Archive for category: News

… and some carefully prepared magic in significant places!

Richard Durrant’s Christmas concerts are a bit of a tradition – especially for Richard! He gets to meet up with his mates Nick and Amy and the three of them spend long days preparing in the warmth of his studio playing seasonal music.  

We know that lots of audience members also enjoy the tradition – and a strong part of this is returning to regular venues that offer that extra bit of magic.

Wilmington church in Sussex at sunset on the day of the solstice certainly takes some beating.

But then so does the splendour of Theatr Clwyd, a major arts centre, theatre and producing house standing in the hills near Mold in North Wales. 

The beautiful Toll Gavel in the town of Beverley, Yorkshire, Trinity Theatre, Tunbridge Wells and St Johns in Hurst Green Surrey are also part of this tradition, along with Richard’s home venue Ropetackle Arts Centre in Shoreham where there will be four shows this year (already selling fast!).

And this year sees the addition of another Sussex Church – Holy Trinity in Hurstpierpoint.

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As was recently said on BBC 6 Music: 
‘A beautiful venue can elevate a good gig to a transportive musical experience.’

And Richard agrees:

‘Each instrument, every light and every candle will have been carefully placed by Nick, Amy and I before we fill the space with music during our several hours of careful warming up.

‘This is to help every audience member feel they are walking into something magically prepared.
Christmas and the winter solstice do the rest!’

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From Yorkshire to Sussex and from North Wales to Kent, Richard Durrant’s Candlelit Christmas Concert is travelling across England and Wales to bring his unique brand of seasonal magic to a venue near you.

We look forward to seeing you on the tour!

Click on the map for more details on each show…

Richard Durrant is currently in the south of France working with this September’s French Guitar Adventurers…

Richard’s road trip south began with a one off, solo concert in the town of Melle, east of La Rochelle.  The Cafe Boulevard is a hugely well supported arts venue that puts on a wide variety of different music and in the balmy heat of last Saturday evening they were having to turn people away from Richard’s gig.

Richard takes up the story: “To my delight the temperature was rising fast and the sun was beating down as we drove south. But on reaching Melle, and with the gig start time fast approaching, I realised I was probably going to roast onstage and began to regret wearing my jeans and heavy cotton shirt.  

“Sure enough by the time I got to the stage I was already drenched and with the audience packed in shoulder to shoulder it must have been over 40 degrees in there! This could have been a problem – but at the Cafe Boulevard there was some kind of magic in the air that made it all ok.”

 The atmosphere that night was electric and Richard worked his way around his four guitars and ukulele swapping styles as he went.  A real highlight was his hot club rendition of Django’s Honeysuckle Rose which an audience member captured on a phone:

Django in Melle Sept 2019 from Revolution Arts on Vimeo.

Richard will return to Melle next year as he cycles through France during his Cycling Music Tour 2020. He’ll leave Orkney in early June and appear at Brighton Open Air Theatre on Midsummer’s Day. 

Then, continuing south from Dieppe to Bordeaux in September, he’ll pause along the way to host another French Guitar Adventurers holiday at The French Retreat. If you would like to cycle through France with Richard please contact us.

Richard Durrant is back home in Shoreham-by-Sea to kickstart the holidays with his 2019 Summer Special…

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

Maverick guitarist Richard Durrant kicks off the silly season with a fun packed musical celebration of the summer holidays – and of course the Beano Summer Special is in the shops!

Richard’s end of season Ropetackle gig is particularly special this year as his special guest will be the legendary Paraguayan harpist Cristobal Pedersen. Here’s a clip:

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Richard said: “I always try and draft in some extra musicians to kick off the celebrations and it just so happens that Cristobal Pedersen, the Paraguayan harpist, is in England and will be joining me at the gig.

Cristobal founded the Arpa Roga which is Paraguay’s leading harp school.  He is the father of Kike (who wrote the harp music included on my Paraguayan trilogy) and we have been friends since my first tour of Paraguay in 2011.

Cristobal’s harp will fill the Ropetackle with South American colours – I just cannot wait.”

