News
News & announcements about the guitar groups are shown below - scroll down for older posts....
28th August 2024
After our summer break, the classical guitar ensemble and guitar songs group will start meeting again in September. We will be playing some new music, and also revisiting previously tried favourite pieces and songs. The groups are aiming for a performance in early December.
Why not come and join us? It's great fun and a good chance to improve your guitar skills. We also have a new monthly performance evening starting on 3rd December - this is open to all, even if you aren't currently playing in one of the groups.
Get in touch for more information - click on the 'contact us' button on the home page of this website.
16th June 2024
We had a successful concert with a big audience of around 100 for our concert that featured pieces by New Music Brighton composers. The wide range of music was fascinating and challenging at times, but the guitar group worked hard and gave a great performance.
We now have a few more meetings before the summer break, then we restart in September, with more concerts planned for the autumn and into 2025.
10th June 2024
The Classical Guitar Ensemble is ready to perform its next concert this Saturday 15th June at St Luke's Prestonville, Old Shoreham Rd, Brighton. The concert starts at 6.30pm. Click here for more information: https://www.newmusicbrighton.co.uk/events/
We will be playing music written for the group by composers from New Music Brighton. A wide range of styles will be heard in this concert, including post-Minimalism, Spanish-influenced composition, a work inspired by early music, and even music written as a graphic score!
As well as all this new music, we will be performing arrangements of Purcell and Praetorius.
18th April 2024
We begin our next season of rehearsals this weekend for both the Classical Guitar Ensemble and the Guitar Songs Group.
For the classical players, we have our last sessions to practice the music by New Music Brighton composers, for our concert on June 15th.
In the songs group, we are continuing with song-writing, working on ideas by the players, and we will also play a wide range of well-known covers.
New players always welcome for both groups - get in touch if you would like to join us!
14th April 2024
The Platform music event took place yesterday, and we had a good audience to listen to a wide range of music, including visitors all the way from New York!
The Classical Guitar Ensemble played music from the Renaissance, Baroque, and contemporary music composed very recently. We also heard solo guitar, a duet and Rachel (pictured) sang Fleetwood Mac's 'Landslide'.
Guitars by the Sea 3 - October 2024
27th March 2024
Registration for the annual Guitars by the Sea weekend has just opened.
This is a great course where guitarists from the local area, and from around the UK, meet to play ensemble music. This year's tutors will be Mark Eden, from the well-known Eden-Stell guitar duo, Kia Robeson and Stephen Gordon.
Click here for more information and to register on the course.
24th March 2024
The Guitar Songs Group has recently been growing, and we've been exploring songwriting ideas, as well as playing well-known songs. Several of the players have shared their work-in-progress songs with us, and we've had a chance to talk about chords, song structure, lyrics and melody, and try out some of their new material. Maybe we can perform it some time...
23rd March 2024
The guitar group will soon have another performance opportunity at the Platform event shortly after Easter.
This takes place on Saturday 13th April at the Piazza cafe, BHASVIC. The group will be playing a wide selection of music, and other performers are welcome to come and play solo and ensemble pieces too.
27th January 2024
We are very sad to announce that one of the regular players in the guitar group, David Hopper, died earlier this week. This is very unexpected news and David, who contributed so much to the guitar group in recent years, will be missed. David also participated in Guitars by the Sea both in 2022 & 2023, and often expressed how much he enjoyed playing in the group alongside other guitarists.
6th January 2024
Our new season of rehearsals begins today and the Classical Guitar Ensemble is starting an exciting project with New Music Brighton, the composers' organisation. NMB composers are writing original music for the guitar group, which we will perform in a special concert in June.
9th December 2023
We had another successful Platform event in which the Classical Guitar Ensemble played a number of arrangements that we have been working on. The Guitar Songs Group also performed for the first time! We were also joined by solo performers, two guitar quartets and there was a comedy song too - thanks Mike!