Prima Facie Records are proud to present the first recording in its ‘New Series’, created by producer/composer Stephen Plews to help promote and preserve classical music performed by younger musicians (under 25) in the UK.

On this first release Cardiff University Symphony Orchestra perform a very varied repertoire - with music by Franz Liszt, William Mathias, Morfydd Owen, a Welsh composer, pianist and mezzo-soprano who died in 1918 aged only 26, and another young female composer and singer Yfat Soul Ziss, currently studying at Birmingham Conservatoire. The CD is conducted by the energetic Mark Eager and features pianist Kenneth Hamilton in the magnificent ‘Totentanz’ by Franz Liszt.

Mark Eager has been at the forefront of British music making for 30 years, working with most of the UK’s finest orchestras. He was Principal trombone with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for 14 of those, where as a soloist he performed the world premières of concerti by Françaix, Pickard and Hoddinott, the latter two commissioned for him. Eager has been Conductor of Hertfordshire Wind Sinfonia since 2005, and is Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of The Welsh Sinfonia, Wales’ premiere professional chamber orchestra. With them he has conducted a number of new commissions, including works by David Matthews, Rhian Samuel, Michael Csányi-Wills and Roxanna Panufnik.