School of Music, New York); George Benjamin; John McCabe; Edward Gregson; Robert Saxton, Robert Simpson and Marek Stachowski (Warsaw University). In addition, Christopher also studied conducting with Edward Gregson; Stanley Saunders (University of Guelph, Canada); Rod Walker (University of Texas, USA); and with Christopher Adey.
Christopher was the first recipient of the Afan Thomas Composer’s Award and has also won the National Eisteddfod Composition Prize (Newport 1988) and was featured in the Welsh Arts Council’s “Young Welsh Composer Forum” in 1987. In 1997, Christopher was the first Welsh winner of the “Gregynog Composer Award of Wales” which was given for his Sonata for Harp which was premiered at that year’s Gregynog Festival.
Appointed as Composer-in-Association with Ensemble Cymru in October 1997, Christopher wrote a number of works for this ensemble, including the children’s dance work, Yggdrasil, a Millennium Commission/Techniquest commission as part of the “Sounds for Science” project.
In 1999 he was Composer-in-Residence with both the National Youth Orchestra and National Youth Brass Band of Wales. His work, Invisible Cities, for the National Youth Orchestra of Wales was subsequently released on CD by the orchestra.
The Royal Society of Arts awarded Christopher Painter a Fellowship In December 2003.
In August 2005, Christopher won the Tlws y Cerddor (Musicians Medal) at the National Eisteddfod of Wales for his chamber work, Yr Hanes Swynol (A History of Charms). This a a particular honour given that his great-grandfather, the poet-composer Thomas Owen David, had been a member of the Gorsedd under the name Owain ap Japheth.
In 2005/2006 Christopher was Composer-in-Residence with the Thueringen Philharmonie in Gotha, Germany. Here he worked with renowned Welsh conductor Alun Francis and his tenure ended with the premiere of a major work for the orchestra, Forest of Dreams. The work subsequently received its UK premiere with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, under the direction of Jac van Steen, in April 2009.
Christopher Painter receives the Musicians medal, given by Urdd Cerddoriaeth Cymru (The Welsh Music Leagueand a financial prize of £500. He commented:
“Syniadau ar Serch is a setting of verses taken from the Hen Benillion and refers to the joy, despair, loss and remembrance of love and is dedicated to all those who love, have loved, search for love or have been loved.”
