Sian and Stephen’s debut performance at the Brecon Baroque Festival in 2011 was greeted with a rapturous reception from the audience and ecstatic reviews.

‘beautifully clean and focussed tone with perfect intonation, well articulated runs, effective ornamentation…… a consummate performer with an engaging stage presence……beautiful low and soto voce endings, retaining both tone and timbre throughout – not easy to do.

‘Stephen Gordon moved away from the Shakespearian theme with guitar solos by Sanz and Murcia, like Sian, managing an exquisite fade into silence whilst retaining the tone of his guitar.’

Early Music Review

Sian and Stephen offer programmes of song with guitar accompaniment from early 17th century to 20th century. Ideally suited for intimate settings, this duo offers a wide range of repertoire from Purcell to Villa Lobos with Stephen providing accompaniment on baroque, 19th century and modern classical guitars.

Outstanding young soprano Sian Winstanley is a regular soloist with the BBC National Chorus of Wales and has performed with many of the UK’s leading opera companies and orchestras including the Buxton Festival Opera, Opera a la Carte, Opera’r Ddraig, Birmingham Symphony
Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. She has featured on numerous
recordings, BBC Radio 3, Radio Wales and Radio France. Sian teaches in the Junior Department of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Guitarist Stephen Gordon has given recitals and taught at major festivals in the UK, Holland, France and Germany playing on baroque, 19th century and modern guitars. He is currently a member of the teaching faculty of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and has conducted classes in performance, ensemble, figured bass and fretboard harmony at the Royal College of Music, Tilburg and Groningen Conservatoires (Holland) and from 1993 – 2002 at the internationally renowned Iserlohn Guitar Symposium.

The Salon du Chocolat is the not-to-be-missed event for those who share a passion for this exceptional product. It is a link between those who grow cocoa and those who consume chocolate.

Come and meet cocoa growers, discover the best chocolatiers, admire unique exhibitions and attend recipes demonstrations. Every year, the Salon is also dotted with special events, celebrations and performances. Some of them have become iconic such as the famous Chocolate Dresses Fashion Show.
The Salon du Chocolat never ceases to amaze you!

www.salonduchocolat.fr

The Vida Guitar Quartet brings together four guitarists of exceptional ability and virtuosity sharing a passion for chamber music. The quartet are rapidly gaining a reputation as one of the most exciting guitar ensembles in the UK. Vida have released their first CD, ‘Love, the magician’ on the BGS label.

Recently described as, “Authentic, haunting roots music from a first class duo” (Seth Lakeman), Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin are two folk musicians with a fast growing following on the folk and roots scene. Having just completed two tours with Show Of Hands, they have been receiving very warm reviews of their debut album, “Singing The Bones”, including selection for a fRoots magazine compilation; and airplay on Mike Harding, who said, “I was completely knocked out by this duo…just a terrific album…absolutely great, wonderful” (4/5/11, BBC Radio Two).

We tracked the audio into my pro tools setup ( Cables up 2 flights of stairs! ) and sync’d up the mix into Adobe CS5.5. Mixed with UAD plug’ins and mastered with Izotope Ozone. I hired a second camera alongside my Canon 5DII, the video was graded with Magic Bullets Looks suite.

Other tracks include Storm over your head, Riddle Blind, Disappear again and House of Smoke