Declan Hickey – Guitar

As a soloist, Declan has performed across the UK and abroad, including a recital at the Lidköping Festival in Sweden. He has won prizes from the Worshipful Company of Musicians, Leicester MusicFest, and the Cardiff Guitar Festival, and grants from Help Musicians and the Tom Acton Memorial Trust. His specialism in British music of the last hundred years includes the complete guitar works of Lennox Berkeley and Michael Tippett. Other recent solo programmes have included works by Roberto Gerhard, Leo Brouwer, Tōru Takemitsu and J.S. Bach.

Declan is passionate about contemporary music. In 2023, he was invited to perform Harrison Birtwistle’s The World is Discovered with the London Sinfonietta Academy, including performances at the Purcell Room and the Folkestone New Music Festival. As a student he was involved with the Manson Ensemble, and has worked with Master of the King’s Music Judith Weir. He has premiered works by composers Toby Anderson, Oliver Rudland, Declan Molloy, Jonty Lefroy Watt, Jack Gionis and Archie John.

Alongside a busy performance schedule, Declan is active as a researcher. As a member of the Cambridge Cohort for Guitar Research, he has presented on the Giulianiad guitar journal (c1832–35), and is currently investigating the 19th-century musician William Ball. His performances are often fuelled by historical and cultural research, as witness a recent programme of Michael Tippett and his East Anglian contemporaries in the composer’s hometown of Wetherden, Suffolk. Declan’s writings have been published in the Lennox Berkeley Society Journal.

Augustín Barrios Mangoré (1885–1944) Julia Florida

Archie John (2000–) Send the Smile of Joy to your Hands

Ivor Mairants (1908–98) Sonata Variata for Laurindo Almeida

i. Prelude in 5/4

ii. Barcarolle 

iii. Braganza to Brasilia

Oran Johnson (1998–) Woodcolours

i. Haze

ii. Groove

iii. Purple

iv. Creeping

v. Butterfly 

Leo Brouwer (1939–) Variations on a Theme by Victor Jara