|
Simon
Thacker is Head of
Guitar at Napier University and Honorary
Fellow in Music at the University of Aberdeen. He has been
nominated for a Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award and
in 2006 was a winner of the 50th Park Lane Group
Awards, resulting in his acclaimed solo Purcell Room debut.
Simon has performed in Cuba, the USA, Spain, Malta, France
and Belgium, and broadcast on Cuban TV and BBC Radio 3. He
is founder of Camerata Ritmata, a unique
collaboration with some of the UK’s leading jazz and world
musicians, which he composes for. He is also a member of duo
¡Canto vivo! with opera star Claire Debono. In 2009
he led his ground-breaking East/West project The Nava
Rasa Ensemble, featuring nine of Europe’s best Indian
and Western classical musicians performing new concerti by
Nigel Osborne and Shirish Korde, on a prestigious Tune Up
tour across the UK. His latest ensemble is Svara-Kanti, a
quartet with two classical Indian instrumental virtuosos and
Indian singer.
Performance highlights.....
Svara-Kanti UK tour 2011, including the premiere of
a new work by Simon for tabla and guitar at the Purcell
Room, London.
Camerata
Ritmata:
premiere of Simon's
Cantigas de Santa
Maria Suite at the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe
Simon Thacker and the Nava Rasa Ensemble
UK tour and concerto premieres, CD release
here on Slap The Moon Records
¡Canto vivo! with
opera star Claire Debono: Lille, Brussels, Malta, London, live Radio 3
performances
Solo: Brooks Concert Hall,
Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, April 2009;
Solo: Festival recitals in Las Alpujarras, Andalucía, Spain, 2009;
Solo: 2008, nomination for a Royal Philharmonic
Society Music Award, the highest recognition for live classical
music-making in the UK;
Solo: 2007, tour of innovative programme
The Alternative Guitar, including the premiere of Kenneth Dempster's
Sanctum at the Queens Hall, Edinburgh, for the Edinburgh Contemporary Arts Trust (ECAT),
Musica Nova Festival, Glasgow and Sound Festival,
Aberdeen;
Solo: Purcell Room, Royal Festival Hall, London, as a winner of the 50th
Park Lane Group Young
Artist Awards, including the premiere of David Fennessy's Security
Blanket for solo guitar (2006);
Solo: 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;
Live Music Now!: Simon was a member
of the Yehudi Menuhin founded Live Music Now! scheme from 2002-7,
providing countless performing opportunities
Solo: Venezuelan Embassy, London;
Solo: Dundee, Shetland and Ullapool
Guitar Festivals;
Hebrides
Ensemble: Scottish tour, including an appearance at
the St Magnus Festival, The Martyrdom of St Magnus by
Peter Maxwell Davies
Paragon Ensemble:
Edinburgh International Festival, Usher Hall, Rebecca
Saunders Dichroic Seventeen (electric guitar) broadcast on BBC Radio 3,
2002;
Edinburgh Quartet:
quintets including premiere of Kenneth Dempster's Mary's
Lament, 2001
Simon was appointed Honorary Fellow of Music at the University of
Aberdeen in 2009.
Current ensembles....
Svara-Kanti
Camerata
Ritmata
Simon Thacker and the Nava Rasa Ensemble
duo with singer
Daisy Chute
¡Canto vivo! with
opera star Claire Debono
Reviews.....
Nada-Ananda CD review by Jan Fairley writing
for The List
here
Solo University of
Aberdeen concert review
here
Svara-Kanti University of Aberdeen concert review
here
Svara-Kanti review
here
Nada-Ananda CD review by Music Web International
here
Nada-Ananda CD review by The Classical Review
here
Herald interview
and Svara-Kanti
feature
here
Camerata Ritmata's
Fringe By The Sea performance reviewed
here
Nada-Ananda CD review by Classical Music Sentinel
here
Nada-Ananda CD review by Inside World Music
here
Nada-Ananda CD review by NADA:BRAHMA
here
Nada-Ananda CD review by the Sunday Herald
here
Scotsman review of
the
Nada-Ananda CD and feature on
Svara-Kanti and
Camerata Ritmata: here
¡Canto vivo! Queens Hall review by
the Scotsman
here
***** Scotsman review of
The Alternative
Guitar
premiere performance at the
Queens Hall, Edinburgh
here
¡Canto vivo! Dundee University
review here
Camerata Ritmata reviews by the Herald (here)
and Scotsman (here)
Scotsman review
of October 2006 Edinburgh solo concert
here
Classical Guitar
Magazine review of the Park Lane Group London Purcell
Room solo concert
here
Education.....
MMus (Distinction), RSAMD,
2003
PGDipMus, RSAMD, 2002
BMus Hons (1st class), Napier
University, 2001
Fabio Zanon, private tuition,
London,
2003-5
Study with Simon in
Edinburgh at.....
Napier University
(degree level)
Stevenson College
(degree, degree foundation, HND)
Masterclasses at
the University of Aberdeen as part of Honorary Fellow of Music
appointment
Concerto repertoire performed.....
Nada Ananda, Shirish
Korde (written for and premiered by Simon
Thacker)
Guitar Concerto no.1,
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
Mary's Lament,
Kenneth Dempster (written for and premiered by Simon
Thacker)
Concerto in A, op.30,
Mauro Giuliani
Jeromita Linares,
Carlos Guastavino
Concierto de Aranjuez,
Joaquin Rodrigo
Fantasia Para Un
Gentilhombre,
Joaquin Rodrigo
Guitar Concerto,
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Concerto RV93,
A. Vivaldi
Press quotes.....
"Guitarist Simon Thacker
transcends the instrument and persuades it to produce music loaded with
subtle nuances and character."
Classical Music Sentinel
"The guitar is
often underrated as a solo instrument, but Thacker
demonstrated with startling virtuosity just how versatile
and exciting it can be in the right hands."
The Scotsman
"His evocative performance
was both elegant and mesmeric, and he rung beautifully
relaxing and warm sounds out of an instrument which has
great versatility in such expert hands"
Shetland Times
"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
"In solo classical guitar music by Ponce, Villa Lobos and
Gnattali, Thacker displayed highly sophisticated playing
that is second to none in its detailed clarity – brilliantly
silvery one moment, muscular and earthy the next."
The Scotsman
"Guitarist
Simon Thacker is a musician who has always seen his
instrument as international and his classical training as
the portal to expressing a whole world of music."
The Herald
"Classical
guitarist Simon Thacker is a stunning Scottish performer of
Western, European, and South Asian musical styles."
Inside World Music
"A stylish and sophisticated player"
The Scotsman
"showed
real poise... a lovely crystalline clarity."
Classical
Guitar
"the
supremely accomplished Simon Thacker"
The Scotsman
"...with
Thacker proving an acutely stylish and sensitive fulcrum for
an often mesmerising melding of old and new..."
The Classical Review
"Up close guitar magic."
The List
"Guitarist Simon
Thacker is a musician who has always seen his instrument as
international and his classical training as the portal to expressing a
whole world of music."
Sunday Herald
"A glittering display of classical guitar playing."
Dundee Courier
"inspired guitar playing."
edinburghguide.com
"formidable technique"
The Scotsman |
