Richard Durrant will be performing in Guildford on midsummer eve.
There are many reasons why his UK tour of Music for Midsummer is unique.
Starting in Orkney and ending in Bexhill-on-Sea, he will complete the tour travelling entirely by bicycle.
He cover around 900 miles on a specially built bike with his musical instruments in a trailer behind him.
The reason he cycles?
“I’d been on tour in South America, and was clocking up a huge number of air miles,” Richard says.
“It was just ridiculous.
“I was leaving a terrible carbon footprint and it had to change.
“I’m not sure that I’ll ever fly again, to be honest.”
Richard agreed to talk with Wokingham Today from his bicycle earlier this month.
“I expect you can hear the pedals moving as I speak,” he laughed,
“I’m currently on my way to Perth.”
The bike plays a starring role in his concerts, providing on-stage illumination and a visual reminder of positive environmental action.
Durrant is passionate about the environment.
“We all really need to keep carbon emissions at the front of our minds,” he says.
“There are so many life distractions, but I want to remind people that you can make a difference.”
Does he enjoy cycling?
“It’s a wonderful thing, a real privilege.
“Life on the bike is simple and easy.
“It keeps me fit, and I get to play music in the evenings.
“And I’m surrounded by beautiful British countryside,” he adds.
An accomplished classically trained musician, Richard Durrant’s Music for Midsummer tour is filled with his own compositions for solo guitar.
“I do love classical music,” he says.
“But it’s just not my world.”
Nonetheless, he does begin and end every concert with Bach.
“There’s a simplicity and regularity about the music that is mesmerising,” he continues.
“It’s comforting to hear something so beautiful and spiritual, and that’s why I bookend every concert with Bach.”
But the interpretation is unique.
“I play his cello suite on the ukulele,” he smiles.
The ukulele is made from cedar wood recovered from the Oregon Biscuit wild fire of 2002.
Durrant’s concert guitar is very special too, being made from an oak tree that grew about 5,000 years ago.
After sinking into an East Anglian bog the tree was preserved intact.
Luthier Gary Southwell was able to use the ancient wood to make Richard’s guitar.
The timber’s extraordinary age and dark pigment from five millennia in a bog give the guitar an unusual look and deep resonant sound.
Richard’s fascination with the past and with the beauty of the British Isles have inspired much of his music
Many of the solo guitar arrangements in the tour come from his latest musical release, The Sleep of a King.
A binaural headphone version of the album will be released live on Midsummer Day to coincide with sunrise over Guildford.
“It will be a totally immersive, perhaps even spiritual experience,” says Durrant.
“In fact, the whole tour feels like a bit of a pilgrimage for me.
“The music and the cycling connect me with my love of ancient peoples and the beautiful British Isles.
“It gives me a chance, when current events are pretty grim, to remind myself of the beauty and simplicity around me.”
Durrant performs on Tuesday, June 21 at Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud theatre.
For tickets and more information, log on to: yvonne-arnaud.co.uk or call the box office on: 0148 344 0000
For information about Richard Durrant and his music, visit: www.richarddurrant.com
