Looking forward to Escocia Duo

Cowal Music Club is looking forward to its next concert this Sunday afternoon, December 3rd, at 2.30pm in Dunoon’s Burgh Hall, when the Escocia Duo, Katrina Lee (violin) and Roberto Kuhn Versluys (guitar) will perform.

Already an established duo, Katrina and Roberto met while studying for masters degrees at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) in Glasgow. However they made their debut in May 2017 in Chile – Roberto’s homeland, where they have given numerous performances. Roberto was also a member of the Guitar Ensemble of Chile, the Pontifical Catholic University Guitar Ensemble, and more recently worked with the Baden-Wurttemberg Guitar Youth Orchestra in Germany. His solo career has already taken him to parts of America, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina , and Colombia, as well as Chile.

Katrina, who comes from Yorkshire, graduated with a masters degree from the RCS in 2016, where she studied violin with Andrea Gajic and won several awards including the Governors’ Recital Prize for Strings, the Hilda Bailey Prize, and the Ian Watt award. She is also a member of the Gaia Duo (with cellist Alice Allen), who performed for Cowal Music Club last June, and the Brodick String Quartet. She was appointed Principal Second Violin in Scottish Ballet Orchestra in 2017, and works regularly with the BBC SSO, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and other UK orchestras. Interestingly, she plays a modern violin which is a copy of an instrument by the Italian master, Guaneri.

The programme for Sunday’s concert promises to be very varied and entertaining, with repertoire ranging from Paganini to Piazzolla, - both of these composers being known for their very colourful and often impressively virtuosic music. In fact the whole of the concert’s second part is devoted to music by Piazzolla, -including his ‘Oblivion’ and ‘Libertango’. Astor Piazzolla, himself an Argentinian virtuoso bandoneon (like a concertina) player, was in described in 1992 by a leading American music critic as “The world’s foremost composer of Tango music”.

In the first part of the concert, a selection of Scottish works (including ‘Wild Mountain Thyme’ and ‘Farewell to Stromness’) will follow Paganini’s fascinating ‘Centone di Sonata’, - and the audience will be treated to a ‘Sneak Peak’ at the Duo’s new Album, to be released next Friday, December 8th, which will include music by the very successful Brazilian composer Egberto Gismonti.

All are very welcome to come and enjoy this concert and support both Cowal Music Club and the Burgh Hall!

Enjoy!

Tickets £12 on the door