About us
The Vida Guitar Quartet brings together four guitarists of exceptional ability and virtuosity sharing a passion for chamber music. After their spectacular debut at the first World Youth Guitar Festival in 2007, the quartet are rapidly gaining a reputation as one of the most exciting guitar ensembles in the UK. Vida plan to release their first CD, ‘Love, the magician’ in 2009 on the BGS label.
Mark Ashford is an internationally renowned performer and teacher. A former scholarship student at both Chetham’s School of Music and the Royal Academy of Music Mark finished his studies with the eminent guitarist David Russell in Vigo, Spain. He has been a prize winner at many national and international competitions including the Guitar Foundation of America, Alessandria International Guitar Competition, Scandinavian International Guitar Competition, Julian Bream Prize, and BBC Radio 2 Young Musician.
He has performed as a soloist at many of the UK’s most prestigious venues including the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Bridgewater Hall – Manchester, Fairfield Halls, St. Georges’-Bristol and the Queens’ Hall – Edinburgh. Mark’s latest CD is of Rodrigo’s ‘Concierto de Aranjuez’ recorded at Henry Wood Halls, London with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Nicholas Cleobury.
He regularly gives masterclasses/recitals at the leading UK conservatoires of music and in 2003 was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music for his achievements in the music profession. He is currently guitar tutor at the Birmingham Conservatoire of Music.
Helen Sanderson studied guitar at the Royal College of Music with Charles Ramirez, graduating with both the Madeline Walton prize for guitar and the prestigious Anthony Saltmarsh Bursary. Her active concert career has included concerts at major international guitar festivals and recitals at the Purcell Room, St Martin-in-the-Fields, the Academy of Arts (Berlin), the British Embassy (Vienna), and the Barbican Centre. In addition to her solo performing, Helen is also much in demand as an accompanist for voice and guitar repertoire, and works in partnerships with the tenor Mark Wilde, Susan Legg (mezzo-soprano), and the eminent countertenor James Bowman.
Mark Eden and Christopher Stell, better known as the Eden Stell Guitar Duo, are acknowledged to be one of the finest and most innovative guitar duos in the world. Their dynamic performances have won great acclaim and delighted audiences whether they are performing a baroque transcription or a new contemporary commission. The duo have recorded six CDs and are the only guitarists since Julian Bream to receiving an ‘Editor’s Choice’ in Gramophone Magazine. Mark and Chris graduated from the Royal Academy of Music as recipients of the Principal’s Prize for Achievement and the Julian Bream Prize, and then continued their studies in Brussels with the Brazilian Guitar Duo, Sérgio and Odair Assad with the aid of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. Selected for the Park Lane Group’s Young Artists’ Concert Series and winners of the South East Musicians’ Platform, they have given many recitals at the Purcell Room and the Wigmore Hall, and have subsequently been invited to perform there by music organisations such as ‘Live Music Now!’, the Kirckman Concert Society, and Classical Guitar Magazine. Mark and Chris were elected Associates of the Royal Academy of Music in recognition of their performing achievements and both hold teaching positions at the Birmingham Conservatoire and Royal College of Music.
Vida Guitar Quartet play Christopher Dean guitars and use D’Addario strings.
