Duo formed by a passion for music
THE Toad Lane Concerts’ commemorative 850th concert at St Mary in the Baum featured rising stars of classical music, Meera Maharaj on flute and Dominic Degavino on piano.
As the audience gathered, many of them enjoying a lunchtime pie or bowl of soup, I caught up with Meera and Dominic. I wanted to know how they had got together as musicians.
Meeera said: “Although we were both students at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), we hadn’t really noticed each other.
“It was when we were playing in the RNCM Big Band at the Edinburgh Fringe that we started to get on.”
Dominic added: “We found that we had a lot in common, including a love of jazz music. We now very much want to carry on working together as a duo.”
Meera and Dominic exude enthusiasm for playing the music they love and engaged me in an enthralling discussion about the pieces they had chosen for their programme at St Mary in the Baum - a programme that proved to be excitingly varied and included the wonderful piece, Salt of the Earth by RNCM’s teacher and composer Andy Scott.
Originally written as a concerto for tuba with brass band, it includes blues and Bulgarian folk themes with alternating heavy funk passages.
Meera has given solo performances at the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, with recitals in venues as diverse as a barn in Cumbria and St James’s Church, Piccadilly.
Dominic has performed at venues across the UK and beyond, including the Wigmore Hall, the Southbank Centre, St Martin in-the-Fields and the Bridgewater Hall.
They are both multiple prizewinners and are well on their way to forging successful careers as professional musicians, individually and as a duo.
After the concert, organiser Dr Joe Dawson said: “Meera introduced their programme as ‘incredibly varied’ and, sure enough, we were treated to C18 Stanley and C19 Tchaikovsky, then early C20 Sibelius and the more challenging Liebermann, Martin and Dutilleux.
“Her strident yet alluring tone was accompanied in masterly style by Dominic, the dynamic duo mesmerising and dazzling by turns. A first-class performance worthy of the Bridgewater Hall.”
Coming soon to Toad Lane Lunchtime Concerts at St Mary’s in the Baum are The Trinity Singers with conductor Vicky Radburn on April 18 and Margaret Ferguson (soprano) with Jonathan Ellis (piano) on April 25.
For more information, call 01706 638105 or 01706 648872.