Shetland-Music.com

Shetland Arts in conjunction with the Italian Cultural Institute is bringing to Shetland the internationally acclaimed Italian Baroque Ensemble Arcomelo.

They will be performing in the newly refurbished St. Columba's Church, Lerwick on Friday 24th April and Busta House Hotel, Brae, on Saturday 25th April.

The programme will feature a variety of music for voice, strings and organ by the composer Antonio Vivaldi. Their line up for the concerts is organ, violin, 2 violas, cello and a soprano singer.

They will also be leading two workshops; one at the Anderson High School on Friday 24th April and a public workshop at Lerwick Town Hall on Sunday 26th April 5-7pm. The workshop at the Town Hall is suitable for instrumentalists and singers of any age and ability and musicians are encouraged to take along their instruments.

The concert on Friday 24th April takes place after the first day of the Young Fiddler of the Year Competition. Shetland Arts are offering all participants in the competition complimentary tickets to the Friday evening concert.

Arcomelo was founded by the harpsichord player Michele Benuzzi and is composed of several musicians from different backgrounds who specialise in playing Baroque music on original period instruments. Their repertoire dates from the beginning of the 17th century to the classical period and is mainly concert music for harpsichord and orchestra from manuscripts or unpublished material preserved in European libraries.

Arcomelo have played for important music festivals all over the world including the "Tirol Festspiele" in Austria, the "Festival Internacional de Musica Antigua de Daroca" in Spain, and the Tochigi Kuranomachi Early Music Festival in Japan.

They are recording artists for the Milan record label La Bottega Discantica and in September 2008 they recorded the symphonies and concerts for harpsichord and orchestra by W.F. Bach. This year they are planning to record works by JS Bach for solo harpsichord and for harpsichord and strings.

Shetland Arts Music Development Officer Bryan Peterson said 'The Arcomelo Ensemble musicians are really looking forward to their trip north; performing in some of Shetland's best venue's, learning about Shetland music and joining in a session or two while they're here.'

Concerts:

• Friday 24th April @ 7.30pm at St. Columba's Church, Lerwick - Tickets £10/£8
• Saturday 25th April @ 7.30 at Busta House, Brae - Tickets £10/£8

Workshops:

• Friday 24th April @ 2pm at Anderson High School, Lerwick - Free to AHS school pupils
• Sunday 26th April @ 5pm at Lerwick Town Hall - Tickets £5 (under 16s free)

All tickets are available from Shetland Box Office - 01595 745555