This popular concert series is back for another year showcasing talented musicians, performing in some of the most beautiful and historic churches in the area.

Simon Thacker is a composer, classical guitarist, improviser and ensemble leader. Equally at home playing Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez with orchestra or performing his reimaginings of Bengali Baul spiritual songs for an audience of 60,000 at South Asia’s largest folk festival, Thacker is one of Scotland’s most distinctive and compelling musical figures.  His music has been nominated for The Ivors Composer Awards and won a Scottish Award For New Music.

His compositions for solo guitar distil his classical training and years of collaborations with leading musicians from traditions around the world, spanning Romany, flamenco and South Asian classical, folk and spiritual forms. His own compositions are complemented by music that has been central to his artistic journey, including by the "Paganini of the guitar from the jungles of Paraguay"  Agustín Barrios, Brazilian guitarist and composer Isaías Sávio and Nobel Prize–winning Bengali poet and composer Rabindranath Tagore.

Simon has been invited to perform his music at a diverse array of major festivals, which is testament to the immediacy and universal communicative power of his music. These include Alchemy at London’s South Bank Centre, Cheltenham Music Festival, Christchurch and Taranaki International Arts Festivals (New Zealand), Goa International Jazz Festival (India), Celtic Connections, DIFF (Bangladesh) and The Sacred Pushkar (India).

"I cannot think of a guitarist of our time who has done more to push the guitar [and the music for the guitar] beyond the limits for which the instrument has been designed to a greater degree than Simon Thacker...unique genius" World Music Report (Canada)

"impossible delicacy and dexterity" The Scotsman

"Simon Thacker's musical life has been a journey through genres, histories, cultures and philosophies...remarkable, powerfully energetic” Elsewhere (New Zealand)

Programme:

Isaías Sávio: Batucada

Agustín Barrios Mangoré: Choro de Saudade

Gentil Montaña: Porro

Simon Thacker: Valana

Simon Thacker: MaNN Vasanai

Rabindranath Tagore: Ekla Chalo Re

Simon Thacker: Samhara