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Simon is a genius... add to that a warm, funny, relaxed manner and you have a monstrously enjoyable evening"
Folk North West
"With Simon Mayor's first note the audience came to life. It was they who made sitting on a hard seat 'til midnight worth it."
Arran Festival
"left you feelin lik you were floatin on a peerie cloud somewhar"
Shetland Folk Festival
photo: Kevin Smith |
Simon
Mayor is one of the world's leading mandolinists as well as a fine
fiddle player, guitarist, composer and wit. His live performances are a
riot of humourous anecdotes and off-the-cuff wit alongside dazzling
musicianship.
With his debut 'The Mandolin Album', he
embarked on a series of recordings to realise his longstanding
intention to give the mandolin a uniquely British voice. The CD was
immediately made Recording Of The Week on BBC Radio 2 and received huge
popular and critical acclaim. Many albums later, his mix of original
and traditional material alongside classical showstoppers has been
heralded across the media from BBC World Service (Recording of the
Week) to stations all over the USA and Canada and magazines as diverse
as Q, Cosmopolitan, Living Tradition (Scotland) and Sing Out (USA).
His
passion for the mandolin surfaces again in a wealth of teaching books
and DVDs, including 'New Celtic Mandolin' and 'The Mandolin Tutor',
which is now widely regarded as the standard work for the instrument.
He is also a regular columnist for Acoustic Magazine.
In May
2000 he entered the UK's Classical Artist Top Ten with a major 'best
of' release of his own compositions and classical works on Universal
Records. His touring schedule has taken in festivals and theatres all
over the world including the Rudolstadt International Folk Festival
(Germany), Shetland Folk Festival, Vancouver Folk Festival, The Stephen
Leacock Humour Festival (Canada), Cheltenham Literature Festival
(England), Edinburgh Fringe (Scotland), The Classical Mandolin Society
of America and many, many more.
His off-beat humour surfaced
in his own series for the BBC, 'Marooned with a Mandolin' - "the best
programme on Radio 2 this week" in The Independent on Sunday.
He
now leads Britain's first modern mandolin quartet, the Mandolinquents.
The quartet emerged from a 1997 line up, The Mandolin All-stars with
multi-instrumentalists Maartin Allcock and Chris Leslie of Fairport
Convention, and long time musical partner, Hilary James. Originally
intended as an occasional all-star get-together, fast growing demand
meant that a permanent line-up had to be found. The Mandolinquents now
includes the renowned classical guitar virtuoso Gerald Garcia, UK banjo
champion, Richard Collins and 'one of Britain's finest voices' Hilary
James doubling on mandobass.
A fine fiddle player, he played
swing fiddle on the album for the show Five Guys Name Mo, and he likes
to keep his hand in playing occasional folk fiddle for country dances
when schedules allow.
He now tours regularly with long-time
partner Hilary James. The duo share a keen interest in children's music
and have worked extensively with young people in theatres and schools.
They have also presented Play School and for six years were regular
hosts of BBC Music Education programmes. They have written over fifty
children's songs, many for their own 'Musical Mystery Tour' children's
CDs and the 'Musical Mystery Tour' songbook published by Faber Music.
The songs have also featured on classic British children's series such
as Play School, Listening Corner and Green Claws and are used
extensively in education, including English language teaching courses
for Danish schoolchildren. Alongside www.mandolin.co.uk they set up
www.childrensmusic.co.uk in 1999.
Simon Mayor and Hilary James have also written satirical and topical songs for BBC news programmes including Newsnight.
A
huge fan of fellow Yorkshireman, the late, great Jake Thackray, Simon
occasionally performs a special programme of Jake's songs.
A biography of Simon Mayor has appeared on the the BBC website under Folk on Two.
photo: Kevin Smith
...as well as a fine
fiddler, guitarist, composer, producer and wit. His live performances
are a riot of humourous anecdotes and off-the-cuff wit alongside
dazzling musicianship.
Simon Mayor has an unequalled
reputation in folk and classical circles alike. His recordings have
been heralded across the media from magazines such as as Q, Vox, fRoots, Rock 'n' Reel, The Living Tradition (Scotland), Sing Out (USA, Trad Mag (France) and Cosmopolitan, to BBC World Service' BBC World Service, Radio 2 , Radio 3's In Tune and the Classic FM Artist Chart top ten.
With
his debut 'The Mandolin Album', he embarked on a series of recordings
to realise his longstanding intention to give the mandolin a uniquely
British voice. The CD was immediately made Album of the Week on BBC Radio 2 receiving popular and critical acclaim. His mix of original and
traditional material alongside classical showstoppers has brought
widespread recognition with invitations from around the globe including
the USA (The Classical Mandolin Society of America), Canada (The
Stephen Leacock Humour Festival) and Germany (Rudolstadt World Music
Festival).
His passion for the mandolin has produced
a wealth of teaching books and DVDs, including 'New Celtic Mandolin'
and 'The Mandolin Tutor', which is now widely regarded as the standard
work for the instrument. He is also a regular columnist for Acoustic Magazine.
"A pedigree musician"
Recording of the Week
BBC World Service
"A real find"
"Folk CD of the year"
Daily Telegraph
"Britain's leading
hot-fingered mandolin virtuoso"
Cosmopolitan
"The most beautiful bell-like sound I have I have ever heard"
Living Tradition (Scotland)
Simon Mayor's website
From
the Wigmore Hall to the Glastonbury Festival to conducting the National
Youth Guitar Ensemble, Gerald Garcia's reputation is confirmed as one
of the world's finest guitarists.
He has
toured with the likes of John Williams and Paco Pena, appeared with
such diverse talents as Michel Legrand, Barbara Streisand, Larry
Coryell and Wayne Shorter, has six solo albums out on the Naxos
label... and always brings the wackiest sense of humour to his
performances!
His wider travels have
found him as far afield as Borneo, the Arctic Circle and China, where
he was the first British guitarist to play in recent times. In
September 1995 he toured four Chinese cities in a duo with guitarist
John Williams.
Gerald studied Chemistry
at Oxford University and now lives in Oxford where he enjoys cycling,
cooking, computer music, Taoist Yoga and conducting.
"A superlatively gifted musician."
South China Morning Post
"A characterful guitarist: his musical intelligence and perception are
to be treasured in an age where bland fluency seems to carry off the
major prizes"
Classical Guitar
"There was an exceptional opportunity at the Wigmore Hall to hear a
brilliant exposition of the personalities of the guitar by John
Williams, Paco Peña and Gerald Garcia. It was a combination one would
like to hear more often - Garcia showed great natural gifts and
devotion to his art." The Daily Telegraph
Gerald Garcia's website
Hilary
James may be best known for her fine singing, but she also takes her
place in the Mandolinquents pounding the mighty mandobass.
Her
superb voice defies categorisation and has featured everywhere from
Classic FM to Radio 1's Andy Kershaw. Covering everything from
traditional folk music to blues and swing, her four solo CDs have been
played on radio stations from Los Angeles to Latvia and brought an
invitation to make a video with MTV award winning editor/producer Dan
Lebenthal in Hollywood.
Hilary James presented music
education programmes for national BBC Radio for six years and has
illustrated a children's song book for Faber Music. Together with Simon
Mayor she has written over 60 children's songs, as well as topical
songs for news programmes. To hear Hilary's recordings visit www.folksong.co.uk
Hilary is also making a name for herself as an artist, painting large canvases whenever she gets the time. Visit www.englandfineart.com for a viewing.
"One of Britain's finest voices"
BBC Radio 4
"One of the most stirring voices in British folk music"
The All Music Guide
"One of the most stirring voices in British folk music"
The All Music Guide
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