North Wales International Music Festival
The North Wales International Music Festival is a classical music festival founded by William Mathias in 1972 and held annually in St Asaph Cathedral in north Wales. William Mathias was Artistic Director of the Festival for twenty years. He was followed by Geraint Lewis and the role is currently held by Ann Atkinson. The Festival is an eight day event (nine days 2013) and takes place in the last week of September each year. One of the principal aims of the festival is to foster appreciation, understanding and enjoyment of classical music amongst as wide as possible a cross-section of the communities of North Wales and to strive to provide all people from all backgrounds with the opportunity to experience live performances of classical music given by performers of the highest quality, whilst further promoting the development of Welsh culture within the genre.
One of the ways in which this is done is through educational programmes, working with schools across North Wales to provide a different type of experience and activity to that which can be provided by the individual schools.
The President of the North Wales International Music Festival is Bishop Gregory Cameron Bishop of St. Asaph. Vice Presidents are Professor Paul Mealor and Dr. Rhiannon Mathias, the Chair is the Very Reverend Nigel Williams, Dean of the Cathedral, and the Vice Chair is Sue Last.