Little Update, Big Year
Ladies and Gentlemen,
To start where I left off, the end of October - Bremen!! It was a fantastic time, during the week I was there I gave a concert and workshop at the Bremen HFK. The concert had a full audience and the workshop gave me the opportunity to meet some incredible classical players. I was lucky enough to be hosted by Andreas Lieberg, Classical guitarist extraordinaire, we spent many evenings together discussing the finer points of technique and interpretation. I learnt a lot from him about the Classical approach, philosophies and the historical context of Tango! - Thank you Andreas! This visit gave me great new idea’s for future repertoire.
Now, onto November..
What a month! I went to LEICO Studios earlier this year to record, since then I have been working along side some very profound artists to make my CD project come to life. I sat in the art studio of Samuel Buri who created the CD cover art work, stood in the photography studio of Serge hasenböhler whom did the photography and then corresponded to New Zealand to design pro James Fitzgerald who did the layout. The end result could not have been better. I feel very lucky to be able to have worked along side such great artists. Now it is here!!! My new CD - ‘Home’
The tour poster!
November also gave me the opportunity to play with a new band! Walti Huber and the Jetsam 5. Both concerts where great - sold out shows, beautiful venues and great musicians. One of the highlights with them was performing along side 11 other musicians during their CD release show in Lörrach, Germany.
In these last months I have also had the pleasure of playing on a regular basis with the gents from Klischee, in particular lead singer and showman William which has been a great creative outlet! New things on the way..
I went along to the Guitars & More expo and sat at the booth of my good friends ‘Guitar-Repairs Urs Winkler’ and was introduced properly to Maestro Guitars, this is where I fell completely in love. Ladies and gentlemen, what an incredible make of guitars! Aesthetically, feel, neck, set up, sound, responsiveness, versatility - this guitar has it all, so after a little help from the ‘Guitar-Repairs Urs Winkler’ team I became a very appreciative ambassador for Maestro Guitars!!
During this year I also had the huge pleasure of playing and working along side the incredible 'Celine Huber' on a regular basis. December saw us perform our first series of shows. Thank you Celine for all of the music! More to come in 2018!
2017 was a such a great year for so many reasons. I went on 3 tours, performed 63 shows, played concerts with 7 different bands though out the last 12 months. I performed in Switzerland, Germany, France, U.K, Luxembourg and Spain, created a CD, became an official ambassador for Maestro Guitars (Singapore), Guitar-Repairs Urs Winkler (Switzerland), Right!OnStraps (Spain) and Schertler Acoustics (Switzerland). Looking back, some of the biggest highlights of this time was meeting many new dedicated musicians. They have given me a consistent source of inspiration to improve and work hard. So from me to you - Thank you!!!
Now, onto 2018 - Next year will kick off with a bang! I travel back to New Zealand for a tour through out the country. I cannot wait to re-connect with old friends and fantastic musicians over there!! - But more to come on this a little later.
So for now - Have a great start to your new year.