A FAMED Welsh composer will be heading out across the UK on a special tour to mark his 80th birthday, including a stop in Cardiff.

Sir Karl Jenkins – famed for compositions including Palladio, Adiemus, The Armed Man, and Requiem – will be bringing the magic of his music to life on the special tour.

The tour is presented by Raymond Gubbay Limited and will see Sir Karl Jenkins conduct one of his most beloved works in The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace. The piece has poignant and powerful themes and there have been 3,000 performances globally since the premiere of it in the millennium. The Armed Man made history earlier this year when it celebrated 1,000 weeks in the UK Official Albums Chart, breaking the record.

There will also be renditions of Palladio, Adiemus and extracts from his latest album One World which talks about our planet. At each date, he will be joined by an orchestra and choir.

In 2023, his music was played at the coronation of King Charles III at Westminster Abbey and he reached fifth position in the Classic FM Hall of Fame, the highest position by a living composer.

Sir Karl has also transcended musical boundaries with jazz fusion with Soft Machine, composing music for The King, being ‘castaway’ on Desert Island Discs, creating award-winning advert soundtracks and joining Melvyn Bragg on the South Bank Show.

His tour starts on March 10 at the Royal Albert Hall in London with the Philharmonica Orchestra and will end in Manchester on April 14.

Sir Karl Jenkins will be at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff on April 13 with the London Concert Orchestra and Cor Caerdydd. Tickets are available at www.raymondgubbay.co.uk.