Sian Winstanley – Soprano, Stephen Gordon – Guitar(s).

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.

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