The annual youth music festival of concerts is now entering its seventh year and is one of the highlights of the musical year in South West Wales.
It is a festival that brings together young musicians from Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire in six contrasting musical ensembles, providing five concerts of the highest quality.
This year's festival will open with a concert featuring the Three Counties Big Band in concert at Burry Port Memorial Hall on Sunday, June 22, at 7.30 pm.
The Big Band, conducted by Gareth Sanders and containing a number of young musicians who are already members of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Wales, will give its first full concert performance at this event.
On Wednesday, July 16, at 7.30 pm, the Three Counties Youth Orchestra, conducted by Emyr Wynne Jones, will give a concert of music from America and Finland at Lampeter Secondary School.
The soloist in the Copland Clarinet Concerto will be Rhys Taylor, currently studying at the Royal Northern College of Music, principal clarinet with the National Youth Orchestra of Wales, and a former winner of the Youth Musician of Dyfed.
On Wednesday, September 3, at 7.30 pm, the Three Counties Youth Symphonic Wind Band, conducted by Brian Sansbury, will perform at Sir Thomas Picton School, Haverfordwest.
Following successful concert tours by the Three Counties Youth Orchestra in Prague in 2001 and the Choir in Barcelona in 2002, the Symphonic Wind Band, by the time they perform at this concert, will have been on a concert tour to the area around Lake Geneva. This will be an opportunity for audiences at home to hear the programme performed on the concert tour.
On Saturday, September 6, at 7.30 pm, the Three Counties Youth Brass Band, conducted by Michael Thorne, will be in concert at Bro Myrddin School in Carmarthen.
This band, which contains several members of the National Youth Brass Band of Wales, has been invited to participate in a music festival in Belgium in 2004 and will feature a number of its own principal players as soloists in this concert.
Also appearing with the band will be the young singer, Elin Wyn Lewis, currently studying at the Royal Academy of Music.
The festival will close at Sir Thomas Picton School, Haverfordwest, on Sunday, September 7, with a concert featuring the Three Counties Youth Harp Ensemble, Choir and Orchestra.
The Harp Ensemble, featuring 15 of the finest young harpists within the three counties, will open the concert with a half-hour programme, after which the Youth Choir and Orchestra, conducted by Emyr Wynne Jones, will perform Karl Jenkins's 'The Armed Man - a Mass of Peace' - the first time for this new work by the composer from Penclawdd to be performed in this part of Wales.
Tickets for each concert are priced £5/£2.50 and will be on sale at the door on the evening. To order tickets in advance, please ring 01970 633616.