{"id":7880,"date":"2017-09-19T12:01:35","date_gmt":"2017-09-19T19:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=7880"},"modified":"2017-09-20T14:04:20","modified_gmt":"2017-09-20T21:04:20","slug":"sean-shibe-is-equally-comfortable-in-the-renaissance-and-on-the-cutting-edge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/sean-shibe-is-equally-comfortable-in-the-renaissance-and-on-the-cutting-edge\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean Shibe is Equally Comfortable in the Renaissance and on the Cutting Edge"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6>From the Winter 2017 issue of Classical Guitar | BY OLLIE MCGHEE<\/h6>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Picture a historic church set in the Midlothian countryside south of Edinburgh, Scotland, 500 years ago. Its hard stone walls hear the daily rituals of Mass and prayer as well as providing protection from warring Scottish families. The site on which Crichton Collegiate Church now stands has borne witness to the Reformation and to conspiracies against James III of Scotland\u2014but more recently hosted classical guitarist <a href=\"https:\/\/seanshibe.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sean Shibe<\/a>\u2019s debut album recording.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Released on Delphian Records and produced by the label\u2019s founder, Paul Baxter, Shibe\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2wHFuZp\"><strong><i>Dreams &amp; Fancies: English Music for Solo Guitar<\/i><\/strong><\/a> was recorded over two sessions during the winter of 2015\u201316. \u201cIt was cold,\u201d the guitarist says, \u201cbut not as cold as you\u2019d expect. It was a beautiful church\u2014atmospheric with a resonant acoustic.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">I meet Sean Shibe before his Newbury Spring Festival Lunchtime recital, which includes a program of three short works by John Dowland, J. S. Bach\u2019s <i>Lute Suite No.4 in E<\/i>, and three of Heitor Villa-Lobos\u2019 <i>Preludes<\/i>. He\u2019s dressed in a dapper dark suit with a red peaked handkerchief just visible in the front lapel pocket. He has a striped tie sporting the full Windsor knot, and bright orange socks. His style is definitively smart-casual. He speaks with a soft, considered eloquence that belies his youth. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Shibe\u2019s debut album is an intriguing one. It has been compiled by a Scottish artist on a Scottish label (even the album photography is based in Edinburgh), and recorded in the aforementioned Scottish church, but the program features an all-English lineup of composers, as the title of the record confirms. So many debut classical guitar albums feature Spanish-based repertoire; not this one. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cI see so many people who have [so many] Spanish albums thrown at them that they become saturated by them, and eventually become bored of them,\u201d Shibe explains. \u201cI do think English repertoire has much to say and a lot of it is first-rate. The all-English CD is a substantial route into debut classical guitar recordings, albeit something many artists might do for their second or third album. It\u2019s underexplored as an initial album concept.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">The album begins with William Walton\u2019s <i>Five Bagatelles<\/i>. This is a work Shibe has long been acquainted with, since first studying it at the age of 14; eventually it became a focus for his studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. The <i>Bagatelles<\/i> come across as well-planned, but with a natural fluid mastery of the whole work, so the listener is as much at ease with the slower second bagatelle as the tempestuous fifth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uVczOPO0R_c\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Next up is Lennox Berkeley\u2019s <i>Sonatina for Guitar, Op. 52\/1<\/i>. \u201cTo me this piece and Walton\u2019s <i>Bagatelles<\/i> are some of the most tender writing ever put to page,\u201d Shibe says. The album concludes with Malcolm Arnold\u2019s <i>Fantasy for Guitar, Op.107<\/i> and Benjamin Britten\u2019s <i>Nocturnal after John Dowland, Op. 70<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cBritten\u2019s <i>Nocturnal<\/i> is an incredible piece,\u201d the guitarist comments. \u201cEven though it stands out as being more alien than the others, it\u2019s generally accessible to music lovers, especially those who consider themselves serious listeners.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">While this is indeed Shibe\u2019s first solo album, he has worked on other recordings. Before Sir Peter Maxwell Davies passed away in March last year, Shibe did some solo recordings of a few of the great British<br \/>\ncomposer\u2019s works\u2014including <i>Farewell to Stromness<\/i> (arranged by Timothy Walker)\u2014on a disc for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra on Linn Records. \u201cI saw Sir Peter just before he died,\u201d Shibe says. \u201cHis face seemed more gaunt than normal, and he didn\u2019t seem well. It was a very sad loss for the musical world.\u201d That album eventually climbed to Number 3 on the classical charts. Shibe also contributed to the disc included with <i>BBC Music Magazine<\/i>\u2019s \u201cClassical Guitar Special\u201d in February of 2016.