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WELCOME

Here you’ll find information about one of Europe's premier flute and guitar duos. Keep on scrolling down for reviews, sample repertoires, contact info and sound clips. If you would like to book the duo, please e-mail - a copy of all the information on this site, biography information, high resolution picures along with a free CD of audio clips will gladly be sent out.

If you would like to purchase the duo's debut CD, please visit the naturalstudio records shop.



DUO BIOGRAPHY

Flautist Aisling Agnew and classical guitarist Matthew McAllister met in Glasgow whilst studying at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Their joint passion for chamber music, interacting with composers and performing new music immediately brought them together. Since giving their debut recital in the ‘Harty Room’ of Queen’s University, Belfast in 2001 they have grown in popularity and perform extensively around the UK and Ireland.

“Matthew McAllister’s personality filtered through to his witty, yet tender and considered playing throughout. Joined by Aisling Agnew, who is already recognised as one of the top young flautists operating throughout Great Britain and Ireland, the duo gave a sensitive and rhythmically striking account of a work which has already received its premier in London and Dublin by the same duo. Agnew’s playing throughout was beautiful with extended techniques on her instrument existing within the musical landscape of the piece, always resisting the temptation of highlighting her own considerable prowess to the detriment of an unknown work.”
(Paul O’Reilly, Belfast Telegraph)

As one of Ireland’s finest young flautists, Aisling has given performances in the prestigious ‘Guildhall Gold’ series at the Wigmore Hall and appeared as concerto soloist with the Ulster Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

Matthew is widely regarded as one of Scotland’s finest classical guitarists. He has appeared on British and Spanish television, recorded for the BBC Artists Index, and co-starred alongside Aled Jones in the 2005 Southwell International Festival.

In recent years the duo have established themselves as a highly sought after and popular chamber ensemble. Highlights from their recent concert activity include launching the ‘Southwell Reflections’ concert series in 2005 and returning to Southwell in 2006 to headline the sold out ’Celebration of the life of Mozart’ concert. In the autumn of 2005 the Irish Government’s Heritage Initiative invited the duo to tour Ireland’s medieval castles and historic houses giving evening recitals in stunning settings such as Roscrea Castle, Christ Church Cathedral Dublin and Rathfarnham castle. Many of the concerts in this tour completely sold out and the duo will return this year to embark on a even more extensive tour.

Performing in the ‘Classics at the Reid’ lunchtime concert series during The Edinburgh Festival led to a return to Scotland’s capital giving an evening recital for The Edinburgh Society of Musicians. Recitals in The Ramshorn theatre Glasgow, St Paul’s Cathedral Dundee and for The Gosport and Fareham Music Society were other notable performances during the 2005 and 2006 calendar.

RECORDINGS

The duo's debut recording, Recital, is now available through naturalstudio records. For more information and to purchase the album, go here.

DUO SAMPLE PROGRAMMES

“The programme which they had assembled was perfectly chosen - something old, something modern, something quite unknown, and a classic of the repertoire, all played with skill and insight by two gifted young musicians who have already made names for themselves individually and whose artistic rapport as a duo brought something quite special to the music” (Russell Reid, The Courier).


Classic Recital
Astor Piazzolla: Libertango
Dave Heath: Gentle Dreams
Francis Poulenc: Mouvements Perpetuels
Astor Piazzolla: Histoire du Tango
J.S Bach: Sonata in E Minor BWV 1034
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras no.5
Maurice Ravel: Pavane pour une infante defunte
Georges Bizet: Carmen Fantasy

Manha de Carnaval
Egberto Gismonti: Agua e Vinho
Maximo Diego Pujol: Suite Buenos Aires
Sergio Assad: Circulo magico
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras no.5
Celso Machado: Musiques populaires bresiliennes
Luiz Bonfa: Manha de Carnaval
Astor Piazzolla: Histoire du Tango

