Event categories

• Live Music

Date
21/06/2026

1:00 PM

Location / Link:

Brighton Open Air Theatre

In celebration of his fourth decade as an independent soloist, maverick guitarist and composer Richard Durrant presents his 2026 tour: The Art of Levitation. His annual summer solstice gig will be an evening of stunning guitar works including Bach, Scarlatti, Purcell, Renbourn, Jansch, Barrios and Durrant’s own compositions including the tour title track (June 21st 2026 at 7.30pm). Richard’s principal instrument for this tour is his guitar made from a 5,000-year-old English bog oak. There will of course be his trademark stories about his childhood in the city and musical career as he plays to the audience standing, thought to be the only classical guitarist to do so.

The 2026 twenty date tour revisits many communities not least his home town audiences that have sustained Richard’s grassroots following for decades. The concerts are intimate, high-quality live experiences in much-loved regional venues. In an era when small venues face mounting challenges, The Art of Levitation is both a celebration and a statement: live music, real spaces, transformative experience.
Richard said he is looking forward to his return to one his home town venues: “Once again I shall be playing at Brighton Open Air Theatre to mark the Summer Solstice with a home town gig on this significant day in our Planet’s year.
“I feel it is increasingly important to nurture these spiritual associations with the natural world so I try to either play live or release a new piece of work on such special dates as a token of respect.
“I also believe Arts venues can become spiritual sites – this is certainly the case with BOAT. The mere existence of this theatre should remind us that not all humans are deluded, dangerous fools – often we create beauty and positivity.”

This year Richard Durrant celebrates 40 years since graduating from the Royal College of Music and making his London debut at the Purcell Room but Durrant’s story is not a conventional one. Raised in a working-class family in Brighton, he struggled at school with undiagnosed autism and ADHD. Yet alongside those challenges came an extraordinary early focus. By his early teens he was composing prolifically, passing Grade 8 guitar, cello and theory at an unusually early age. He led the cello section of the Brighton Youth Orchestra and, aged just 16, toured with them in Portugal as soloist in the Concierto de Aranjuez. He had also started playing floor spots in local Folk Clubs and was double bassist in a busy bluegrass band.

His neurodiversity, which he now speaks about with candour and generosity, has shaped both his artistry and his independence.
Richard said: “Music and the arts have helped me throughout my life
“I’ve learned to harness some essential balancing forces and have begun to understand why music exists.”
For audiences — and for young musicians navigating similar challenges — his particular journey offers proof that difference can become a source of originality and resilience.

Durrant has built a sustainable creative life not by fitting in, but by leaning into his own way of thinking and working. In more recent years he has cycled around 9,000 miles between concerts around the British Isles showing his determination to reduce his carbon footprint (at one point averaging 35,000 miles per year) and highlight climate change – he often appears onstage next to his bicycle and trailer.
A programme that bridges worlds

The Art of Levitation tour reflects the full span of Durrant’s musical life from prize winning student at the Royal College of Music to a folk music obsessed misfit whose Mum rang up the SouthBank Centre from the care home where she worked to organise his debut gig.
The title work The Art of Levitation is central to the 2026 tour programme. This is one of Durrant’s most hypnotic recent compositions and a standout moment of his 2025 concerts. Released as a single on 2 February 2026 via Bandcamp and major streaming platforms (excluding Spotify)

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