Richard Durrant is the UK’s only barefoot, stand-up, un-classical guitarist.
Delivering an eclectic show incorporating sounds, imagery, and commissioned artwork in a prismatic display that can best be described as an “everyman’s performance”, Durrant’s programmes are aimed at the popular as well as the fine.
And the UK’s busiest touring, virtuoso guitarist is now embarking on his annual candlelit Christmas concerts.
This year’s Christmas tour has even more sparkle as it includes music from Richard’s album, Christmas Guitars, featuring guest vocalist Amy Kakoura and the unmistakable voice of Barry Cryer.
The audience is promised both a musical and visual feast, with beautifully presented wintry music enhanced by specially commissioned projected imagery, tales from the road and lots of candles.
Highlights will include early English carols, European Christmas songs and Durrant’s superb guitar suite, The Polar Bear, with narration recorded by Barry Cryer (featured on the album).
The I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue comedy star plays it straight, reciting haiku verse in Durrant’s moving depiction of a mother bear and her cubs’ desperate swim for survival through the Arctic ice floes.
This snow drenched piece was inspired by the well-documented plight of the bears as their environment continues to change.
The album Christmas Guitars is a deeply personal, kaleidoscopic vision of what the season of goodwill means to Durrant.
Traditional and original compositions go hand in hand as the father of four not only celebrates the excitement and joy Christmas continues to bring to him and his young family, but also evokes both the Christian and pagan significance of this time of year.
Special guest singer Amy Kakoura is half Irish. Her haunting lead vocals give several songs the tingle factor, most notably Emmanuel and the Clannad-style arrangement of A Northern Winter Night, written by Paul Cartledge.
Richard Durrant performs live at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold on Thursday, December 18 at 8pm. Tickets £13, £11 concessions. Call 0845 330 3565 or visit www.clwyd-theatr-cymru.co.uk .