Concert D’Aujord Hui
Greg Caffrey: Pluck, Blow
Dave Heath: Gentle Dreams
Einojuhani Rautavaara: Sonata
Ravi Shankar: L’Aube Enchantee on the raga Todi
David Fennessy: Continuity Error
Bela Bartok: Roumanian Folk Dances
Lowell Liebermann: Sonata

An Evening in Paris
Marin Marais: Les Folies d’Espagne
Gabriel Faure: Pavane, op.50
Jacques Ibert: Entr’acte
Francis Poulenc: Mouvements Perpetuels
Claude Debussy: Syrinx
Maurice Ravel: Pavane pour une infante defunte
Georges Bizet: Carmen Fantasy
Astor Piazzolla: Libertango

The duo works closely with venues, concert organisers & promoters to coordinate programmes, concert length and fee.

CONTACT THE DUO

If you would like to contact the duo, please use the following e-mail address and someone will be in touch soon: info@fluteguitarduo.com

“Very skilful. Full of musicality.”
- Micahel Denton,
Christ Church Cathedral,
Dublin.

“Stunning concert”
- Charley Brighton,
St Mary’s Cathedral.

“Thank you very much indeed for the really splendid concert on Sunday, everyone enjoyed the music and also the amusing remarks by Matthew!
All the very best from The Gosport & Fareham Music Society.”
- Hazel Clift,
Gosport & Fareham music society.

“They began and ended with the master of the tango, Piazzolla - at the start, Libertango, where the echo passages in the flute seemed to hint at those in Bach’s famous D minor Fugue, and ended with the four-movement Histoire du Tango, a tour de force both compositionally and technically, which traces the development of the dance from the bordellos of Buenos Aires to its current art form. Egberto Gismonti’s languorous Agua e Vinho, with its long, flowing phrases, came over magically, and an imaginative transcription of Poulenc’s early Trois Mouvements Perpetuels, originally for solo piano, captured the teenage composer’s typical blend of the wry and the wistful. Greg Caffrey’s recent four-movement Pluck Blow, [was played with] sheer virtuosity by Agnew and McAllister and heralded a tour of Ireland that this duo will make during Heritage Week next month. This was followed by the heart-easing account of Bach’s Sonata in E minor (BWV1034), where the silver sound of Aisling Agnew’s flute floated serenely to the cathedral’s high arches, perfectly if reticently complemented by Matthew McAllister’s guitar - sheer balm to the soul.”
- Russel Reid, The Dundee Courier,
St. Paul’s Cathedral,
Dundee.

“The Heritage Week performance in the intimate surroundings of Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin was a great success and very well received.”
- Catherine O’Connor,
Rathfarnham Castle.

“The [duo] was brilliant. All those present were delighted by the sheer brilliance of the flute and the delightful combination of both the flute and guitar. Already enquiries are being received for inclusion in the 2007 Festival. Thank you.”
- Terry Franks,
Southwell Festival Website.

“The programme which they had assembled was perfectly chosen - something old, something modern, something quite unknown, and a classic of the repertoire, all played with skill and insight by two gifted young musicians who have already made names for themselves individually and whose artistic rapport as a duo brought something quite special to the music”
(Russell Reid, The Courier).

“Matthew McAllister’s personality filtered through to his witty, yet tender and considered playing throughout. Joined by Aisling Agnew, who is already recognised as one of the top young flautists operating throughout Great Britain and Ireland, the duo gave a sensitive and rhythmically striking account of a work which has already received its premier in London and Dublin by the same duo. Agnew’s playing throughout was beautiful with extended techniques on her instrument existing within the musical landscape of the piece, always resisting the temptation of highlighting her own considerable prowess to the detriment of an unknown work.”
(Paul O’Reilly, Belfast Telegraph)

“Very skilful. Full of musicality.”
- Micahel Denton,
Christ Church Cathedral,
Dublin.

“Stunning concert”
- Charley Brighton,
St Mary’s Cathedral.

“Thank you very much indeed for the really splendid concert on Sunday, everyone enjoyed the music and also the amusing remarks by Matthew!
All the very best from The Gosport & Fareham Music Society.”
- Hazel Clift,
Gosport & Fareham music society.