THE AABEN DUO -Nathan Holroyd, saxophone and Jess Hughes, harp will give a concert at Boston Grammar School on 18th November 2025 at 7.30. Tickets are £12 on the door and may be ordered in advance by contacting bostonconcertclub@gmail.com or telephoning 01205 366018, children and students enter free of charge. There is ample parking at the Rowley Road entrance.

PROGRAMME

Lili Boulanger, arr Nathan Holroyd: Nocturne

Ida Gotkovsky: Eolienne

Claude Debussy: ‘La fille aux cheveux de lin’ and ‘En Bateau’

Joseph Bologne: Sonata for Flute and Harp in E-flat major

Jacques Ibert, arr Nathan Holroyd: Intermezzo

Interval

Andy Scott: Sonata for Saxophone and Harp

Jenni Watson: Downpour

Caroline Lizotte: La Madone

Camille Saint-Saëns, arr Jess Hughes: Le cygne

BIOGRAPHIES

Nathan Holroyd and Jess Hughes have been performing together as the Aaben Duo since 2019. Together they have performed their own arrangements of French classics across the North of England, including Beyond the Music festival, International Women’s Day at the Anthony Burgess Foundation, and a series of hospitals performances with Lime Art.

Saxophonist Nathan Holroyd recently received a Graduate Diploma at the Royal Northern College of Music and now works as their Programming Administrator. In 2022, Nathan graduated from the University of Manchester with a First Class Undergraduate Degree in Music as part of the RNCM and University’s Joint Course. Nathan also performs with the UK’s first established reed quintet Northern Reeds.

Harpist Jess Hughes also graduated from the RNCM with a First Class Bachelor of Music (Honours) in 2022, and a one-year intensive Masters in 2023, with Anne-Marie O’Farrell as her principal tutor. Throughout her courses, Jess has performed with many of the RNCM orchestras and ensembles, as well as with the RNCM Harp Ensemble (established by her former tutor Eira Lynn Jones) and her harp duo Tegid Duo. She has also performed as a soloist in venues all over Greater Manchester and her home county of Somerset, including The Pump Rooms in Bath and Glastonbury Abbey.

The Aaben Duo appear by kind permission of the RNCM.