-
Gonçalo Maia Caetano
Unitarian Meeting Hall Thursday 9th April 2026 It was a pleasure to witness the masterful performance of Gonçalo Maia Caetano at Bristol Classical Guitar Society on 9/04/2026, as part of IGF’s Young Artist Platform, which he completed last year. He was born in Coimbra, Portugal and started playing guitar at the age of 7 years. …
-
Johan Lofving
Unitarian Meeting Hall Thursday 12th March 2026 It was an honour and real treat for BCGS to host Johan at one of our Thursday, monthly meet-ups. His recital focussed upon music written for guitar in Victorian London during the middle of the 19th century – arguably the high point of classical guitar playing in the…
-
Ian Watt (15/11/2025)
St Paul’s Church Saturday 15th November 2025 Dressed in smart black jacket and trousers, black polo-neck sweater, polished shoes, and with no introduction other than a courteous bow, Ian Watt opened this recital with the clear trebles and ringing basses of Villa Lobos’s Prelude No. 2. It was immediately impressed upon the audience that here…
-
Fika Duo (09/10/2025)
On 9th October 2025, BCGS was thrilled to host the Fika Duo as part of the International Guitar Foundation’s Young Artists Platform. The duo was formed by guitarist Zoë Meadowcroft and flautist Emma Lörstad in their first year at the Royal Academy of Music, where they both holdscholarships. The term Fika comes from the Swedish…
-
Eden–Stell Guitar Duo (14/06/2025)
The Eden–Stell Guitar Duo delivered a masterful recital at St Paul’s Church, blending Mozart’s lyricism with Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s contrapuntal brilliance and Jolivet’s modern intensity. Their seamless interplay, expressive depth, and refined tone confirmed their standing among the world’s leading guitar duos — a concert of dialogue, virtuosity, and profound musical unity.
-
Pavel Ralev (15/03/2025)
Pavel Ralev’s recital showcased his rare blend of poetry and precision — from Villa-Lobos’ Cinq Préludes and Dowland’s fantasias to Bach’s Chaconne and Reich’s Electric Counterpoint. His performance revealed a musician of deep imagination and intellect, confirming John Williams’ description of Ralev as “a poet of the guitar.”
-
The Wales Guitar Duo (13/03/2025)
It was a great privilege to welcome Cai Charles and Oliver Manning, two very talented and up-and-coming players, to give a performance through the IGF Young Artists’ Platform on 13 March 2025 for a programme of Stephen Goss, David John Roche, and Carlo Domeniconi.
-
Luke Bartlett (09/05/2024)
At the May 2024 meetup, BCGS members were treated to a concert by rising star Like Bartlett, who pproaching his Finals Performance at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff, was selected as an IGF Young Artist 2024, is a Julian Bream Scholar and has recently won a prize for Voice and…
-
Giacomo Susani (20/04/2024)
As part of its 2024 Concert Series, the Bristol Classical Guitar Society presented composer-guitarist Giacomo Susani on the 20th of April. This concert also represented a change in our usual venue, and was the first time we held a concert in the beautiful Saint Stephens church in central Bristol. Susani opened the programme with Sor’s…
-
Better Call Duo (14/03/2024)
Chieko Hata and Stefano Palamidessi entertained us with a themed recital entitled Meaningful Pop. This programme of 20th century repertoire was performed on the Bristol leg of their tour of Italy, the UK and Japan which returned to Radio Vatican in May. It was hard to believe that they have only been performing together as…
-
Laura Snowden (11/22)
Among the sizeable crowd that filed into the Redmaids’ Performing Arts Centre on a recent November evening, one would imagine that there was no shortage of knowledge and experience of the classical guitar. However, it’s unlikely that any had seen anything quite like the performance to which Laura Snowden treated us.
-
Alexandra Whittingham (04/22)
Not only is the novelty of Alexandra’s masterful playing and engaging, genuine presence a loud and clear demonstration of the new wave of classical guitarists around us: young, extremely talented, many of them – finally – female, and making full and agile use of online platforms, no longer at the mercy of promotors and recording labels,…
-
Mēla Guitar Quartet
Concert SeriesRed Maids’ Performing Arts CentreSaturday 13th November 2021 How on earth did they play those notes in Flight of the Bumblebee encore? Answer at the end. The Mēla Guitar Quartet takes its name from the Sanskrit word for ‘Festival’, and their programming and outstanding performance this evening meet that description entirely. It was a…
-
Xuefei Yang (11/14)
Concert SeriesRed Maids Performing Arts Centre Saturday 22 November 2014 A capacity audience enjoyed this excellent recital, which took place in Bristol Classical Guitar Society’s usual venue of the Performing Arts Centre at Red Maids School. The acoustics here are pretty much ideal for our instrument, and the seating allowing everyone a good view of…
-
Craig Ogden (03/15)
Concert SeriesRed Maids Performing Arts CentreSaturday 7 March 2015 Craig Ogden has the air of someone happily fulfilling his destiny. He is perfectly at ease doing what he was evidently put on the planet to do, with a playing style and presence that exudes calm and enjoyment. He writes off his between-piece talks as waffle;…
-
Copenhagen Guitar Duo 2019
Concert Series Red Maids’ Performing Arts Centre Saturday 23rd November 2019 It pays to get out and about. BCGS members Barry Corbett and Vince Smith saw the Copenhagen Guitar Duo play at the Dillington Guitar Festival last year, and agreed that they duo had to be invited to the Classical Guitar Society’s Concert Series. Martin…
-
Duo Cannella-Dubès
Concert Series Red Maids’ Performing Arts Centre Saturday 27 April 2019 The Duo Cannella-Dubès specialise in creating a fresh historical insight into the guitar. They play 19th century Panormo instruments strung with synthetic gut, but embrace music not only of that period, but also genres as diverse as American folk song, 20th century atonality and…
-
The Albach Duo
Concert Series Red Maids’ Performing Arts Centre Saturday 11 November 2017 Rebecca Baulch is known to us not only as founder member, with Amanda Cook and Hayley Savage, of the celebrated Appassionata Trio, but in her role as tutor at West Dean guitar summer school and recently for the fascinating talk she gave us this…
-
Michael Partington (03/16)
Concert SeriesThe Bradbury CentreSaturday 19 March 2016 Michael Partington, now based in the USA, is in the UK for a series of concerts, and we were delighted to host one of them as part of our Concert Series. A bright start with the always fresh-sounding Coste was followed by the trio of Torroba pieces, which…
-
Gary Ryan (11/13)
Concert SeriesRed Maids Performing Arts CentreSaturday 16 November 2013 Gary Ryan is an exceptional musician. Additionally special in his concert tonight was the palpable delight among the audience in spending the evening in his company. The programme advanced in near chronolgical order. Immediately, the poise and precision of Gary’s playing stood out. Preatorius felt as…
-
Vincent Lindsey-Clark (4/13)
Concert SeriesRed Maids Performing Arts CentreSaturday 27 April 2013 It is rather beside the point to attempt to pick highlights in a Concert Series that has seen so many memorable performances, but this evening’s concert by Vincent Lindsey-Clark was, by any measure, exceptional. The music in the programme was, dare one say, mainly unfamiliar to…