softLOUD: Music for Acoustic & Electric Guitars Sean Shibe

• James Oswald (1710 - 1769), Sean Shibe (b.1992) :
• 1Divertimento I (Arr. S. Shibe for Guitar)03:03
• Anonymous, Sean Shibe:
• 2Ladie Lie Near Me (Wemyss Manuscript) [Arr. S. Shibe for Guitar]01:14
• 3Mervell's Sarabande (Wemyss Manuscript) [Arr. S. Shibe for Guitar]00:41
• 4A Scotts Tune, by Mr. Lesslie (Balcarres Manuscript) [Arr. S. Shibe for Guitar]01:02
• 5Holi and Faire (Wemyss Manuscript) [Arr. S. Shibe for Guitar]00:58
• 6Swit Sant Nickola (Rowallan Manuscript) [Arr. S. Shibe for Guitar]01:02
• 7The Canaries I (Straloch Manuscript) [Arr. S. Shibe for Guitar]01:09
• 8The Canaries II (Straloch Manuscript) [Arr. S. Shibe for Guitar]00:43
• 9A Scots Tune (Rowallan Manuscript) [Arr. S. Shibe for Guitar]02:52
• James MacMillan (b.1959), Sean Shibe:
• 10From Galloway (Arr. S. Shibe for Guitar)02:53
• 11Since It Was the Day of Preparation: Motet I (Arr. S. Shibe for Guitar)04:17
• Steve Reich (b.1936):
• 12Electric Counterpoint: I. Fast06:52
• 13Electric Counterpoint: II. Slow03:21
• 14Electric Counterpoint: III. Fast04:34
• Julia Wolfe (b.1958), Sean Shibe:
• 15Lad: I. [Drones Only] (Arr. S. Shibe for Guitar)07:48
• 16Lad: II. The Slow Melody (Arr. S. Shibe for Guitar)05:23
• 17Lad: III. The Fast Melody (Arr. S. Shibe for Guitar)03:26
• David Lang (b.1957), Sean Shibe:
• 18Killer (Arr. S. Shibe for Guitar)04:47
• Total Runtime56:05

Info for softLOUD: Music for Acoustic & Electric Guitars

Shortlisted in both ‘Instrumentalist’ and ‘Young Artist’ categories at the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Awards, Sean Shibe makes his second outing on Delphian with a programme of radical contrasts that showcases virtuosity at both extremes. Where his debut album Dreams & Fancies paid homage to the guitar repertoire created by his great predecessor Julian Bream, softLOUD looks ambitiously forward, with a mix of electric and acoustic, early and modern, whose contradictions and challenges speak to our own times.

The gentle beauty of Scottish lute manuscripts and of two short instrumental solos by James MacMillan is confronted by, and holds its own against, music by New York-based composers Julia Wolfe – a work of cathartic grief and anger originally scored for nine bagpipes – and David Lang, whose electric violin work Killer is iron-clad in its abrupt fury. Shibe has arranged all of this music himself, and presents it here alongside a breathtaking recording of Steve Reich’s now classic Electric Counterpoint. ‘Have we today forgotten how to speak with grace,’ Shibe asks, ‘or is the real danger that we aren’t screaming loudly enough?’

"Shibe imbues the early Scottish lute pieces with a profoundly moving intensity that carries them far beyond their modest frames, through to the MacMillan arrangements, themselves as much transitions from the old to the new as Reich’s Electric Counterpoint, which seems to gather the previous works in a boppy afterparty." (Gramophone Magazine)

“Sean Shibe has made one of the best recordings of Electric Counterpoint ever … I couldn’t take my headphones off” (Steve Reich)

“Shibe imbues the early Scottish lute pieces with a profoundly moving intensity that carries them far beyond their modest frames … The results, like the performances themselves, are spectacular.” (Gramophone Magazine)

Sean Shibe, guitar

Sean Shibe
Born in Edinburgh in 1992 of English and Japanese heritage, Sean studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and currently with the inspirational Paolo Pegoraro in Italy.

In 2012 he became the first guitarist to be selected for the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme, and the only solo guitarist to be awarded a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship. He was selected by Young Classical Artists Trust in 2015.

Over the last year Sean has given recitals at Wigmore Hall, the Heidelberger-Frühling, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Bath International, Cambridge Summer and Aldeburgh Festivals. He returned to the Marlboro Summer Music Festival & Academy in the USA (on the invitation of Mitsuko Uchida), recorded solo works by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies for Linn Records as part of a Scottish Chamber Orchestra disc, and was the featured cover disc for BBC Music Magazine.

Engagements during 2016/17 include recitals at Wigmore Hall, Saffron Hall, the Three Palaces Festival in Malta, the Cumnock Tryst, Northern Chords and Newbury Spring Festivals, and a tour of China. He also brings together acoustic and electric guitars; ancient and modern traditions in his new project softLOUD, which premieres at the East Neuk Festival, followed by a week’s residency at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Earlier this year he recorded a CD of English music for Delphian due for release shortly. Future plans include debut concerts in Tokyo and Nagoya.

As a concerto soloist Sean has appeared with the BBC Scottish Symphony, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and BBC Symphony Orchestras performing Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez and Fantasía para un Gentilhombre, the Malcolm Arnold and Villa-Lobos Concertos, and recording Takemitsu’s To the Edge of Dream.

Drawn to chamber music and song, Sean has collaborated with the BBC Singers, Danish String Quartet, cellist Isang Enders, harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani and singers Ben Johnson, Robert Murray and Robert Tritschler.

His awards include the Royal Over-Seas League First Prize and Gold Medal (2011), Ivor Mairants Guitar Award (2009), a Dewar Arts and D’Addarrio endorsement. He is grateful for support from the Hattori Trust.

Booklet for softLOUD: Music for Acoustic & Electric Guitars