strung together
VIOLIN, COMPOSER, ART

Art & Music with Peter Sheppard Skaerved & Nigel Clarke

 Ideas Festival  / Sat 21st Nov / 3.15 - 4.30 pm

What happens when a violinist picks up a paintbrush, and composers pick up their pens? Revel in a show like no other, where sound, image and object cross into one.

Grammy-nominated violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved has long been celebrated for his championing of new music. Less widely known is his parallel life as a painter. In this special performance, he brings the two worlds together, presenting music written by some of today's leading composers in direct response to his visual work. The programme features  violin miniatures by Robert Saxton, Sadie Harrison, and other distinguished composers. Each piece is a small, concentrated musical portrait: a colour, a gesture, a mood caught on canvas and translated into sound. As the music unfolds, projections of the paintings that inspired it will accompany the performance.  

A new musical creation also premieres at this event. Brussels-based composer Nigel Clarke has composed a short new work based on several objects proposed by the festival's audience. Objects that somehow mean connection to each of us. Everyday things become the seeds of music, and you can now hear what they have grown into.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Peter Sheppard Skaerved is 'one of the finest living exponents of the violin’ (Gramophone Magazine September 2026). A renowned violinist, chamber musician and researcher known for his pioneering approach to the music of the past and of our own time. He has released over 90 albums of solo and chamber music, performed as a soloist in over 30 countries and has had morethan 400 works written for him by composers such as Judith Weir, Michael Finnissy and Hans Werner Henze. A prolific recording artist, both as a soloist and as leader of the Kreutzer Quartet, he is also the recipient of numerous awards and a former Grammy Award nominee. Peter is the only living violinist to have performed on the violins of Ole Bull, Joachim, Paganini and Viotti. He is also Viotti Lecturer at the Royal Academy of Music (UK) and was recently named Honorary Professor at the Royal Northern College of Music in recognition of his contribution to music research and the positive impact his work has had on the industry.

Nigel Clarke studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music with Paul Patterson, where he was awarded the Academy’s highest distinction, the Queen’s Commendation for Excellence. Clarke has previously held positions as Young Composer in Residence at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Composition and Contemporary Music Tutor at the Royal Academy of Music, London, Head of Composition at the London College of Music and Media, Visiting Tutor at the Royal Northern College of Music, Associate Composer to the Young Concert Artists Trust,  Black Dyke Band, the Band of HM Grenadier Guards, Brass Band Buizingen, Middle Tennessee State University Bands, Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall and International Composer-in-Association to the Grimethorpe Colliery Band. Clarke has also co-written film soundtracks to:Jinnah, The Little Vampire, The Little Polar Bear, The Thief Lord, Baseline, & Willand in 2006 was a co-nominee at `The World Soundtrack Awards’ in the `Discovery of the Year’ category. In 2008 Clarke was awarded the title of Doctor of Musical Arts from University of Salford.