Ed Dusinberre

Edward Dusinberre and Michael Downes on Distant Melodies

This Autumn renowned violinist Edward Dusinberre will be accompanied by Michael Downes, Director of Music for the University of St Andrews, to discuss Distant Melodies: Music in Search of Home.

How does music heard and played over many years inform one's sense of home? In Distant Melodies, Edward Dusinberre, the English first violinist of the Takacs Quartet, explores changing ideas of home, exile and return in the lives and particular chamber works of four composers: Antonin Dvorak, Edward Elgar, Bela Bartok and Benjamin Britten. A resident of Boulder, Colorado for nearly three decades, Dusinberre discovers ways in which music may both accentuate and ameliorate homesickness, as he visits and imagines some of the places crucial to these composers' creative inspiration.

As first violinist of the Takacs Quartet, Edward Dusinberre has won a Grammy and awards from Gramophone Magazine, the Japanese Recording Academy, Chamber Music America and the Royal Philharmonic Society.

Michael Downes became the University's first full-time Director of Music in 2008, having previously held a similar post at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. For the Music Centre, he conducts the St Andrews Chamber Orchestra, which brings together the best players from the University community.