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Born and raised in Scotland, Shibe, whose mother is Japanese and whose father is from England, splits his time between Edinburgh and London. At just 25 years old he\u2019s already accomplished more than many aspiring guitarists even dream of. He was the first guitarist to be selected for the BBC3 Radio 3 New Generation Artist Scheme; the only solo guitarist to be awarded the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship; the recipient of the Royal Over-Seas League first prize and gold medal (2011). He\u2019s played at such world-famous venues as Wigmore Hall in <\/span>London and the Heidelberger-Fru\u0308hling <span class=\"s1\">in southwest Germany. He\u2019s played Rodrigo\u2019s famous <i>Concierto de Aranjuez<\/i> with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and along the way picked up endorsements from D\u2019Addario and from Dewar Arts, and gained support from the Hattori Trust.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">\u201cI\u2019m extremely grateful for the opportunities I\u2019ve had,\u201d Shibe comments. \u201cIn my experience, classical music seems to have become the refuge of the upper-middle class\u2014particularly for those who can afford the incubation period after obtaining their bachelor\u2019s degree, if they want to become a <span class=\"s1\">performer. It\u2019s the same for those that do drama. If I wasn\u2019t born in Scotland and had access to the State school structure it gave me and had free education at a specialist music boarding school, I wouldn\u2019t be where I am today. I\u2019ve been very fortunate and had a lot of help.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Shibe\u2019s next project is an unusual show called \u201csoftLOUD.\u201d It\u2019s a juxtaposition of neglected Scottish music from the Renaissance (including lute manuscripts brought to light through the scholarship of guitarist-composer Rob MacKillop) played on Shibe\u2019s Bert Kwakkel Merula Special guitar, along with high-volume electric guitar music played on a Mexican Fender Stratocaster. The louder repertoire includes Pulitzer Prize\u2013winning composer Julia Wolfe\u2019s <i>Lad<\/i>, written for nine bagpipes\u2014a piece Shibe calls \u201can elegy,\u201d commenting, \u201cThere\u2019s an element of celebration about it, but fundamentally it\u2019s mournful.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net\/v\/t31.0-8\/18739058_1866305460299120_8332919699708536565_o.jpg?oh=69311634303669671542e24a9197105a&amp;oe=5A40C7B2\" width=\"1640\" height=\"624\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">For Shibe, softLOUD is about creating something that represents the emotions of his generation today\u2014frustration, anger and disenfranchisement. \u201cIt\u2019s not without reference to the rise of the new right\u2014Trump and Brexit,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s worth mentioning the show doesn\u2019t have a political opinion. Just as Scotland is a nation that each year questions its identity, I wanted to create something that\u2019s more pressing, more urgent. Something that speaks about <i>now<\/i> in a more pointed way than, say, a Bach suite does; something universally relevant, diffusing its meaning over time. \u2018Soft\u2019 represents the beautiful qualities we\u2019ve forgotten about\u2014being humble, but with a gravity and profundity. I feel this is a show that represents <i>now<\/i> in a more pin-pointed way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">In another way, the show is also about allowing fans, from those who have an interest in early Renaissance music to those who are interested in the more experimental electric guitar work, to listen to each other. As of this writing, softLOUD is set to premiere at the East Neuk Festival in Scotland at the end of June 2017, with a later broadcast on Radio 3, and then returns to play at the Edinburgh Festival in August.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Another intriguing event this summer is Shibe\u2019s collaboration with the Southrepps ensemble for the Southrepps Classical Music Festival in Norfolk, England. Together, they have conceived of a Spanish Civil War\u2013inspired program, including music by Antonio Jose, Boccherini\u2019s <i>Fandango Quintet<\/i>, and the reworking of a piece by Catalan musician Roberto Gerhard. Originally, solo guitar was intended to be interspersed throughout a reading of Hemingway\u2019s <i>For Whom the Bell Tolls<\/i>, but that has now been arranged for guitar and quartet by millennial composer Bruno Dozzer. \u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful, well-rounded program,\u201d Shibe says, \u201cbut a hard one to play.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Upcoming engagements include premiering a guitar concerto called <i>Pilgrims<\/i> by Scottish composer Michael Murray, with the Scottish Ensemble at Sir James Macmillan\u2019s Cumnock Tryst Festival at the end of September, and a series of concerts in Japan in early 2018. \u201cIf we don\u2019t commission new works, our instrument will fall behind,\u201d Shibe notes earnestly.\u00a0\u201cSo it\u2019s less a matter of commissioning being this thing that is a new way forward; in fact it\u2019s the bare minimum we have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">The future of the instrument is in good hands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the Winter 2017 issue of Classical Guitar | BY OLLIE MCGHEE Picture a historic church set in the Midlothian countryside south of Edinburgh, Scotland, 500 years ago. Its hard stone walls hear the daily rituals of Mass and prayer as well as providing protection from warring Scottish families. The site on which Crichton Collegiate Church now stands has borne witness to the Reformation and to conspiracies against James III of Scotland\u2014but more recently hosted classical guitarist Sean Shibe\u2019s debut [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7882,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Sean-Shibe-Classical-Guitar.png?fit=1146%2C672&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}