¡Canto vivo!, one of Classical music's most exciting duos featuring Simon Thacker on guitar and Claire Dubono, soprano vocalist, will be performing at Talla nan Ros in Kingussie on 25 February 2006 at 8pm.
Maltese soprano Claire Debono and Scottish guitarist Simon Thacker have been performing together for over five years. Their huge repertoire includes songs in French, Italian, English, Scots, German, Spanish and Portuguese and spans five hundred years. Claire and Simon met during their undergraduate studies at Napier University in Edinburgh, where they both achieved first class honours.
Performances include: sold out runs at the Edinburgh Festival; BBC Radio 3, In Tune; BBC Northern Ireland, Arts Extra; Ambassadorial Concert (Malta); St James Piccadilly, London; LSO St. Luke’s, London.
Claire Debono completed an MMus at the Guildhall School of Music, London in 2004 and studies with Laura Sarti. One of seven singers chosen from auditions around the world, in 2005 Claire toured Europe and New York and released a CD with William Christie’s Jardin des Voix. She recently gave a concert performance of Zerlina (Don Giovanni) for Théâtre Royale de la Monnaie on their tour of Japan.
Upcoming engagements include: Despina (Cosi Fan Tutte) for Opéra de Lyon; Concerts Spirituelles tour of Europe and Japan with Les Arts Florissants; Ilia (Idomeneo) with William Christie; Barbarina (Figaro) for English National Opera.
Past performances include: a master class, by invitation, with American soprano Barbara Bonney at the Wigmore Hall, London; the main role in Camilleri’s The Maltese Cross in Paris; Birmingham Opera’s Monteverdi Project; the part of Dido in Dido and Aeneas at Hopetoun House, Edinburgh with Vox Musica; Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, France; cover of Esmeralda (Bartered Bride) and Glyndebourne Chorus for the Glyndebourne Festival.
Simon Thacker (b. Edinburgh) was awarded an MMus with Distinction from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music in 2003. In January 2006 he gave a solo recital at the Purcell Room, Royal Festival Hall, London as a winner of the 50th Park Lane Group Young Artist Awards. In 2007 Simon will tour Britain playing some of the most exciting and innovative works written in the last thirty years. He will also be collaborating with a Jazz trio in the coming year.
Simon toured Scotland in 2004 and has performed the major concertos with orchestras across the country. Performances include: a series of concerts in Havana, Cuba, for audiences that included Ramon Castro, brother of Fidel and Cuba’s greatest composer Leo Brouwer; Edinburgh International Festival with the Paragon Ensemble, broadcast on BBC Radio 3; the première of Kenneth Dempster's Mary's Lament for guitar and string orchestra at the Queens Hall, Edinburgh.
Tickets: £8/£5 under 16 available at the door on the night http://www.simonthacker.com/cantovivo.htm
