As one of Britain’s leading chamber music groups, the Aquarelle Guitar Quartet is a dynamic and innovative ensemble exploring the diversity of music for four guitars. Since their formation in 1999 the AGQ have performed extensively in major festivals including Buxton, Cheltenham, Ryedale, West Dean and Newbury Spring Festival and in venues including Wigmore Hall, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London, St. David’s Hall, Cardiff and Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. They have also appeared as soloists with a number of orchestras throughout Britain performing Rodrigo’s concerto Andaluz and Torroba’s concerto Iberico for 4 guitars. Recent performances have taken them to the Euripedes Amphitheatre, Athens for a concert in the presence of the British Ambassador for Greece, to Heaton Park, Manchester where they appeared at the Last Night of the Proms and to Cheltenham for a live broadcast for ‘In Tune’ on Radio 3 as part of the Cheltenham Festival. In 2007 they were finalists in both the Royal Overseas League and Young Concert Artist's Trust competitions in London.
All members are graduates of the Royal Northern College of Music where they were the first guitar quartet to receive the Diploma in Professional Performance, RNCM’s highest performance award. The AGQ have received scholarships from the Musicians Benevolent Fund and the Tillett Trust to study abroad with renowned guitarists Sergio Assad and Oscar Ghilia. In November 2004, they toured Ireland performing in venues including the Helix, Dublin and Christchurch Cathedral, Waterford. In the same year, they were also selected from a number of ensembles as principal winners of the prestigious Tunnell Trust award, comprising of a series of recitals in Scotland in 2005/2006.
In addition to mainstream concerts, the AGQ have been involved in many outreach and educational projects. For a number of years they performed on the Live Music Now! young artists scheme, founded by Lord Menuhin, and they have given masterclasses in specialist music institutions including the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and Cork School of Music.
In their programmes, the AGQ are dedicated to presenting works from around the globe that span from the renaissance to the present day. They have been sent works to perform by established international composers including Carlos Rafael Rivera (U.S.A), Phillip Houghton (Australia) and Stephen Dodgson (U.K) and have recently commissioned their first work from Brazilian composer Clarice Assad. The group are constantly expanding their repertoire with their own arrangements from various musical genres, including works by Villa-Lobos, Mussorgsky, Rossini, film music composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, and folk harpist Catriona McKay.
Their recordings include their debut CD Promenade, released in May 2005 and Watersmeet, a collaborative CD of Stephen Dodgson’s guitar music, released on the Cadenza label in March 2006.
Hey guys! Thank you so much for an amazing performance last Friday at Queen's Cross. I would also like to thank each of you for the time and effort you put into the guitar workshop last Saturday, and also for all the advice and support you gave me. Best wishes for the future.
Hey! Would just like say thanks for the wonderful concert on friday night at queens cross in aberdeen. You were absolutely brilliant! And your cd has been played none stop since then. Keep up your good work, hopefully I'll be able to see you perform again someday in the future. Well done!
Thanks so much for the Add–and your friendship. We enjoyed your music very much. Thanks for sharing it with all of us. It's a pleasure having you among our friends!
We've just added two new blogs about Umano, plus four more new compositions, making ten on our space. We hope you and your friends visit us and enjoy our music, too.
We wake up every morning and play the music of the new MySpace friends who have arrived at our site during the night. It occurred to us that these friends (you are among them) are almost universally positive, whether they be novices or legends, and without regard to their station in life or the country they occupy.
Although it's not an original thought, it also occurred to us that we couldn’t hold a verbal conversation with most of these friends, but we have bridged that gap by expressing our art honestly with each other.
We all have been filling the world with our music and art, in the hope that our messages of love and human understanding will have an impact on the world at large.
What a gift and what an opportunity we have received from this technology!
Hi tnx for the add!,WILD a first pre-mix song from my upcoming solo album is online now!!! Please listen to my ORIGINAL SONGS and let me know what you think!
Just to let you know I've launched a new website: www.StressFreePrint.co.uk. If you get a sec, please take a look around and let me know what you think. As always, give me a shout if you need any leaflets, flyers or posters to promote your gigs. As a thank you for being my Myspace friend, I'll knock 15 quid off your next order... just enter the voucher code 'myspace' when ordering. Hope I can help you out sometime.
Thanks for joining us on Zimm's! Check out our new magazine www.zimms.net and our latest blog on MySpace. We're small right now, but thanks to the support of all of our friends, we're getting bigger and better every day!
Leslie, Cory and Gary
** Be watching for news and info on the St. Joseph International Guitar Festival
J'aime beaucoup les quatuors de guitares classiques et le vôtre est excellent. Merci d'être mes amis,j'en suis très fier et votre carrière sera d'un grand intérêt pour moi.
Hey, it has been a long time since I saw you last.
I uploaded a new track, the master take of "Alexander". I changed plays of the base & a piano solo. The letter is the section of my favorite(BPM is about 174).
"At last a follow up to Janette Mason's sparkling debut as leader. Alien Left Hand ....was well worth the wait…” Production **** Performance**** -- BBC Music Magazine
“…an album fizzing with fresh ideas and delights, an exhilarating musical journey .. with brilliantly original writing and inspired playing…” -- Helen Mayhew
"Every track from the rhythmic ‘NY Cab Ride’ and restless ‘4 Wheel Drive’ to the brooding ‘Mae’s Song’ has a terrific hook but it’s the way Mason switches tempo and moods that makes ALH great fun. " -- Diva Magazine
Happy Holidays!!! I've posted some new music. A piece for solo guitar called "Obelisk" along with a duet for guitar & violin recorded live called "Kayla's Lament" I've also posted a midi re-creation of a guitar quartet I composed called "Cerveza Fria" I hope to have a live recording soon. Please take a listen if you have time & let me know what you think. Thanks!!!
Online Now!
