Archive for year: 2019

Richard Durrant’s special musical celebration of midsummer inspired by the summer solstice starts in just five days in Aberystwyth and ends in early July in France …

Guitarist and composer Richard Durrant returns with a musical celebration of midsummer and another classic series of gigs on the folk/classical cusp.

As the solstice approaches Durrant reveals a collection of pieces, old favourites, tales from the road and the occasional song gathered together to mark the summer solstice.

‘My new favourite guitarist…Richard Durrant sits comfortably outside the accepted genres.’
Tom Robinson, BBC6 Music

Tours such as this are not new to Richard.  He has toured extensively around the UK with his Christmas show for 15 years. His encounters have changed him from church ‘avoider’ to minister of communion, although still fascinated by Paganism after some years living at the feet of the mysterious hill carving the Long Man of Wilmington.

Richard explains…

‘I want to explore the real meaning of midsummer. This year is the start of a long journey as I try to make sense of it all – just as I did with those early Christmas tours.’

Richard’s Music for Midsummer will include the entire Bach Cello Suite No.3 played on ukulele and Richard’s very own work for guitar Book of Spells. As on the album Stringhenge British folk tunes will be mixed with the music of Bach. And the heat of summer will be felt in a selection of Spanish guitar works.

The summer solstice occurs when one of the Earth’s poles has its maximum tilt toward the Sun. This is the day when the Sun reaches its highest position in the sky and the longest period of daylight. It happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere.

Since prehistory, the summer solstice has been a significant time of year for many cultures who mark the date with festivals and rituals. In many regions, the summer solstice is simply referred to as ‘Midsummer’.

Music for Midsummer Tour 2019

Join us for this special celebration of music at this magical time of the year. Find out if there is a performance near you: https://www.richarddurrant.com/events/

We wanted to update you about some of Richard Durrant’s upcoming gigs so you don’t miss out on some of his rather special events lined up this Spring…

Travels with my Guitar

Swindon Spring Festival: Swindon Arts Centre
9 May 2019 : 8pm – 10pm
Tickets £9 – £10

Storyteller, concert guitarist, and composer Richard Durrant presents an illustrated talk about his life in music. Dwelling on pivotal moments in his long career, playing six different guitars and a ukulele along the way, Richard shares tales of his musical adventures from the Royal Albert Hall to the centre of South America and plenty of other exciting places in between.

Exclusive Studio Concert

Shoreham-by-Sea Beach
11 May 2019 : 7:00pm – 9:30pm
Tickets £100 – only 10 available

Spend an intimate evening with Richard in his secret studio on Shoreham Beach. This event will be a rare opportunity to meet and hear Richard as he prepares for the upcoming Music for Midsummer tour. This special evening will also include a welcome glass of Prosecco on arrival followed by wine and light finger food.

Music for Midsummer

St Nicholas, Baulking, Oxfordshire
8 June 2019 : 8pm – 10pm
Tickets £15

The beautiful Oxfordshire church of St Nicholas, Baulking provides the atmospheric setting for one of the events in the Music for Midsummer Tour 2019. Richard Durrant reveals a collection of brand new pieces, old favourites, tales from the road and the occasional song inspired by the summer solstice.

All Richard Durrant’s upcoming events are listed on this website. Just click below to see the full list…

Richard Durrant returns to the Ropetackle Arts Centre on 4 April with a rather special recital featuring a selection of some of the world’s most famous guitar solos.

Richard is currently preparing for two major Ukulele events prior to his Music for Midsummer UKtour which starts on 5 June in Aberystwyth. Before that he will be playing solo, unplugged, un-amplified and down off the stage with music from Europe and South America. So this is an opportunity to keep his hand in with some of the great classic works from the repertoire. 

‘There will always be times when I have to plug in, and this can be very exciting and effective. But, equally, there are times when I want to offer something purer and more direct. This direct, acoustic contact with the audience, the sound of my guitar with fingers on strings and nails articulating emotions, is something I’ve practised and thought about for all of my working life. Federico Lorca was on the case in his poem “Guitar”. It’s a bit melodramatic, but it always does it for me:’

Richard Durrant

The weeping of the guitar begins.

