A project emerges

Peter Sheppard Skærved –Violins(‘Remarkable…a technical tour de force’ Sunday Times 2018).

J S Bach – Chaconne (1720),

Peter Sheppard Skærved-4 Troubadours (2017)Evis Sammoutis – Nicosia Etudes (2014-2019)Nicola LeFanu – Prelude (St Cecelia & King David) (2018)Nigel Clarke – Epitaph for Edith Cavell (2014)Paul Pellay, his ‘Anacreonantic Variations’ (2019) World PremiereAnonymous (17^th Century) – Passacaglia on ‘How beautifully Shines the Morning Star’ (ca 1670) Grammy-nominated violin soloist Peter Sheppard Skærved, is internationally acclaimed for fearless playing and adventurous programming. Peter is renowned for site-specific projects, and particularly for his sensitivity to the music of ancient architecture. Dover, and the work with DAD is of great importance to him: he has explored collaborative projects with them since 2012.Peter has been dreaming of a project in the exquisite chapel of St Edmund since he first visited and played in there in 2012. Its layered history, like the materials of this historic building, have inspired him to draw together old and new music, speaking to the universal ideas it embodies. St Edmund’s was founded by St Richard of Chichester in 1253, as a chantry to St Edmund of Abingdon. Both had opposed Henry III’s attempts to undermine Magna Carta, and this brave resistance is reflected in the doughty survival of this wonderful building. The programme is framed by passacaglia/walking style masterpieces from the baroque, which enfold works written for Peter by some of the many composers with whom Peter collaborates around the world. Evis Sammoutis reflects on the lost French medieval culture of Cyprus, Nicola LeFanu inspired by a 17^th century sculpture of two ideal musicians, Nigel Clarke offer a memorial to Edith Cavell, whose body returned to Dover in 1919, and Paul Pellay’s variations is  clarion call to stand up to political oppression, following the model of St Richard and St Edmund.