VIDA Guitar Quartet

Vaughan Williams (arr. M Ashford) English Folk Song Suite
Grieg Holberg Suite (arr. M Eden)
Brahms (arr. C Stell) Hungarian Dances
Vivaldi Concerto for four violins (arr. M Eden)
Allegro
JS Bach (arr. M Eden) Brandenburg Concerto
Allegro
Mozart (arr. M Eden) Piano Sonata No.16
Villa-Lobos (arr. M Eden) Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5, Aria
Bernstein (arr. M Ashford & A Cook) Excerpts from West Side Story

"The VIDA Guitar Quartet brings together four guitarists of exceptional artistry and “unerring musical instinct” (Gramophone)

VIDAʼs ability to “conjure up an orchestral palette of colour and effects” (Classic FM) combined with their “exquisite tonal and dynamic control” has firmly established them as a passionate and masterful ensemble who sparkle with “vitality and spontaneity” (Acoustic). VIDAʼs seemingly effortless sense of ensemble and their broad range of timbres and dynamics evokes “listening to an entire orchestra and not merely to four guitars. Thereʼs only one word for it: magic” (Gramophone).

Comprising of RBC tutors Mark Ashford and Mark Eden alongside Amanda Cook and Chris Stell, the VIDA Guitar Quartet formed back in 2008. Since then they have performed to critical acclaim in major UK venues including Kingʼs Place (London), London’s Southbank Centre, The Sage (Gateshead), and St Georgeʼs (Bristol). They are sought-after festival artists throughout the UK, Europe, North America, and China. Since making their US debut in 2011 in Los Angeles and NYC. The VIDA Guitar Quartet has appeared on some of North America’s most prestigious stages for classical guitar including the Long Island Guitar Festival, the Allegro Guitar Series in Dallas, Fort Worth, and Las Vegas, and were selected by LIVE on Stage for tours in 2015-16. They were chosen as the keynote performers for the 2015 Guitar Foundation of America in Oklahoma and in 2017 performed at the Kaufmann Concert Hall at the 92Y in NYC as part of their Art of the Guitar series. 2017 marked the quartet’s debut in China as part of the Changsha International Guitar Festival where they were invited to perform at the closing night’s concert.

The VIDA GQ have recorded four CDs on the BGS label: Love, the Magician, BGS118, a Spanish fare of Manuel de Falla, Joaquin Turina, and George Bizet’s Carmen Suite, Rhapsody featuring works by George Gershwin (Rhapsody in Blue), Malcolm Arnold and Adam Gorb, The Leaves be Green is an all English music programme of Ralph Vaughan-Williams, Edward Elgar, Benjamin Britten, Stephen Dodgson, Timothy Bowers and Warlock. Their latest CD, Bachianas, is an homage to Johann Sebastian Bach with works by Howard Skempton, Laura Snowdon, Felix Mendelssohn, and Heitor Villa-Lobos, all of whom have been influenced by the great composer, whilst also featuring Bach’s Brandenberg Concerto No.3 as a centralising theme.

Later this year the Quartet will be releasing a new recording on the Deux Elle Records label featuring works by Grieg, Schumann, Mozart and Brahms, some of which will be performed in the recital at RBC. VIDA are D’Addario string classical artists.

www.vidagq.com