Appearing at Mold’s Theatr Clwyd on Tuesday, February 2 with his acclaimed show Spirit O’Stephane will be Christian Garrick, a world class British jazz violinist who has performed with Wynton Marsalis and Nigel Kennedy and who can be heard on the soundtracks of films including Les Miserables and The Hobbit.
For this swinging show celebrating his hero Stephane Grappelli and the fable Hot Club of France and which features classic numbers like Sweet Georgia Brown, Strike Up the Band and Ain’t Misbehavin’, together with beautiful ballads like Flamingo, Nuages and The Folks Who Live on the Hill, Christian will be joined by Jez Cook (guitar), Andy Crowdy (double bass) and Tom Hooper (brushes).
Garrick grew up in what he describes as a musical maelstrom of a household, with his father, jazz pianist Michael Garrick MBE, composing music day and night, while in the next room his mother would teach piano and clarinet.
A typical day would involve an encounter with the likes of Jaco Pastorius, Spike Milligan, Nigel Kennedy or even Petula Clarke and the next day, perhaps a trip to the Royal Festival Hall to hear his mother sing with the London Philharmonic Choir where a youthful Christian would bump into the likes of Olivier Messiaen, Itzhak Perlman, Klaus Tennstedt or Zubin Mheta.
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One childhood encounter that would influence him and his playing enormously, however, was meeting and hearing the great Stephane Grappelli play at John Dankworth’s The Stables in Wavendon.
Winning a first-class honours in his performance degree at London’s Royal Academy of Music, Christian has gone on to achieve world-class status on his instrument, working in the jazz world with artists such as Wynton Marsalis, Bireli Lagrene, Martin Taylor and Julian Joseph.
He has made tours of the Far East and Australia with guitarist John Etheridge’s own tribute to Stephane Grappelli,and in 2001 he toured Israel with Dame Cleo Laine and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
He has also toured and recorded extensively with Parisian guitar virtuoso Angelo Debarre and is a member of Alec Dankworth’s Spanish Accents and his performance at the Genius of the Violin Festival in 2004 led to invitations to perform Astor Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires with Barry Wordsworth at the Brighton Dome and then in London’s Royal Festival Hall in 2008.
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As the UK’s number one violinist, Christian has been first choice to work with a number of stars including Dolly Parton, Van Morrison, Brian Ferry and Caro Emerald, while his extensive work for film and television with composers such as Danny Elfman and Howard Shore means that his playing can be heard on the soundtracks of blockbuster films like Les Miserables and The Hobbit.
Early in 2015, alongside Anne Dudley and the Chamber Orchestra of London, Christian performed the main theme and country dance on the soundtrack of the BBC’s much vaunted dramatisation of Poldark.
The concert starts at 8pm and admission is £12, concessions £10 and schoolchildren £5. Tickets can be purchased at Theatr Clwyd on 01352 701521 or at clwyd-theatr-cymru.co.uk.
