Gilbert Biberian with the Omega Players on the South Bank, London
Gilbert Biberian
A Memorial Concert in Celebration of his 80th Birthday
Saturday 24 February 2024
St Andrew’s Church, Montpellier Street, Cheltenham GL50 1SP, 7pm
The Programme
features music composed or arranged by Gilbert Biberian
Oración, On Harmonics, Romance, March no. 1 and no. 2, Midsummer’s Day, Arie Antiche, Pavane, Pearl, Four Waltzes November Leaves, December Frosts, October Sunsets, Bitter – Sweet, The Sephardic Songs Paxaro D’Hermozura, La Rosa Enflorece, Ven Querida, Ven amada, Durme, Durme, Six Haiku and The Rose Garden
Performers:
Guitarists: Luke Dunlea, Gerald Garcia, Alison Bendy, Raymond Burley, Denian Arcoleo, Julian Taylor, Roberto Garcia, Stephen Kenyon, Shaun Kennedy, Jo Kennedy, Alan Brinley-Shaw, Stuart McGowan, Patrick Avery, Jane Darcey and Abigail James. Singers: Wendy Nieper (soprano) and Evelyne Beech (mezzo-soprano). Flutists: Helen Arcoleo and Beth Hayes. Violinist: Fiona Barrow. Percussionist: Matthew Morris. Readers: Jan-Maria Farrell – Dee Biberian on behalf of the family.
TICKETS: Donations on the door or online at helpmusicians.org.uk/
A suggested donation of £10.00 or whatever you can afford will be sent to Help Musicians UK in Gilbert’s honour – after deductions of church fee.
The composer and classical guitarist Gilbert Biberian passed away on 26 January 2023 at the age of 78. He was born in Istanbul, but the family moved to England in 1959, when Gilbert was 15 years old. He was a mixture of Greek, Armenian and West Indian heritage and spoke Greek, Turkish and French, among other languages. In September 1963, he moved to London to begin his studies at the London College of Music, but it was after studying for a month in Nice in 1965 with Ida Presti and Alexandre Lagoya, Gilbert told me: ‘Nothing was ever the same for me again.’
As a young guitarist, he was performing works such as Libra by Roberto Gerhard, Le Marteau Sans Maître and Domaines by Pierre Boulez and Schoenberg’s Serenade. His first public concert was in 1969 at the Wigmore Hall in London: including The Dying of the Sun by Elizabeth Lutyens, which she had written for his concert. I Watch the Storms in the Trees Above by James Patten for pre-recorded tape and ‘live’ guitar. In that same year, 1969, The Omega Players were established and from that grew the Omega Guitar Quartet a few years later.
Gilbert was a prolific composer and I remember works such as his string quartet were performed alongside that of Maurice Ohana, with both composers present. And the guitar was always an important part of his life. He was Professor of Guitar at the Trinity College of Music, London for many years. It was in the late 1980s that he moved Charlton Kings, Cheltenham, from his lively base in Golders Green, North London. Born on 19 February 1944, his 80th birthday would have been on 27 January 2024.
International Classical Guitar 
So sorry to only just learn of Gilbert’s untimely death. I was privileged to have guitar lessons with Gilbert at his studio in Charlton Kings but a family bereavement intervened and I had to stop. May he rest in peace.
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