AN ENSEMBLE of talented classical musicians and singers will be performing in Pembrokeshire in March.

UPROAR – Wales’ New Music Ensemble – will be championing some of the most exciting voices in Welsh classical music alongside multi-award-winning international composers in the new Son of a Chamber Symphony tour.

The tour will open at Bangor Music Festival before visiting four venues across Wales, including its final date in Cilgerran.

Son of a Chamber Symphony will include three new pieces of classical music about contemporary life in Wales from Welsh composers Richard Baker, Nathan James Dearden and Lynne Plowman.

Richard Baker’s piece is called Motet IV – Accidental Activists and is inspired by recordings from the early 1980s as US president Ronald Reagan’s White House provided an inadequate response to the AIDS epidemic in the US as well as earliest Welsh and Welsh-language manifestations of the crisis.

Nathan James Dearden’s new piece is titled The Day Following and is a reflection of lost communities in Wales and how losing community has a broader social and cultural impact. It mainly focuses on the Capel Celyn drowning and will feature archive footage of how it looks below the waterline now.

Lynne Plowman’s piece is called The Wind Sweepers and is an energetic and contrasting piece based on the movement of wind turbines. It is the third in her series of musical environmental activism pieces.

There will also be performances of music from well-known composers including Olga Neuwirth’s Symphonie Diagonale where a dynamic soundtrack complements the abstract film of Viking Eggeling; and John Adams’ Son of Chamber Symphony.

Michael Rafferty, UPROAR’s artistic director, said: “People should have the opportunity to hear this music wherever they live in Wales. We want to create more opportunities for people in Wales to hear top quality performances of classical music written by living composers from Wales and internationally.

“Contemporary music has a unique role in articulating contemporary stories. Environmental issues concern us all and form the inspiration for Lynne Plowman’s commission. Nathan James Deardon’s piece reflects on lost communities in Wales focussing on the drowning of Capel Celyn to form a reservoir, and Richard Baker’s piece is a response to some of the suppressed Welsh voices during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.

“We also want more communities in Wales to hear live performances from recognised international composers. John Adams is the world’s most performed contemporary composer, and his Son of Chamber Symphony was last heard in Cardiff in 2012. We are thrilled to perform this to audiences throughout Wales.

“Olga Neuwirth came to prominence in the UK through her opera Lost Highway which won a South Bank Show Award. We want Welsh audiences to be able to hear her music and our performances of Symphonie Diagonale, which accompanies the film by Viking Eggelin, will be the first time this piece has been heard in the UK.”

UPROAR began five years ago to invest in contemporary classical music, develop talent and bring opportunities for audiences across Wales to experience new music.

Son of a Chamber Symphony will be at Cilgerran’s Rhosygwilen Mansion on March 23 after performing at Bangor Music Festival (February 17), Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff (February 22), Aberystwyth Arts Centre (March 7) and Theatr Soar in Merthyr Tydfil (March 22).

There will be a pre-show discussion before each of the performances with the commissioned composers. More information can be found at www.uproar.org.uk.