¡Canto
vivo!
Claire
Debono Soprano
and Simon
Thacker Guitar
Wednesday 25 February 2009
Simon Thacker
Simon Thacker has attracted the highest acclaim wherever he has performed, from Scotland to Havana, London to Malta. His technical virtuosity and emotionally charged interpretations have established him as one of Britain’s most exciting classical performers."Thacker...is now one of the UK’s leading classical guitarists – and, as well as having the instrumental mastery to play demanding pieces with apparent ease, boasts a disarmingly natural and entertaining presentational style." Glasgow Herald
With a vast repertoire at his fingertips, Simon is renowned for his exciting and innovative projects which showcase the guitar in new and groundbreaking ways, moving and entertaining audiences in equal measure, changing perceptions of the classical guitar.
In 2003 Simon studied with distinction winning many awards at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and at Napier University, Edinburgh. He subsequently studied in London with the Brazilian virtuoso Fabio Zanon.
Simon is currently Head of Guitar at Napier University.
He was recently nominated for the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Music Award, the highest recognition for live classical music-making in the United Kingdom.
In January 2006 he performed a solo recital at the Purcell Room, Royal Festival Hall, London, as a winner of the 50th Park Lane Group Young Artist Awards, which included a specially written work by Irish composer David Fennessy.
Last year he toured the solo programme The Alternative Guitar, one of the most exciting and innovative programmes of classical guitar music ever assembled, featuring a commission by Kenneth Dempster. The tour included acclaimed performances at the Queens Hall, Edinburgh, as the climax of the ECAT’s season, Musica Nova Festival and the Sound Festival, among many others.
In 2002 he gave a series of concerts in Havana, Cuba, for audiences that included Ramon Castro, brother of Fidel, and Cuba’s greatest composer Leo Brouwer, as well as on live TV.
Other concert appearances include: Edinburgh International Festival with the Paragon Ensemble at the Usher Hall, broadcast on BBC Radio 3; Venezuelan Embassy, London; quintets with the Edinburgh Quartet; the premiere of Kenneth Dempster’s Mary’s Lament for guitar and string orchestra at the Queens Hall, Edinburgh; tour and CD release with the Dundee Guitar Festival YGR Quartet. Simon was part of the Yehudi Menuhin founded LiveMusicNow! scheme for several years
Find out more at Simon Thacker's official web site
Claire Debono
Maltese soprano, Claire Debono graduated with an MMus from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she studied with Laura Sarti."By far the best singing of the evening was Claire Debono’s sensitive, colorful and gracefully embellished account of Ilia’s music."New York Times, Lincoln Centre performance with Les Arts Florissants
Recent operatic roles include: European and New York tour of Ilia Idomeneo with Les Arts Florissants, including performances at the Lincoln Centre, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Peralada Festival and Teatro Filarmonico di Verona; Hanako in Hanjo by Hosokawa for Opéra de Lyon; the role of Anne Truelove in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress for Théâtre Royale de la Monnaie in Belgium; Despina (Cosi Fan Tutte) for Opéra de Lyon; concert performances as Zerlina Don Giovanni for Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie on their tour of Japan; Barbarina Le Nozze di Figaro for English National Opera and Opéra de Lyon; Unzellman in Camilleri’s The Maltese Cross in St. Germain, Paris; Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda and Amore in Il Ballo Delle Ingrate for Birmingham Opera Company.
Concert performances include: Tour of Europe and New York with William Christie’s Le Jardin des Voix, including acclaimed performances at the Lincoln Centre, New York, and London Barbican in the Great Performers Series; Mozart et Le Concert Spirituel tour of Europe, Morocco and Turkey including performances at Théâtre du Châtelet, and London Barbican in the Mostly Mozart Series; a programme of Charpentier and Lully motets at the Carnegie Hall, Ambronay and the Chapelle Royale de Versailles with Les Arts Florissants; performance at Windsor Castle by invitation of HRH Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales; recitals in France and Corsica for the Festival d’Aix en Provence; Unsuk Chin’s Cantatrix Sopranica for the Settembre Musica Festival (Milan and Turin) with The London Sinfonietta.
Future engagements include: Edinburgh International Festival, Handel's Israel in Egypt with Emmanuelle Haïm; Vespina in Haydn's 'L'infedelta` delusa', Festival d'Aix en Provence; Minerva and Amore in Monteverdi's Il Ritorno d’Ulisse In Patria at the Teatro Real, Madrid; La Gloire, Phenice and Lucinde in Lully's Armide for Théatre de Champs- Elysées; Mozart, Mass in C minor, with Paavo Järvi and Orchestre de Paris; European tour of a programme of Purcell sacred music with Les Arts Florissants.
Listen to Claire sing
Read review in New York Times | See image enlargened