Now in its 44th year, the internationally celebrated Presteigne Festival will return to Radnorshire over the August Bank Holiday weekend (August 27-31) with five days of music, ideas and imagination.

The 2026 festival will celebrate the contribution of women composers from the 20th and 21st centuries, while also marking milestone birthdays for composers Cecilia McDowall, Sally Beamish and the festival’s founding artistic director Adrian Williams.

Michael Zev Gordon has been named composer-in-residence, while Dutch composer Mathilde Wantenaar will also feature prominently in the programme.

Alongside works by contemporary composers including Michael Berkeley, Cameron Biles‑Liddell, Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade, Lillie Harris, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Gabriel Jackson, Tayla-Leigh Payne, Robert Peate, Electra Perivolaris, Lynne Plowman, Emma-Ruth Richards, Claire Victoria Roberts, Natalie Roe and Daniel Soley, audiences will hear classics by Bach, Bartók, Beethoven, Britten, Elgar, Holst, Prokofiev, Ravel and Schumann. Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale will be performed in a semi-staged production.

The festival will also include a three-film retrospective of New Zealand director Jane Campion, alongside talks from guests including Sioned Davies, Carwyn Graves, Stephen Johnson and Fiona Sampson.

Visitors will again be able to explore Presteigne Open Studios, showcasing the work of local artists and makers.

Artists this year include the HearAndNow Collective from Amsterdam, violinist Fenella Humphreys, pianists Clare Hammond and Jâms Coleman, tenor James Gilchrist, soprano Rowan Pierce, narrator Jonathan Gunthorpe, horn player Ben Goldscheider, flugelhorn player Imogen Whitehead, cellist Rainer Crosett, harpist Sally Pryce, guitarist Eva Victoria Schockmel, and the Choir of King’s College London under Joseph Fort.

The ever-popular Presteigne Festival Orchestra and Ensemble will also return under artistic director George Vass.

General online and telephone booking is now open via the festival website at presteignefestival.com or by calling 01544 267800.

Organisers say more than 1,000 tickets have already been sold — an all-time record for the festival.