The VIDA debut CD is clocking up some lovely reviews which is hugely exciting for us all because it was simply so much fun to record, even though I was a rather huge 7 months pregnant at the time and could hardly reach round the guitar! The latest review has just come out in Gramophone magazine March issue 2010, and has been awarded a coveted Recommended gold star!

“VIDA Guitar Quartet’s debut recording is impressive indeed. Why? Because it’s so easy to imagine you’re listening to an entire orchestra and not merely to four guitars.”

“Throughout, the Quartet succeeds in bringing out the narrative and dramatic qualities implicit in the music through a combination of exquisite tonal and dynamic control, super-tight ensemble and unerring musical instinct. Listen to the confident sweep of rapid figures in the frenzied “Danza del terror” from El Amor Brujo and the beautiful transparent “Romance del pescador” from the same; or the beguiling sensuality of the “Habanera” and virility of “Toreadors” from Carmen Suite. There’s only one word for it: magic”

As you may know I was pretty busy in the Autumn playing with VIDA on our UK tour launching our debut CD Love the Magician. So we’re all really thrilled to have a lovely CD review in the February issue of Classic FM magazine.

” The members of VIDA conjure up an orchestral palette of colour and effects from four regular classical models. Sticking to tried-and-tested guitar transcription material, they play with technical brilliance and precise ensemble, creating alternately smoky and glittering colours in Falla’s El amor brujo that suit the gypsy heart of the music so well. They are high spirited in The Three Cornered Hat dances and their Carmen Suite arrangement is done with verve.”

The CD features Mark Eden’s amazing transcription of Falla’s El amor brujo as well as Mark Ashford’s beautiful arrangements of three dances from The Three Cornered Hat, Turina’s Bullfighter’s Prayer and Bizet’s Carmen Suite which is just an immense amount of fun to play.

If you want to try to catch us in action we’re playing at the Gevelsberg Guitar Festival at the end of March and then back to the UK for the Exeter Guitar Festival on 2 April and The Point, Eastleigh on 1 May for Southampton Classical Guitar Society.

I’m on the last few dates of VIDA’s CD launch tour now and getting ready for tonight’s concert at St George’s, Bristol. News just in though …. VIDA are saving the day at the Canterbury Festival on Monday 26th October replacing the Zagreb Guitar Trio from Croatia. The concert will be held at Shirley Hall, The King’s School, Canterbury. For information and tickets please call the Festival Office on 01227 452853

October is the month of VIDA! We’re really busy doing a little promo tour of the UK for our new CD, ‘Love the Magician’ which is due for release at the end of the month.

Last week the quartet headed up north for three concerts in Durham, Edinburgh and North Shields and we just about squeezed in a brief wander round Edinburgh after our concert at the Stewart Melville Performing Arts Centre. The hall there is fantastic for guitar and we had a really enjoyable workshop session there with some of the guitar students during the afternoon, followed by our evening recital.

We’ve barely had time to catch our breath before we’re trekking back up the country, this time to The Sage, Gateshead, which we actually drove past on the way back down last week. I can’t wait to play there – it’s such a striking building from the outside so I’m keen to experience the whole thing.

We’ll be doing more playing down South for the next couple of weeks – if you fancy catching up with us please visit the VIDA website for a full concert schedule.

Well we’ve waited over a year for this moment, but the VIDA Guitar Quartet are proud to announce the release of our debut recording Love, the Magician (BGS118) this October 2009.

To mark the launch we will be playing up and down the UK at various venues where you will be able to hear us in the flesh (ahh!) and if you like what you hear you can take a little bit of us home with you in the handy shape of a CD!

Dates on the Love, the Magician tour include:

7 October – St Cuthbert’s Church, Durham (1pm)

8 October – The Performing Arts Centre, Stewart’s Melville College, Edinburgh – also masterclass on this day during the afternoon.

