Chichester return for classical guitarist Zoe Barnett

Zoe, who trained at the Royal College of Music, will be offering Music for a Summer’s Night on July 3 at 19:30. The recital was originally scheduled to take place at St John’s, but will now take place in the Assembly Rooms at the Council House in North Street, with tickets available on https://www.ticketsource.com/zoe-barnett-guitari

“I graduated in 2024 and it has been good,” Zoe said: “I've travelled a lot which has been lovely and I'm just really finding my way in the freelance life. It is just taking some time to understand what it is all about. But really it's all about outreach so it's lovely to be at the Festival because the Festival is really good for that.

“As a musician you have to do everything for yourself. You're not just a musician. You are like a business. And in this day and age with all the media around you, you really do have to be pushing yourself all the time especially with classical music. That can be quite hard but also you are pushing yourself as an artist. You just have to take yourself away from your own personal feelings sometimes.

“But I did a cruise contract which was great straight out of graduating. It was five and a half months around Australia. I was playing every night. I loved the cruising. There was a lot to do. It was just one circumnavigation and then we did a lot of Tasmania and the South Pacific islands. I was performing which was great for someone just having come out of education but I was still able to travel and to see some amazing places. It was just about finding that balance between going out and exploring and also working. I loved it.”

Now Zoe is delighted to be back in Chichester: “This is going to be a concert of two halves. The first half is going to be based on European influences, French and Italian and Spanish, but mostly French and Italian. The second half is going to be something that I'm exploring at the moment. I did a concert a few weeks ago with this exact programme. It's exploring Arabic musical influences on Spain through the years. It will run from very early Arabic music to 20th-century Spanish music.”

Zoe is delighted to be back at the Festival: “There's something very special about this Festival. I remember growing up going to concerts where I could see a lot of very influential people playing in my hometown which was great, so it is really good to be part of that influence and I hope I'm now creating in my turn good evenings and great musical experiences.”