LATEST NEWS

Christmas Recitals 2011

Richard is currently playing his annual series of Candlelit Christmas Recitals. The series ends on 21st December with an end of tour, Winter Solstice special at Richard's local arts centre The Ropetackle in Shoreham.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

------------------------

archive summer 2011

Richard Durrant, Agustin Barrios and The Number 26 Bus to Paraguay

Maverick guitarist, Richard Durrant, has just returned from a successful tour of Paraguay. During the ten day visit he launched his latest album “The Number 26 Bus to Paraguay” and was made an “Illustrious Visitor to Asuncion” (the Paraguayan capital city) and several other awards for his significant contribution to Paraguayan culture.

The tour started with a press conference at which Durrant spoke of his personal pilgrimage to this little known South American country. “This journey started when I was eight,” said Durrant, “I had already fallen in love with the music of Barrios. I used to go to my guitar lessons on a Brighton & Hove number 26 bus - so, forty years later, when I was invited to play in Paraguay it was as if that bus had taken me there!”.

Richard Durrant’s concerts were punctuated by TV and radio appearances. Paraguay’s leading DJ Beto Barsotti was reduced to tears when Durrant played live on his show. After his first concert, wherever Durrant went along the “Ruta Mangore”, he was greeted as a celebrity with lunches in his honour, marching bands, Paraguayan harps and politicians to meet and greet

Agustin Barrios himself actually left Paraguay early on in his musical career but the legend grew as the itinerant guitarist travelled throughout South America. As Barrios began to perform more of his own vivid and highly personal compositions he took on an almost mythological status as he moved from country to country.

He died in 1944 in El Salvador. As a consequence most of his manuscripts had never been seen in Paraguay until a collection of Barrios’ music and original recordings where brought to Asuncion for the opening of the ‘Mangoreum’ on 2nd May 2011 (Paraguay’s bi-centenary year).

Richard Durrant, a lifelong performer of Barrios’ music, was a special guest at the presentation and became the first guitarist in Paraguay to handle and inspect the original sheets containing Barrios’ handwritten notes. Said Durrant: “Holding those pieces of paper was a highly emotional moment for me - I feel very honored to have been in that situation”.

Durrant is now back in the UK to complete the summer leg of his “Guitar Whisperer Tour”. His new show “The Danza Paraguaya Tour” will be on the road from autumn 2011 with previews at UK venues in summer 2011. “The Number 26 Bus to Paraguay” (LongMan056CD) is available throughout the UK and online.