Young Concert Artists Trust

O Duo

About O Duo

O Duo

Described by The Daily Telegraph as ‘brimming with style and panache’, over the last two years O Duo have made their BBC Proms debut, won a Special Commissioning Award from the Borletti-Buitoni Trust and been appointed Artistic Directors of the Children‘s Classic Concerts series in Scotland. In 2010 they return to the Proms to give the premiere of a new work by Stephen Montague with the BBC Symphony Chorus and give concerts at Wigmore Hall, Cheltenham Festival and City of London Festival. Future engagements include the world premiere of an especially commissioned double concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican on 22 October as part of the BBC’s 80th birthday concert.

Formed in 2000 at the Royal College of Music, O Duo released their first commercial CD on the Sony BMG label in 2007 to critical acclaim. They have given concerts as far afield as the Al Bustan, Harare and Mexico City Festivals and in Paris, Madrid, Lucerne, Germany and Bulgaria and performed concertos with the BBC Philharmonic, London Philharmonic and Philharmonia Orchestras. This season the Duo has returned to Germany, Switzerland, the Channel Islands and Mexico and given concerts throughout the UK.

Outstanding communicators, O Duo has worked at Abbey Road and Sony studios on television and film scores and broadcast on BBC Radio 2 and 3, Classic FM, Channel 4 and BBC Television. They have given recitals at major venues and festivals throughout the UK including Wigmore Hall, Barbican, Purcell Room, Queen's Hall Edinburgh, Royal Concert Hall Glasgow, the Cheltenham, Buxton and Gregynog Festivals. In 2003 and 2004 they won Best Music Act of the Fringe at the Edinburgh Festival.

Oliver and Owen take a keen interest in education work. They have given workshops and concerts in schools and special needs centres throughout the UK, and led creative education projects involving composition and performance with London Sinfonietta, Philharmonia Orchestra and Sinfonia ViVA.

Owen Gunnell and Oliver Cox were both scholars at the Royal College of Music, graduating with First Class Honours in 2003 and immediately took up the first Junior Fellowship to be given to a percussion duo at the RCM. The Duo was selected for representation by Young Concert Artists Trust (YCAT) in 2005.

O Duo's repertoire, spans more than 300 years and is a mix of popular classics and accessible contemporary music played on two marimbas, vibraphone and a huge array of percussion. They are passionate about commissioning new work. www.oduo.co.uk

Visit O Duo's own website here www.oduo.co.uk