The Four Seasons String Quartet with Alan Fairs

Style and fashion have been important in the evolution of dance and the concert displays some short dance pieces that show the way that dance has evolved through the last three hundred years. So let us entertain you with a minuet, a rumba, a waltz and a tango and other toe tappers. In the second part of the concert we listen to“the breath of the night wind” in a setting of Dover Beach by Samuel Barber with Alan Fairs as soloist, and some other songs for String Quartet.

The Four Seasons (Vyvyan Lucas and Celia Thomson: violins; Naomi Gaffney: viola; Robina Sabourin: cello) have known each other for many years and thoroughly enjoy meeting to explore the rich and intimate quartet Repertoire. As individuals we have played orchestrally in concert venues all round the country but the pleasure of playing chamber music comes more rarely. It is not often that one finds friends who happen to play the particular instruments that form a string quartet, find time when you are all free to meet to play, let alone travel for miles to meet!

Alan Fairs is an award winning opera singer from Worcestershire who now concentrates on concerts and oratorio. His performing career has ranged from recitals on BBC Radio3 to principal roles in operas around the world. He has also toured the UK with companies including the Welsh National Opera, English Touring Opera, Covent Garden and Glyndebourne.