Gerard Cousins is a rare guitar player: Classically trained but with an ear for innovation. His compositions and transcriptions have taken the nylon-strung guitar to new places - the first solo CD of Philip Glass transcriptions approved by the man himself and original compositions inspired by Steve Reich, Arvo Part and John Mclaughlin have proved inspirational. 

A graduate of the University of Leeds and Enschede Conservatorium (Netherlands), Gerard has performed in many festivals and concert halls around the world, from the Purcell Room and Milton Court in London to Europe, South America, and the Middle East. He has released seven albums, each one focusing on a different area of music, from traditional Spanish repertoire to his original compositions and re-imaginings of traditional Welsh music. Gerard was the first guitarist to successfully create guitar versions of Philip Glass’s piano music and was invited to release his recording on Glass’s own record label - Orange Mountain Music. The album was featured on the front page of Apple Music and has currently been streamed well over a million times. Gerard’s next project was an EP of transcriptions of Grammy award-winning choral composer Eric Whitacre, which has also been streamed over 5 million times and was playlisted on classic FM. His latest album, “The Poet Acts”, was released in July.

Gerard was chosen to be the first ‘Composer in Residence’ at the 2019 Cardiff Guitar Festival and his compositions have featured in films and are often heard on TV. His arrangements of choral works by Eric Whitacre are published by Hal Leonard.

 You can find out more about Gerard by following the links here and here.

Festival ticket prices per concert:

25-59 yr old £22  

60+ £20 

16-24 £16 

under 16s free

Five-Ticket Festival Pass:

 25-59 £100 

60+ £90  

16-24 £72