Edward Gregson has been nominated for an Ivors Composer Award in the Best Large Ensemble Category for his Viola Concerto (Three Goddesses), a concerto for viola and string orchestra, commissioned and premiered at the 2023 Presteigne Festival. It was performed by the dedicatee, Rachel Roberts, with the Presteigne Festival Orchestra, conducted by George Vass.

The Concerto is cast in three movements, played without a break, each being named after a different mythical Goddess: Morrigan (Celtic), Warrior Queen, but also ‘earth mother’; Aphrodite (Greek), Goddess of sexual love and beauty; Diana (Roman), Goddess of the hunt, wild animals, and the moon

The music reflects the diverse ‘personalities’ of each Goddess – in turn compulsive, threatening, enigmatic, sensual and energetic, with the viola displaying its many and varied instrumental colours, often in virtuoso terms.The concerto is bound together (both melodically and harmonically) by the angular theme heard at the outset, announced by solo viola, and by the three ‘responding’ major chords heard in the accompanying string orchestra which reappear throughout the work in varied form.