Eleanor Kelly

Strangers Transcending Borders.

This programme of solo classical guitar music explores the ways in which we transcend borders through music. The choice of repertoire addresses the concept of ‘borders’ a number of ways: physical: the journey of music and how different parts of the world evoke feelings and music; musical: crossing the lines of traditional classical form and creating genre-defying music; in terms of identity: exploring our own personal identity and how this can influence our music; and crossing the border between reality and non-reality: works inspired by imagination, dream, and fantasy. Each work in the programme addresses one or more of these ways of ‘transcending borders’, whether that is linked to the work itself, the composer, or both. The pieces are from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including two pieces commissioned for and premiered by Eleanor Kelly in the year they were written.

Eleanor Kelly is a classical guitarist based in Merseyside, UK. A Liverpool Hope University Music alumnus, Eleanor graduated in 2016 and then went on to study in Spain on the prestigious Máster en Interpretación de Guitarra Clásica course at Universidad de Alicante with the world's foremost performers and teachers. She graduated in 2021, and in the same year also gained a PGCert in Plucked Strings Teaching from the University of Chichester/ESTA.

Eleanor has extensive experience as a performer and recent engagements include: Kings Place, London (UK), Uppsala Internationella Gitarrfestival (Sweden), and Palacio del Portalet (Spain). In 2021, Eleanor was selected as an International Guitar Foundation Young Artist and made her London debut as part of the scheme. In 2020, she was awarded a EuroStrings scholarship.

An advocate of women in music, she specialises in lesser-known repertoire by both historical and contemporary women composers and has premièred a number of new works by women: commissioned by IGF’s La Leona scheme, as an Illuminate Women’s Music Artist, and as part of the 2019 edition of the Angel Field Festival where she gave the UK première of Claudia Montero's Latin Grammy award-winning Luces y Sombras with the Woodside String Quartet.

Preludios Nostálgicos/Impresiones Argentinas – María Luisa Anido.

Three Ships – Errollyn Wallen.

Finding The Way – Florence Anna Maunders.

(F)rammenti – Nina Danon.

Kinkachoo, I Love You – Phillip Houghton.