Antara Duo: The Open Fund for Organisations

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A new work for Flute & Harp

Antara Duo – flautist Thomas Hancox and harpist Rachel Wick – have commissioned the eminent British composer Robert Saxton to write his first work for this pairing of instruments.

Inspired by the twelfth-century legend of King Herla – a tale of love, betrayal, and eventual loss – the composition will be a vivid twelve-minute tapestry that moves from the energy of a hunt, through the merriment and festivities of weddings, to the eerie realisation that the world once known to King Herla has passed by, centuries ago.

Robert Saxton speaks about the work as a quasi-tone poem. As such, its evocative nature will capture a concert audience’s imagination, but also lend itself to alternative performance settings, too, such as the work the Antara Duo does for the charities Live Music Now and CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust.

The première will be given for Painswick Music Society, Saturday 25 April 2015, and then will enter the Antara Duo’s repertoire, with another five performances already confirmed.