Music written to celebrate King Charles’s 75th birthday will be performed publicly in Wales for the first time at a leading festival.

A selection of seven songs written by one of the king’s ancestors, Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, have been orchestrated and arranged by royal composer Paul Mealor, the artistic director of the North Wales International Music Festival.

They will be given their Welsh premiere at a concert at St Asaph Cathedral featuring the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and renowned tenor Gwilym Bowen at 7pm on Friday, September 19.

The performance will be recorded live for both BBC Radio 3 and Radio Cymru.

The festival, that’s on from September 11 to 20, has been made possible thanks to the backing of headline sponsors, the Pendine Park care organisation via the Pendine Arts and Community Trust which supports community and arts activities.

Support is also being provided by main grant funders the Arts Council of Wales, Arts & Business Cymru, Tŷ Cerdd and Salisburys Chartered Accountants.

Prof Mealor has composed music for some of the most important state and royal occasions of the last decade, including the Kyrie which was the first time that the Welsh language featured at a Coronation and was sung so beautifully by Sir Bryn Terfel at The King’s coronation in 2023.

Mealor said that Prince Albert and Queen Victoria were accomplished pianists and singers, and the acclaimed composer, Felix Mendelssohn, was their musical hero.

Mendelssohn was a frequent visitor to Buckingham Palace and played the piano for the royal couple and even persuaded them to sing with him.

Mendelssohn is described fondly in the Queen’s diaries in which she wrote he “is such an agreeable, clever man and his countenance beams with intelligence and genius”.

Prof Mealor said: “During his visits to Britain Mendelssohn would visit Scotland and he introduced the monarch to Scotland and it was due to him that the Balmoral estate was purchased by Prince Albert in 1852.

“And he tutored Prince Albert in the art of composition. He spent most of his time at a piano composing and wrote more than 150 songs in all. I was commissioned by King Charles III to arrange some of these songs to celebrate his 75th birthday in 2023.

“I chose seven of Prince Albert’s sings for the Liederkreis, or song cycle, for this suite. They are written in German, the language they spoke to each other, and are beautiful little songs for voice and piano which speak of Prince Albert’s love for the Queen.

“My orchestral arrangements were first performed at Windsor Castle and the performance at St Asaph will be their Welsh premiere,” he said.

Paul Mealor said the King was “very moved” and proud that the memory of his Great-Great-Great Grandfather’s compositions were being kept alive.

In addition to the Liederkreis, the BBC National Orchestra will also play Grace Williams’ very first orchestral score, Hen Walia, Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

Paul Mealor, in his second year as the festival’s Artistic Director, said: “The importance of music and the arts in supporting and promoting good mental health is well known and well documented by scientists and psychologists world-wide.

“This year’s festival theme is Perceptions and through a series of concerts, workshops, masterclasses and discussions, we attempt to examine the positive aspects of music for our mental wellbeing.

“The Festival Lecture on September 20 will be on the subject of Music and the Mind and will be given by Prof Henrietta Bowden-Jones OBE, a leading psychiatrist and Vice-President of the Royal College of Physicians,” said Paul.

The festival’s opening concert on Thursday, September 11, stars Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja who Paul Mealor believes is “the world’s finest lyric tenor”.

Headliners this year include the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, world class choral group Apollo5 and the renowned Black Dyke Band.

Making her festival debut this year will be the acclaimed film and TV composer, Debbie Wiseman OBE.

Her theme tunes for Wolf Hall, Wilde, Father Brown, Tom’s Midnight Garden, Jack Frost, The Glorious Garden and many others will be played by the NEW Sinfonia orchestra.

Another highlight this year will be the second Pendine Young Musician of Wales competition that was launched last year and is being funded by the Pendine Arts and Community Trust set up by Pendine Park.

The final concert will feature the North Wales Choral Union and Orchestra under the baton of conductor Trystan Lewis.

Also returning will be the festival fringe which Paul Mealor introduced as a new element last year to create closer links with the local community in St Asaph.

The fringe events will include a cabaret and American song night, stand-up comedy, and a poetry night led by one of Wales’s greatest poets, Mererid Hopwood, the current Archdruid of Wales.

Tickets and further details about the festival programme and the Pendine Young Musician of Wales competition are available online at https://nwimf.com. Tickets are also available from Cathedral Frames, St Asaph – 07471 318723 (Weds – Fri, 10 – 4) and Theatr Clwyd by phone – 01352 344101 (Mon – Sun, 10 – 8).