The world’s finest TV and film composers to perform in Hastings and Bexhill this month

They include Festival patron Nigel Hess, two-time Ivor Novello award winner and formerly House Composer with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

He will present one of his major works, the original sound track for the film Ladies in Lavender, which featured Judy Dench and Maggie Smith.

Also attending will be Stephen Warbeck, whose many film credits include Shakespeare in Love, Billy Elliott and Mrs Brown.

He will be presenting his highly evocative music from the film Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.

Guest of Honour at the year’s festival will be Debbie Wiseman.

Despite working flat out on music for no less than three feature films at the moment,

she is hoping to be able to attend to conduct excerpts of her work from the TV series Wolf Hall and the films Wilde and A Poet in New York.

Ian Livingstone will be giving the world premier of one of his latest works,

Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts. He has written the score for a large number of video games as well as many documentaries, including My Big Fat Gypsy Weddings.

American composer Michel Duvoisin will be attending to hear a performance of his Tony Benn Suite from the recent film Tony Benn: Will and Testament.

Also coming is British composer Chris Nicolaides, who has worked on projects as varies as the Miramax movie The Importance of Being Earnest,

several BBC documentary series and a number one hit for pop star Mika.

The first concert of this year’s Festival will be on Thursday September 24 in All Saints’ Church in Hastings Old Town. It will feature the music of the distinguished Japanese composer Nobuya Monta, including the world premiere of his one-act opera Otohime, performed in stunning national costumes by a cast who are flying in specially from Japan.

On Friday September 25 there will be a Gala Concert at St Mary’s-in-the-Castle in Hastings featuring world-premieres and performances of chosen works by composers from all over the world including Mexico, Austria, Brazil, USA, Japan and the United Kingdom.

It will include excerpts from the highly anticipated Multi-Faith Oratorio ‘Libera Nos’ by the Hastings-based Argentinian-born composer Polo Piatti, the founder and Artistic Director of the Festival.

On the morning of Saturday September 26 the Festival moves to Bexhill for a morning concert at the De La Warr Pavilion with specially commissioned works by both established and up-and-coming composers.

The grand finale of the Festival will be a concert called A Feast of Film Music.

As well as the composers already mentioned, it will feature music by Patrick Hawes (The Incredible Mr Ritchie), Hans Zimmer (Pirates of the

Caribbean), and John Williams (Schindler’s List). A special feature of the Festival will be two Open Rehearsals, where members of the public can attend for free and see composers and musicians meeting for the first time to rehearse new works.

The first will be at St Mary’s-in-the-Castle on the afternoon of Friday September 25 for that evening’s concert. The second will be at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill for the final concert of the festival. Both will start at 3pm.

For further information and details of how and where to buy tickets, go to the

Festival website at www.composersfestival.com.