9 October – The Saville Exchange, North Shields (1pm)

17 October – The Sage Gateshead, Tyne & Wear (book tickets!)

22 October – East Malling Research Station Music Club, East Malling, Kent

23 October – Winchester Discovery Centre, Winchester, Hants (book tickets!)

24 October – St George’s Bristol, (book tickets!)

29 October – Kings Place – London (Book tickets!)

31 October – Kings Place, London – Masterclass (info from IGF)

All dates are evening recitals except where time is indicated.

Love, the Magician has a distinctly Andalusian flavour with a works by Falla: El Amor Brujo (Love, the Magician), and El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered Hat); Bizet: Carmen Suite; and Joaquín Turina: La Oración del Torero (The Prayer of the Bullfighter).

You can have a sneak preview of our Love, the Magician just visit the VIDAGQ website. Let us know what you think and hope we can catch up with you at one of our concerts soon.

Helen (aka V3!)

I’m writing this, fresh from my visit to Chichester University last week to give a class for some of the voice and guitar students there. I think my last visit must have been a couple of years ago, and it was so lovely to be invited back again to delve into some voice and guitar repertoire. I am such a huge fan of this genre, I think probably because the guitar creates such a sense of intimacy as an accompanying instrument, which does take some getting used to when a singer has never experienced anything other than piano accompaniment.

In my experience singers are notoriously morning-shy and to wake those voices up properly can take a little time, so we kicked off with a guitar solo, Tarrega’s Capricho Arabe, very ably played by Chris, one of the Masters course students. This is such great standard repertoire, but to make it really successful in my opinion you really need to explore the wealth of tone-colour the guitar can offer and not go completely crazy on the tumbling semiquaver passages – in fact it is quite refreshing when I hear someone play this without completely distorting all sense of the underlying pulse. After that we plunged straight into a setting of the Willow Song which originated as one of the songs in Shakespeare’s Othello. This was the first time Alice had sung with a guitar and when you are used to a bigger cushion of sound from piano it can come as a bit of a shock to feel more exposed. She warmed to the task, however, and quickly grew in confidence. These songs can be quite deceptive, and there is often much more to them than you first think. This one flits quite freely between major and minor tonality and keeps the singer on her toes.

Other contributions came from Sam, who has recently taken a strong interest in classical guitar, having played other styles previously. He performed Caravan and was able to balance the legato melody line with pizzicato basses very successfully. This had a few awkward moments and we tried out a few different fingering options to try and find one that best suited Sam’s technique. That’s the great thing about the guitar, the flexibility to be able to find alternative solutions to a phrase – even if you end up trying it out and then going back to exactly what you had before! It’s not a wasted journey and can sometimes really turn up something exquisite.

We moved back to the voice and guitar repertoire with Liam accompanied by Chris in Dowland’s Flow my Tears. This was a work in progress for them both, but they have the makings of a very suited partnership with Liam’s light tenor voice complementing Chris’s guitar playing. I quite like hearing pieces in the early stages of development sometimes as it gives the performers scope to incorporate musical ideas into their interpretation right from the start, rather than try to add them later.

There was just enough time to squeeze in a very quick Come again, Sweet love doth now invite – from Dowland’s First book of Airs with counter-tenor, Oliver . This is one of Dowland’s more upbeat airs and great fun to perform with lots of opportunities for experimenting with phrasing and colour. The session had just zoomed by, but I’m hoping to be able to return early next year for a more in depth look at the voice and gutiar repertoire with the students. Thanks to Susan Legg (Head of Voice) and all the students at Chichester University for a fabulous morning.

There will also be some links to much of the things which have kept me so busy, such as the World Youth Guitar Festival and Winchester Guitar Festival and the Arts Circus.  I’m also busy performing with the Vida Guitar Quartet who will be launching their debut CD next year, plus other performances with singers and as a soloist.  

I hope you enjoy the site, and please keep up-to-date with RSS or direct to your inbox if you feel the inclination to subscribe to the feed.  See you soon.

Helen