The music event that touched heart and soul

The Festival was enriched by visiting Japanese musicians, led by Composer Nobuya Monta and conductor Hiroshi Endo.

They joined a glittering array of local players to form the sixty-strong International Festival Orchestra.

At the Grand Opening Concert in Saint Mary in the Castle on the Friday evening, the Composers Festival Chorus and the Battle Abbey Children’s Choir added their voices to the orchestra.

This resulted in a superb performance of extracts from Hastings composer Polo Piatti’s Multi-Faith Oratorio, recently completed for Musica Sacra.

Saturday saw two very different concerts in the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill. A series of intimate instrumental pieces gave concert goers a musical matinée. In the evening a Feast of Film Music was precisely that, with an impressive percussion team giving full justice to the finale from Pirates of the Caribbean.

Polo Piatti, founder and artistic director, gave thanks to the many people who had contributed to the event’s success. “Once again,” he said, “we have shown that classical music written by composers today can touch the heart and soul.”

He added: “We cannot feel more proud. My sincere and heartfelt thanks to everyone that made the International Composers Festival such a huge success.”