Page 108 - Aldeburgh Festival 2022 FINAL COVERAGE BOOK
P. 108
17 June 2022
reviews, news & interviews
First Person: composer Gavin Higgins on his
new cantata 'The Faerie Bride'
Aldeburgh premiere tonight for setting of Welsh tale about acceptance of the
other
by Gavin Higgins
Gavin Higgins
I was a strange child, I didn’t really fit in. I would twitch and distort my face into awkward shapes. I
obsessively bit my fingers and knuckles till they bled. I collected leaflets and piled them high in
neat stacks in the corner of my room. I was constantly bombarded with invasive thoughts that
would leave me completely paralysed. Teachers would admonish me for ‘showing off’, people
would stare, doctors would shrug.
It turns out I had Tourette’s Syndrome and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Finally learning what
was "wrong" with me gave my strangeness context but didn’t stop me feeling like an outsider.
