VAN Magazine has published an in-depth profile of guitarist Sean Shibe timed to the release of Vesper, with Shibe reflecting on his relentless pace of work by saying it’s all I really do, and there’s so much to do.
The piece traces Shibe’s growing focus on commissioning new works and building what he calls a 21st-century repertoire for guitar, following in the footsteps of Andrés Segovia and Julian Bream. At the center of Vesper are two works composed specifically for Shibe: Thomas Adès’s Forgotten Dances and James Dillon’s 12 Caprices, alongside Harrison Birtwistle’s complete music for guitar. Shibe describes his close collaboration with Adès in detail, recalling how the composer refined the piece based on annotated feedback Shibe sent him bar by bar.
Guitar professor Jonathan Leathwood, quoted in the piece, calls the album a landmark moment in the instrument’s modern history, tracing a lineage from Segovia through Bream to Shibe today.
Read the full profile on VAN Magazine’s website.
