Craig Ogden

On Sunday February 12 I will be giving the European premiere of Nigel Westlake’s Guitar concerto with the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Barry Wordsworth. It’s a short (13 mins) but amazing piece packed full of incredible colours with excellent writing for the guitar. See my gig list for details. There’s a competition running on the Classic FM website for two pairs of tickets too. Click here. I’m also playing Rodrigo’s legendary Concierto de Aranjuez in the same programme.

The Australia trip was amazing. The videos which are currently available on the Classic FM website show what a fantastic trip it was and having the opportunity to experience new things like climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge and going hot air ballooning was sensational. It was an epic ten days and capped off by doing some of my favourite things (swimming, snorkelling, cycling and body-surfing) in my hometown of Perth at the end of the trip. Here are the links to the videos. I hope you enjoy them.

http://promo.classicfm.co.uk/contests/2011/australia/craigs-journey/sydney/

http://promo.classicfm.co.uk/contests/2011/australia/craigs-journey/melbourne/

http://promo.classicfm.co.uk/contests/2011/australia/craigs-journey/perth/

http://promo.classicfm.co.uk/contests/2011/australia/craigs-journey/

And you can download the music (if you feel compelled!), here, by scrolling to the bottom of the page and clicking on the button

http://promo.classicfm.co.uk/contests/2011/australia/craigs-journey/music/

I’ve been asked to visit Australia in December to help publicise Australia as a tourist destination. I’ll be making a series of audio and video presentations which will run on-air on Classic FM and on their website. It should be great fun!

I’ve been asked by John Williams to join him at the City of London Festival on July 10 next year to play an ensemble piece by Australian composer Philip Houghton which features two guitars, didgeridoo, percussion and possibly some other instruments – I haven’t seen a score yet!

I have ambitions to keep the news page on my website up to date even if the news itself isn’t necessarily riveting. I write this from Biggar in the Scottish Borders having spent the day in Glasgow giving a recital with Judy Hall (flute) at Glasgow University followed by a masterclass at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (which changed its name recently from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama) for Allan Neave. Allan is running an excellent department and has two young British stars of the guitar – Ian Watt and Sean Shribe under his expert tutelage.

Tomorrow Judy and I give a recital for the Biggar Music Club as part of the Biggar Little Festival and then I scoot down the motorway for an 11am solo recital in Burnley and another concert in Shropshire in the evening, again with Judy. I’m hugely looking forward to my Oct 26 recital shared with Tom Doughty at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. Exciting to be playing a solo recital in one of the UK’s best concert halls and delighted that 400 tickets have already sold.

If anyone has any questions that you’d like a public answer to in this section of my website, just send me an e-mail and I’ll publish the question and my response.

I’ve been invited by a past RNCM graduate, student and friend, the South African guitarist Jonathan Goldberg, to take part in the Art of Living World Culture Festival. Do check out their website and some of the amazing events they have organised in the past. The Art of Living Foundation promotes peace and understanding and I’m hugely enthusiastic about giving my time in support of their message. I’ll be playing on stage with something like 2000 other guitarists in the Grand Guitar Ensemble for Peace at the Berlin Olympiastadion. Check this previous effort with ‘only’ 1200 sitar players - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2u4WDkpbVA.

My Classic FM album has done two weeks at no.1 now. The official chart comes out on a Sunday although Classic FM’s own chart programmes runs six days later. It’s also dropped in price on Amazon now to £8.93 making it the cheapest place to buy hardcopy. If you’ve enjoyed it & fancy leaving a review on Amazon or requesting something from it on Jamie Crick’s Classic FM programme I’d be grateful! Many thanks. Craig

The annual Dean & Chadlington Summer Music Festival is coming up at the end of June. My wife Claire Bradshaw (mezzo-soprano) and our colleague Richard Coxon (tenor) have been running the festival for five years now along with a growing body of wonderful helpers. We try to make our concerts slightly different when possible and this year we are having a triple concert (three half-hour performances in venues near each other so the audience rotates in blocks between each concert). We have an 8am coffee and croissant concert which this year is being given by the brilliant pianist Mark Bebbington and a stunning candlelit twilight concert in a privately owned chapel in Sarsden. To see the full range of concerts check out the festival website.
http://www.chadlingtonfestival.org.uk/

All best

Craig

My new Classic FM album Summertime came out a week ago and I understand that it has a good first week so it will be very interesting to see how it goes in next Saturday’s Classic FM Chart which is presented by Mark Forrest. It was great fun recording again for Classic FM – there are a few shots taken in the studio on my facebook page. I think it’s a really nice mix of material. Some of it has a light string accompaniment provided by the fantastic Tippett Quartet while some other tracks are multi-tracked (ie. I record one part then another over the top). Of course, a number of the pieces are classic self-contained solo guitar pieces. Of these, I loved having the chance to record Granada by Albeniz in an arrangement by my teacher/mentor and now colleague at the Royal Northern College of Music, Gordon Crosskey. Another top favourite of mine is the amazing Roland Dyens arrangement of Over the Rainbow which owes more to the Eva Cassidy version than to the classic song from the Wizard of Oz sung by Judy Garland.

If you’ve enjoyed the disc and would like to spread the word I would be very grateful if you would take the time to post a review on Amazon and/or to request a track on Jamie Crick’s request programme on Classic FM.

Many thanks

Craig

You can see what’s here for starters but my full discography is coming, along with plenty of information about the colleagues I work with regularly, gallery, press pack and anything else I can think of. If you have any suggestions of things you’d like to see here please don’t hesitate to drop me a line at mail@craigogden.com. I’d like to have a Q&A page where I could answer guitar-related questions – nails, strings, practice technique etc etc so if you’d like to see this feature do let me know.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy what’s here and do keep checking back as there’s more to come.

Thanks for taking a look.

Craig