GBSR Duo, made up of two of the UK’s finest young contemporary chamber instrumentalists, George Barton, percussion and Siwan Rhys, piano, has become known for its boundary-crossing performances, combining exceptional interpretations of the existing piano-percussion repertoire and committed performances of ambitious new commissions including works from Eva-Maria Houben, CHAINES, Christopher Fox, Angharad Davies, Oliver Leith, Tim Parkinson, and Laurence Osborn, plus European and UK premieres of works by Nicole Lizée, Barbara Monk Feldman, Lisa Illean, and Eric Wubbels.
On Saturday 8 February, GBSR Duo will be collaborating with Welsh composer and violinist Angharad Davies for a programme of Davies’ music. This event will be the first ever portrait concert devoted to her compositions, showcasing works from 2012 to the present day. The industrial-inspired Empty Spaces II, originally commissioned by Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, uses samples of Angharad Davies’s violin playing (recorded in empty rooms of a disused building) to allow Siwan Rhys to ‘play’ the absent soloist. Rydal Mount (for GBSR and Davies) is a piece rooted in the familiar task of house emptying – in this case the score is constituted by a series of photographs of items discovered and collected by Davies while clearing a relative’s house. Finally, Davies’ solo, Solo Violin and Four Bass Amps is an incredible deconstruction of her instrument.
Davies grew up in Welsh musical household, playing in brass bands alongside her brother and father. She studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and in Düsseldorf. She s known for her free improvisation, exploring beyond the sonic confines of her instrument, her classical training and performance expectation
The performance takes place at Arnolfini in Bristol and will be GBSR Duo’s debut there. Full details from the Arnolfini website.
Two weeks later, GBSR will be at Wigmore Hall on 22 February, collaborating with vocal ensemble EXAUDI for premieres by Linda Caitlin Smith, Alex Tay, Cassie Kinoshi and Joe Bates. GBSR Duo commented “There’s no one with whom we’d rather startle Wigmore with this extraordinary smorgasbord than EXAUDI, a remarkable collective of vocal talent who combine musical commitment and contemporary expertise“.
Full details from Wigmore Hall’s website.
