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Welcome Nicola and Alexandra Bibby......have enjoyed an international career over the last twenty years, enthralling audiences both at home and abroad with their fresh and inspiring performances. The sisters’ musicianship and instinctive flair have taken them from Ned Sherrin’s ‘Loose Ends’ on Radio 4, to being awarded the accolade ‘Best of Platform Live’ by Classic FM, whilst a recent performance of Poulenc’s Concerto for two pianos with the Philharmonia “caught the mood of droll wit, complete with Mozartian pastiche, to brilliant effect”….(‘The Times’). Many prestigious appearances include: the Chichester Festivities; the King’s Lynn Festival; Eton College; the Turner Sims Concert Hall, Southampton; Sledmere House; Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh; the Newbury Spring Festival; Windsor Castle; the Three Choirs Festival; Sandringham House; the Purcell Room and the Wigmore Hall. These recitals – along with countless others at universities, music societies, stately homes and festivals – have contributed to a busy and fulfilling schedule. There have been other, less conventional, performances…a two-piano recital in a copse overlooking Lake Windermere at the behest of the Wordsworth family; the Timber Museum , Wairapa , New Zealand , and performances alongside such luminaries as Jeremy Irons, Sinead Cusack, Dorothy Tutin and Diana Quick. They also gave the 250th Anniversary Concert for Coutts and Co in the Assembly Rooms, Bath . Foreign tours have taken in Australia , New Zealand , Germany , the Czech Republic , the Channel Islands and Italy . Nicola and Alexandra are also regular invitees of P&O, and have subsequently played on almost every ship in the fleet. Watch this space for the forthcoming ‘ship’s log’ which will catalogue their many nautical adventures, including tales of pianos acquiring a mind of their own on bumpy seas and Gershwin performed in the dark after a generator breakdown. Perhaps, however, the most important outcome of these voyages across the High Seas was the meeting on an ‘Archers’ cruise between the Bibbys and Carole Boyd - the actress who plays (amongst other iconic parts) the infamous Lynda Snell – resulting in the birth of their words and music trio, Infinite Riches. The Bibby Piano Duo is available for recitals on one piano or two and can be contacted on 0207 703 9465 / 07939 267779 or here on their website. They would love to hear from you and are always ready to discuss programme details… indeed they take enormous pleasure in ensuring their recitals are tailor-made for their audiences. A CD of Debussy/Faure piano duets by Nicola and Alexandra can also be purchased by contacting the duo as above. Carole BoydOn leaving drama school, Carole won the Carleton Hobbs Award - a six-month contract with the BBC Radio Drama Company. This was followed by extensive theatre work, including a year with Alan Ayckbourn's company in Scarborough, where she created the part of June in 'Way Upstream'. Vocal versatility, accents and dialects are her speciality, from her creation of the notorious Lynda Snell in BBC Radio 4's The Archers, to Poetry Please and all the female characters in Postman Pat. Voice-overs, commentaries and presentations also form a large part of her repertoire. Television appearances include Minder, Campion, Hetty Wainthropp and the evil Mrs S. Melly in BBC Children's TV Bodger & Badger. Carole has recorded around 300 audio books and has won prestigious British Talkie Awards for her recordings of 'The God of Small Things' (Arundhati Roy); 'Middlemarch' (George Eliot) and 'Atonement' (Ian McEwan). She also won the American Audie for 'Landgirls' (Angela Huth). In 1999, she wrote and recorded her own audio book, 'Lynda Snell's Heritage of Ambridge', for the BBC Radio Collection. She has just recorded the latest series of Postman Pat and plays the wicked Esther Hartlieb in the new screen adaptation of Cornelia Funcke's bestseller, 'The Thief Lord'. She particularly relishes her collaboration with the Bibby Piano Duo, which allows her innate musical instinct to come into its own, at the same time exploiting her stage presence and famously wide vocal range. Infinite RichesThe Bibby Duo and Carole Boyd joined forces
six years ago, forming the words and music trio ‘Infinite Riches’ - after Ben Okri’s mesmerising novel of that name - and subsequently taking the performance of words and music in a wholly Infinite Riches can be contacted on 0207 703 9465/ 07939 267779 or here on Reviews"Sisters Nicola and Alexandra Bibby on two grand pianos had their audience charmed at the New Plymouth Opera House ...the duo displayed amazing colourful shading... pure liquidity of tone and texture." Daily News, New Plymouth (New Zealand) "...the essential complementarity of the sisters’ interpretations ... lyrical tone and touch.....the sensitivity of the duettist’s palette of tonal colours" Wairarapa Times - Age (New Zealand) " ... drew a capacity audience to this highly polished concert." "Brilliant Bibby Sisters were irresistible Diarist Samuel Pepys wrote "Music and Women I cannot but give way to..." but when the music and the women are in such wonderful combination as this piano duo, they are irresistible. Nicola and Alexandra sparkled with perfect rapport and a technique so fine you hardly noticed it." "sisters in perfect harmony... don’t fit the serious image that many professional musicians project - they are full of vivacity, humour and enjoyment of life" "Britain's answer to the Labeques...particularly well-known for their interpretation "Nicola and Alexandra Bibby caught the mood of droll wit, complete with "Exceptional sibling ensemble....." Nicola and Alexandra " cut a fine partnership with impeccable ensemble and tonal matching. It was an impressive evening that said much for the artistry of the duo." "...they play remarkably well together....revealed an emotional inevitability which made the whole evening move forward effortlessly... some fiendishly difficult writing which the Bibbys handled with aplomb and a sense of humour." "The charming Bibby sisters demonstrated complete rapport.....a wide range of touch, producing filigree - lace sounds from the top player, and a keen rhythmical sense
from the bottom player .... the Bibby sisters took the audience through a gamut "Two quite exceptional young pianists ....... their musicianship is firmly based ....." " It is very exciting to see such drive in piano playing .... It was a superb and "Together they make a fine partnership, absolutely at one...." "The duo’s professional ensemble was evident from the first note. The duo painted a canvas of fluid textures and ravishing sounds." " They have a fine sense of cohesion and a good sense of style." " A sister act with class, the British duo play with the uncanny intuition and precision that one might expect from shared genes...what comes through in their playing is ' the joy of music '" |
LinksCarole Boyd • Carole Boyd - an Orion author • Rabbitdigital Design • |