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In the Ropetackle show Richard will also be performing Book of Spells and Bach’s 3rd Cello Suite which featured in the very successful Music for Midsummer Tour. Richard’s Midsummer Tour 2020 is already booked – and this will be another bicycle powered musical celebration beginning once again in St Magnus Cathedral, Isle of Orkney on June 4th and heading to Brighton Open Air Theatre in time for the Solstice.

Read the full story

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Join us for supper too
Before this event we’re also serving delicious food from 6pm.

And this is what is on the menu:
* a delicious main course of seafood chowder and crusty bread
* summer beans, potatoes and feta with salad
* a desert of Strawberry and white chocolate mousse cake.

All this for just £10 (or you can just have the main for £8 or the dessert for £3.50).

Please book in advance when you buy your tickets.

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Following the February premiere of Richard Durrant’s Ukulele Quartet No.1 Tan y Bwlch, the piece has just been performed again – this time in North Wales, the land that inspired the work in the first place…

Composer, guitarist and ukulele pioneer Richard’ Durrant’s eternal enthusiasm for the uke has been boosted by successful appearances at the Ukulele Festival of Scotland and Meet the Ukulele Makers Festival (MUMF) at Plas Tan y Bwlch north Wales.

In 2018, Richard composed his six movement ukulele concerto, Six Grooves for Ukulele. This was the springboard to writing the first ever ukulele quartet which was inspired by the landscape of North Wales.

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Ukulele Quartet No.1 Tan y Bwlch consists of three movements:
I  Penmaenbach
II  Cledrau
III Gogoniant

The piece can be performed by four ukes (all have to be tuned as re-entrant) or by solo ukulele plus three ukulele groups of any size.

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The newly released audio recording is available on all digital platforms (i-tunes, Spotify etc).

There are also loads of tutorial films on the Richard Durrant Academy website to help with learning and performing the music.

And the score is also available to buy online.

CALLING ALL UKULELE PLAYERS

Here is a chance for all Ukulele players to join Richard and play along with him at two of his forthcoming Music for Midsummer shows:

• 20 June 7.45pm The Hawth, Crawley
• 21 June 7.30pm Brighton Open Air Theatre

Each concert in the Music for Midsummer tour includes Richard’s guitar piece Book of Spells as well as Bach’s 3rd Cello Suite played on a brand new SuperTenor Ukulele by the world renowned luthier Pete Howlett. This beautiful uke is made from pencil cedar and is an art object in its own right.

And if you want to take part here are the chord tabs you will need. Richard is refusing to say what the piece is – you’ll find out when you come along and play it – but numbers indicate the number of strums on each chord:

Click below for details of Richard’s five remaining Music for Midsummer gigs played on concert guitars, tenor guitar and ukuleles.

Following guest appearances on the main stage at major ukulele festivals in Wales and Scotland later this month, Richard’s Music for Midsummer Tour 2019 will begin at last with concerts in Aberystwyth and Narbeth.

After starting in Wales, the tour continues at a number of English venues before crossing over to France for a special concert in the beautiful church in Chef-Boutonne in France (halfway between Poitiers and Angoulemme).

‘It’ll be lovely to play my summer programme in France and to take some positive English vibes across into Europe! I did a little bit of practise in this church on the way to my Guitar Adventurers holiday last year and the acoustic is just fantastic.’

Richard is spending most of May hiding away preparing for the tour but before he did that he enjoyed seeing in the month with his dog Bollo!

The pair of them watched The Sompting Morris (see picture above) with an early morning dance on May Day in the centre of Shoreham. On the same day Radio London spent the afternoon playing extracts from Richard’s prog-folk classic song Morris Dreams – a 7.5 minute extravaganza from last year’s Stringhenge album. The song actually features Sompting Morris complete with sticks, boots and bells!

In addition to the huge Music for Midsummer Tour there are lots of other exciting activities in the months ahead across England, Scotland, Wales and France – check the diary for more information about all these concerts.

STOP PRESS: don’t miss the Homelink 20th Anniversary Concert at Glyndebourne, on Sunday 17 November 2019, 3pm. Richard will be one of the artists appearing at this event which will feature special guests from the charity’s VIP supporter base who will be on stage to introduce the acts.