Maria Camahort Quintet
Biography Maria Camahort Quintet
The Maria Camahort Quintet
was established in November 2011 out of the desire to increase the possibilities in chamber music. Guitarist Maria Camahort arranges the repertoire and leads this project created alongside four other talented musicians: Violeta García, voice and violin; Laura Ruhí-Vidal, soprano; Sergio Serra, cello; Pablo Domínguez, percussion and guitar. The originality of the ensemble is given by the intense collaboration between musicians from different musical traditions, by its characteristic timbre, and by the specific choice of classical repertoire and their adaptation to this particular quintet. The Quintet has already performed at some of the top venues and festivals, including St Martin in the fields, The Forge, Kings Place, Southbank Centre (Purcell Room), St James’s Church PIcadilly, St Michael at the North Gate (Oxford), Bath Guitar Festival, London Guitar Festival, Kings Place Festival, and Edinburgh Guitar and Music Festival. Forthcoming performances include Buxton Festival and Kings Place Festival 2015, and the Milton Court (Barbican).
Their debut album ‘Iberian Colours’ will be a representation of the vibrancy of Spain in sound, bringing to the audience the musicality, the flavour and the stories that are held in the music of Spanish composers.
Maria Camahort
is a guitarist, ensemble leader, arranger and composer who possesses exceptional knowledge and facility on her instrument within a vast variety of genres and contexts. Her unique sound and her devotion towards chamber music and collaborative projects has carried her to major concert halls of cities such as London (Milton Court, Southbank Centre, Kings Place, Cervantes Theatre), Paris (Salle Cortot), St. Petersburg (Glasunov Hall), Warsaw (Lutoslawsky Hall, Teatr Imka), Cracow, Barcelona (Auditori, Auditori Caja Madrid), Madrid (Círculo de Bellas Artes, Residencia de Estudiantes), Brussels (European Commission) and Mexico City.
Maria is the artistic creator and director of the Maria Camahort Quintet, an ensemble of outstanding, diverse musicians that present an original, vivid approach to Spanish classical and traditional music. The MCQ released its debut CD Iberian Colours in June 2015 with Convivium Record International: “an alternate route to the music of Spain.” (Planet Hugill), “a seriously impressive CD” (The ArtsDesk). Their second album “Danzas, Canciones y Nanas” will be released this April with Guitar specialised label JSMRecords, and launched in London in May at the Cervantes Theatre.
In addition to her quintet, Maria has been involved in many unique collaborations
such as the all-guitar Quartet Galiu, Farsa Moneda trio (Spanish traditional music), The Last 5 Years musical, the Maria Camahort & Jamie McCredie jazz and classical guitar duo, and many different duets with guitar, cello, voice, violin, viola, bass, oboe, etc. Together with flutist Lucy Driver she received the Pro-Musicis France Award in 2013. She also created and directed the UK Premiere of Feliu Gasull’s compositions in 2011. Her current duo projects include soprano Laura Ruhí-Vidal and flutist and body-percussionist Neus Plana.
Maria’s collaborations within the artistic disciplines of theatre and dance include the the dance project Tango Magnètic (Auditori Barcelona), Guildhall production ofBlood Wedding (F. García-Lorca, directed by C.Burgess) as MD and composer, Little Soldier Productions’ Don Quixote of la Mancha as composer and performer, and Liminal Space Productions Olives and Blood as composer. She most recently collaborated in June 2016 in a cross-arts project focused on Frost’s artwork inspired by Lorca and in January 2017 with the Spanish Theatre Company (London) on Lorca’s conference “On Lullabies.”
Maria has performed in several festivals such as Barcelona Guitar Festival, City of London Festival, International Conservatoire Week Festival, Bath Guitar Festival, London Guitar Festival, Buxton Festival, Kings Place Festival, Edinburgh Guitar Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Vaults Festival, Francesc Tàrrega Guitar Festival, Áureo Herrero Guitar Festival, etc. Her London performances have occurred in Milton Court, LSO St. Lukes, Barbican Center (The Pit), Kings Place, St. Martin in The
Fields, Purcell Room (Southbank Centre), St. James’s Church Piccadilly, Bolivar Hall, The Forge, Bishopsgate Institute, Jacksons’ Lane Theatre, Orange Tree Theatre, Southwark Cathedral, Instituto Cervantes, Ronnie Scott’s Upstairs, Blue Elephant Theatre, New Diorama Theatre, Sands Film and Omnibus Clapham among others. Forthcoming performances include MCQ Cd’s launch at Cervantes Theatre, theatre performances with Little Soldier prod at Teatro Jovellanos (Gijón, Spain) and Chicago’s Physical Festival (USA), and several concerts both in UK and Spain.
Maria completed her studies in Classical Performance at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya in Barcelona. Graduating with a distinction in her Master Studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, she was awarded the prestigious Guildhall Artist Fellowship from 2010-12. During her training both in Barcelona and London, her main influences were Feliu Gasull, Emilio Molina, David Dolan, Christian Burgess, Zoran Dukic, Àlex Garrobé, Robert Brightmore and John Parricelli.
