22 June 2020
Sean Shibe Tops Official Chart and Signs Multi-Album Deal
Latest news and performances from the exceptional Awardee giving new voice to classical guitar.
Guitarist Sean Shibe received a Dewar Arts Award in 2008, enabling him to purchase a professional guitar. He was 15 years old and studying at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland). Since then, he has gone on to become one of the most accomplished and celebrated guitarists of his generation.
Sean was the first ever guitarist to be selected as a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist. He has since been featured on numerous BBC programmes including ‘Front Row’, ‘Inside Music’, and a special series entitled ‘Sean Shibe’s Guitar Zone’.
In 2018, Sean received the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Young Artists – the first ever guitarist to do so – and in 2019, won a ‘Concept Album’ Gramophone Award for his critically-acclaimed recording ‘softLOUD’. His latest album has topped the Official Chart for specialist classical music and he has recently signed a multi-album deal with Pentatone.
Sean has performed internationally at renowned venues and festivals, has appeared with world-leading orchestras and has collaborated with artists including the BBC Singers and performance artist/art filmmaker Marina Abramovic. His imaginative performance programmes include newly commissioned works, expanding the repertoire of the guitar and giving new voice to the instrument.
Sean is a truly exceptional Scottish artist and we are proud to have been part of his journey.
READ | WATCH | LISTEN
Read more about Sean and his Dewar Arts Award
Sean’s official website
Lunchtime Concert on BBC Radio 3
Andrew McGregor introduces Sean in concert, featuring works by Bach and Steve Reich
‘Scottish guitarist Sean Shibe’s critically acclaimed work brings a new approach to the classical guitar by experimenting with instruments and repertoire. His new album Bach: Pour La Luth Ò Cembal, featuring works written for the lute but played on guitar, is number one in the Official Specialist Classical Chart’
Sean Shibe’s Guitar Zone on BBC Radio 3
Clips from Sean’s series, exploring ‘the rich sounds of the guitar and its relatives in music from seven centuries’
‘Guitarist Sean Shibe takes lockdown recording to new heights as he builds a studio underneath a fortepiano (that’s correct) and lines up a playlist that features drones, dance music and a reconstructed Dresden manuscript. The guitar makes an appearance with pieces by Bach, William Walton and Johann Kaspar Mertz, as well as some comforting music for the guitar’s cousin, the lute’
RECENT REVIEWS
***** “This astonishing and adventurous guitarist plays with such depth of tone, colour and intricacies of touch that it is as though he’s at a harpsichord…Shibe’s music-making is masterful, beautiful and convincing in every way” – The Times
“I’m learning things about the music I hadn’t noticed before because of the way Shibe voices and inflects it with such intimate understanding” – Andrew McGregor, BBC Radio 3 Record Review
“Commandingly impressive in slower movements… the clarity in his articulation of the most complex counterpoints is as exemplary as his gloriously warm timbre is alluring” – Stephen Pettit, The Sunday Times
“Stunningly recorded, this collection is a memento of a young artist on the vertiginous ascent, offering music making that is utterly ravishing” – Apple Music
***** “A mesmerising journey from light to dark… The spell, as always with Shibe, was total; no other guitarist that I know of is working at this artistic level” – The Arts Desk