The 2026 Hay Music Festival, with its theme: ‘The Healing Power of Music’ concludes this Sunday, 13 September, at 5.00pm with the Fitzwilliam String Quartet performing the world premiere of "Birnam Wood" by the British composer Nigel Osborne. A stunning new and original composition not to be missed.

Nigel Osborne, the composer, has worked in war zones for over 30 years using music to support the recovery of orphaned children and wounded adults and has published scientific papers with the neuroscientist Professor Michael Trimble of UCL and Queens Square, on how music can effectively be used in the treatment of such things as epilepsy and PTSD.

They will come together to discuss ‘Music as Treatment’ at 10.30am on the morning of Sunday, 13 September, in Hay Castle prior to the concert, which is followed by the screening at Richard Booth's Bookshop Cinema at 1:45pm of the Film: Love and Mercy, a 2014 American biographical drama film directed by Bill Pohlad about the Beach Boys’ co-founder and leader Brian Wilson and his struggles with mental illness during the 1960s and 1980s.

For more information and tickets visit: www.haymusic.org