Vickers Bovey Guitar Duo have been described as performers ‘with truly uncanny unanimity’ (Ivan Hewett, Daily Telegraph) and ‘with astounding exquisiteness’ (Paul Driver, Sunday Times). Julian and Dan first met studying at Birmingham Conservatoire where they both received First Class Honours and the Principal’s Prize, continuing their studies with a joint Masters at the Royal Academy of Music, London, graduating with Distinction and the Performance Diploma in July 2016.
Winners of multiple awards, the duo have recently been selected for the Worshipful Company of Musicians’ Maisie Lewis Prize, the Tillett Trust Young Artist Platform, which saw them make their Wigmore Hall debut in February 2017, the 2017 Park Lane Group concert series at St John’s Smith Square and the Concordia Foundation Young Artist Scheme. In June 2017 they were awarded second place at the Guitar Foundation of America’s International Ensemble Competition held in Los Angeles, and were also awarded the 2016 Royal Academy of Music’s Club Prize, the most prestigious competition at the Academy, giving their prize winners’ recital in January 2017.
The duo have been featured on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune and Late Junction and are past recipients of the IGF Young Artist Platform, the Countess of Munster and Help Musicians UK Awards and have performed extensively around the UK, including at Wigmore Hall, St. James’ Piccadilly, St. John’s Smith Square, Courtauld Gallery, Kings Place (London Guitar Festival), The Sage (North-East Guitar Festival), Bath Guitar Festival, Shrewsbury Guitar Festival and Colston Hall (Bristol).
United by a love of new and contemporary music, the duo have commissioned and premiered numerous works, including Michael Finnissy’s Normal Deviates, Joe Cutler’s Everyday Music and Mario Ferraro’s On that old oak by the roadside. The duo also have a long term collaboration with Ryan Probert, whose transfixing large scale works Thirty-Six views of Mount Fuji, Eight views of the Four Seasons and The fields where silence has lease (BBC commission) have been performed over thirty times, in concert halls, libraries, factories and schools. The complete set of Ryan’s Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji formed the duo’s debut CD, released in April 2016.