Inverness Chamber Music goes into its summer break with a spectacular performance by two of the leading percussion exponents in the field of music on Wednesday 8th May at 8.00pm

Described as ‘phenomenal artistry, brimming with style and panache’, over the last few years Owen Gunnell and Oliver Cox, collectively known as O Duo have made their BBC Proms debut, won a Special Commissioning Award from the Borletti-Buitoni Trust and been appointed Artistic Directors of the Children’s Classic Concerts series in Scotland. In 2010 they returned to the Proms to give the premiere of Wilful Chants by Stephen Montague with the BBC Symphony Chorus and gave recitals at Wigmore Hall, Cheltenham and City of London Festivals. O Duo’s sell-out themed concerts with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Orchestra of Scottish Opera include performances based on Pirates of The Caribbean or Space Invaders or East Meets West.

Since forming their partnership in 2000 at London’s Royal College of Music, O Duo’s career has not been limited to the UK, or even to Europe where they have performed in most of the major concert halls. Immediately following their last Inverness concert in 2008, they drove through the night to fly to their next engagement, in Mexico City. This time they have to fly only as far as New York, although from there they go to Melbourne before returning to Scotland for the St Magnus Festival in Orkney.

O Duo’s concert at 8.00pm on Wednesday May 8th in Inverness Town House will feature some of their own compositions as well as arrangements of works by Albeniz, Bach, Chopin, Dave Brubeck, Prokofiev and Philip Glass, concluding with the haunting Marimba Spiritual by Minoru Miki.

The following week, on Tuesday May 14th at 1.00pm the lunchtime concert series, At One With Music will be presenting an hour long piano recital by the Egyptian pianist Mohamed Shams who was a major prize winner in the most recent Scottish International Piano Competition in 2010. Since then he has gone on to win several other prizes and has represented the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in the UK Inter-Collegiate Piano Competition.

Source: James Munro