2010 Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival brings international artists to Plymouth

World leading solo percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, and a solar-powered symphony, are among an international line of up of acts set to play at the 2010 Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival. Now in its sixth year, the Contemporary Music Festival opens on 26 February, 2010, and is also set to host a global association of composers and researchers working in cutting edge computer-aided composition, and the debut performance in the UK of an orchestra comprising newly designed instruments in the shape of sculptures. It will commence with the Sunlight Symphony: Sunrise , an innovative performance in which the rising sun will ‘play’ the University of Plymouth's iconic Roland Levinsky Building via light sensors in the windows. These will be connected to a multi-layered computer music instrument that will play in surround-sound through speakers in the building’s foyer. When the sun hits the first window sensor, the concert will begin with a single note, and then new sounds, melodies and harmonies will layer over the top as the light gets brighter and strikes more of the sensors. Sunrise will perform at selected times between 26 February and 7 March, and there will be a special sunset performance on the last day to mark the Peninsula Arts Chopin Festival, which is partnered with the Contemporary Music Festival this year under the joint title Continuum . Taking to the stage at the Plymouth Guildhall on Saturday 27 February, alongside the Ten Tors Orchestra conducted by Simon Ible, Dame Evelyn Glennie will premiere Devon-based composer James Barrett’s new concerto for percussion and strings, Toilers of the Elements .