The goblets of dawn are smashed…
It weeps arrow without target
Evening without morning
And the first dead bird
On the branch.
Oh, guitar!
Heart mortally wounded
By five swords.

And it will be as close up and intimate as Richard and his regular stage manager Matt Hodgson can make it at their favourite Arts Venue; the Ropetackle in Shoreham-by-Sea. This will be a programme of real favourites played on six string, concert guitar including music by Lauro, Villa-Lobos, Juan Duarte, Albeniz and Tarrega

“Durrant never lets his stunning technique overshadow this wonderful timeless music”

The Sun

Playing un-amplified really allows the unadorned warmth of the instruments to project into a room. Just last Sunday Steve Johnson wrote a piece in the Chicago Tribune entitled ‘Why unamplified music makes for a better live show’ . 

Johnson praises how an un-amplified performance by somebody with the technique to carry it off seems ‘so clearly superior to the average amped show: richer, deeper, more connected.’ He suggests the most affecting performances are the ones that have the least ‘stuff’ in between the performer and the audience… ‘and makes it a communal thing.’

Richard Durrant Live

ROPETACKLE ARTS CENTRE
Shoreham-by-sea, BN43 5EG
4 April 2019 : 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM
TICKETS £5 – £16

Richard Durrant’s first ukulele quartet ‘Tan y Bwlch’ is soon to receive its first performance given the instrument a new status in the world of classical music…

Pic: Ukulele Quartet Poster

Since producing The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain’s 2004 album ‘The Secret of Life’, Richard is becoming increasingly influential in the ukulele world. In his 2012 solo tour of Paraguay, he was invited to play unaccompanied Bach on his uke on top of the Itaipu Dam overlooking Brazil, and in 2018 took part in a royal command performance at Buckingham Palace. And his wonderful six-movement ukulele concerto has ‘smuggled the little wooden box into the world of classical music’.

‘Richard’s ukulele compositions are masterful. They’re full of intriguing and catchy musical ideas which transcend the boundaries of academic or popular music – a game changer for the ukulele.’

George Hinchliffe, co-founder of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain

When Richard was invited to perform at the finale of this summer’s Meet the Ukulele Maker’s Festival he saw it as a great opportunity to write and perform his first ukulele quartet. Set in Plas Tan y Bwlch, a former stately country house in North Wales’s Snowdonia National Park, Richard took its name as the title for his new quartet.

‘I’ve been visiting Snowdonia for over thirty years and I hope my love for the place comes across in this new music. But you have to understand this is an Englishman’s view – it’s me clutching my uke and gazing in awe at the mountains.’

Richard Durrant

TAN Y BWLCH

The World Première will take place at Ropetackle Arts Centre on Wednesday 27 February performed as part of a concert featuring Richard playing solo guitar, tenor guitar and ukulele. Tan y Bwlch will be performed by the composer plus thirty two of his Ukulele Circuit Trainers.

The performance at MUMF will be on 1 June. Richard is calling for participants who can download the resources online and watch specially prepared instructional videos to prepare for the workshops and performance at the festival

This three movement work can be performed by either four ukulele players, or three groups of players plus a soloist. The two outer movements are written in a minimalist style with intriguing, repeated patterns that suit the four ukuleles perfectly, conjuring up a beautiful, filmic landscape of sound. 

In Durrant’s ingenious score the four ukes perfectly mimic a Welsh train rushing through Snowdonia and there is even a brief interlude where the train pulls into a misty little station to take on water, coal and sandwiches!

In total contrast the middle movement is set to become a huge hit with uke lovers everywhere – it is the ukulele’s very own ’Orange Blossom Special’. But here Durrant is evoking the sound of the famous narrow gauge  Welsh Mountain Railway instead of the American express locomotive of that famous, bluegrass fiddle tune. 

Have a look at the second movement ‘Cledrau’…