THE Vale of Glamorgan Festival of Music will take place until May 23 with a packed line-up of shows in Penarth and Cardiff.

On Thursday, May 14, at 1.15pm, Nieuw Ensemble will return to the Welsh College of Music and Drama in the Dora Stoutzker Hall.

Paintings and images lie at the centre of this concert of bite sized miniatures: a serving maid featured on the front of a famous cocoa tin, a flowing river with a frozen ‘crust’, the expressionist work of Brazilian artist Iberê Camargo and Alfred Wallis’s vivid landscapes of the Cornish coastline.

Tickets cost from £3 to £8 from valeofglamorganfestival.ticketsource.co.uk or call 0844 8700 887.

On the same day at Dyffryn House, St Nicholas at 7.30pm will be Sara Trickey (violin) and Robin Green (piano).

With its timeless, other worldly qualities it’s little wonder Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel provided the soundtrack to the Oscar award-winning film Gravity. Returning to earth, Dabrinka Tabakova evokes the mountains of her homeland Bulgaria and John Metcalf the gardens of Derek Jarman whilst David Matthews draws on the story of Adonis in music permeated by folksong – a quality that also runs through Tabakova’s Spinning a Yarn, written for violin and hurdy gurdy.

Tickets cost from £3 to £15 from valeofglamorganfestival.ticketsource.co.uk or call 0844 8700 887.

On Friday, May 15 at St Augustine’s Church, Penarth at 7.30pm will be Fretwork.

Experience the bright new surface of contemporary music refracted through the warm dark glow of a 16th century consort of viols with the renowned Fretwork. Contemporary composers are queuing up to write for the ensemble’s fabulous strange dark sound. Try Barry Guy’s Buss, inspired by jazz bass player Charlie Mingus, Orlando Gough’s Birds on Fire based on klezmer tuners or Arvo Pärt’s Fratres, whose cool ritualistic atmosphere might have been written for viols.

Pre-concert Talk at 6.45pm: Composing for the Viol Consort Today” – Steph Power in conversation with founder member of Fretwork, Richard Boothby.

Tickets cost £3 to £15 from valeofglamorganfestival.ticketsource.co.uk or call 0844 8700 887.

Then finishing the first week of the festival will be a performance by Francoise-Green Piano Duo at Penarth Pier Pavilion on Saturday, May 16 at 1pm.

The range and depth of music for two pianos is clearly on display in this concert by Francoise-Green Duo. Thrill to the driving intricate rhythms of Adams’ Hallelujah Junction, the ultra-refined whispered world of Kurtág, the simplicity of Arvo Pärt and exuberant craziness of Richard Ayres.

Tickets cost from £3 to £8 from valeofglamorganfestival.ticketsource.co.uk or call 0844 8700 887.

Then during the second week of the Festival will be a performance on Thursday, May 21 at All Saints Church, Penarth.

The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir will perform. There will be a pre-concert talk at 6.45pm entitled “The Music of Arvo Pärt and New Music in Estonia” with Peter Reynolds.

Tickets cost from £3 to £15, to get yours call 0844 8700 887 or visit valeofglamorganfestival.ticketsource.co.uk.