Ben Kearsley was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He began classical guitar with Norman Quinney and later with Ian Smith. During his time at school Ben won the Young Musician of the Year 1993 at James Gillepie’s High School and the Norman Quinney Prize for Classical Guitar. Performances at the Usher Hall and Queens Hall in Edinburgh took place […]
Artist and Programme Information: Peter Johansson (piano)
Since his recital debut at age 17, Peter Friis Johansson (born 1983) has emerged as one of Scandinavia’s most successful young performers. He has made extensive tours and performed at such venues as the Musikverein in Vienna, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Philharmonie in Cologne. In Spring 2009, Peter Friis Johansson became the artist in residence at […]
Artist and Programme Information: Trio Verso
Trio Verso is a collaboration whose work interprets and refocuses the 1950s poetry and jazz movement for a 21st century audience, through the fusing of evocative lyric texts with free improvised jazz grooves and jazz-inflected soundscapes. The CD Storm Chaser was released in 2010. Performances are centred on close interaction, the poet exploring different interpretations of his texts […]
Artist and Programme Information: Gordon Ferries (baroque guitar and theorbo)
Baroque guitarist Gordon Ferries visits the music of seventeenth-century Spain’s fiery streets — a time when the five course guitar produced a sense of abject horror in the morally inclined, citing associations with popular ballads, taverns, criminality, sensuality and in particular dancing. Ferries weaves his way through the seductive labyrinth of Francisco Guerau‘s harmonic poem; sensual ballads, sublime passacalles […]