West Sussex Guitar Club welcomes recital by Mark Ashford and Amanda Cook

Mark was a student at Chetham's School of Music, followed by the Royal Academy of Music. He is currently head of guitar at the Birmingham Conservatoire of Music.

Amanda is local to Bognor and began guitar lessons at the age of seven under the tutelage of Alexander Levtov at the Regis School of Music. She continued her studies as a scholarship student at the Junior Department of the Royal College of Music under Charles Ramirez and then Michael Lewin as a senior student.

Spokeswoman Teresa Henley said: “Mark and Amanda are laureates of numerous national and international awards and have performed at the Regis School of Music as soloists and in ensembles, Amanda with The Appassionata Guitar Trio and Mark with The Frontier Trio. They both share a passion for chamber music and began working together ten years ago, with the critically-acclaimed Vida Quartet whose other two members are Mark Eden and Chris Stell. Always looking for new ventures within music, Mark and Amanda mirrored Mark and Chris to form a duo, to augment and expand their performance possibilities rather than to replace the quartet.

“The recital will include solos and duets of late-19th, early 20th-century Spanish music when the guitar was revered and the wealth of romantic composers was pushing the classical guitar out of the salon and onto the concert stage. Amongst other compositions, their programme will include Asturias, Granada and Sevilla from Albeniz's Suite Espanola, Tarrega's Recuerdos de la Alhambra and Valse Poeticos by Enrique Granados.

“Please join us to hear Mark and Mand, as they are affectionately known, to perform a programme that encapsulates some of the vast range of Musica Espana in the world.”

Tickets are available either at the door on the day or in advance from

01243 866462 or 01243 696762 or [email protected]

£15 non-members, £10 WSGC members, full-time students half price, under-18s free

Complimentary glass of juice or wine for over-18s. Free car parking available adjacent to Regis School of Music or along Sudley Road after 6pm.